McDreamy Ratings: 'Anatomy' Routs 'CSI' on Thursday

Zap2It.com | September 22, 2006

Patrick Dempsey, 'Grey's Anatomy'

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CBS won the night overall, but ABC dominated among younger viewers

The Thursday night ratings war will likely rage throughout the season, but ABC, fueled by "Grey's Anatomy," has won the first battle.

What was supposed to be the season's most heated confrontation turned out not to be, because on Thursday (Sept. 21) night, the season premiere of ABC's "Grey's Anatomy" trounced the first episode of CBS' reigning procedural champ "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" in all key measures.

According to final Nielsen figures, "Grey's Anatomy" averaged 25.4 million viewers for the 9 p.m. hour, far more than the 22.6 million for "CSI."

Most industry observers had expected "CSI," television's top scripted show last season, to win in overall measurements, with the ABC medical drama closing the gap in the younger demographics. Instead, "Anatomy" won overall and just expanded the margin as viewers got younger. Among adults 18-49, "Anatomy" did an 11.0 rating, 43 percent higher than the 7.7 for "CSI." Among adults 18-34, the difference was up to 88 percent, with "Anatomy" doing a 10.7 rating to the 5.7 rating for "CSI."

ABC proudly boasted that this was the first scripted non-finale series ever to draw a larger audience than "CSI" in original Thursday head-to-head competition and contributed to ABC's strongest opening Thursday of a season in viewers and young adults in at least 15 years.

It helped that the 8 p.m. clip special "Grey's Anatomy: Complications of the Heart" drew 13.7 million viewers and did a 5.0 rating in the 18-49 demo. It remains to be seen how "Anatomy" will perform once the earlier slot's normal occupant, "Ugly Betty," premieres next week.

Signs were a bit less rapturous for the premiere of ABC's endlessly hyped "Six Degrees." The drama took that "Anatomy" lead-in and plummeted to 12.6 million viewers and a 5.4 demographic rating, splitting the hour with the series premiere of "Shark," which averaged more viewers (14.74 million), but fewer young ones (4.1 demo rating). CBS could boast that "Shark" is now the season's most watched new show, while ABC was getting excited about its strongest Thursday night scripted series debut in total viewers and adults 18-49 since 1994.

For all of the ABC hype, CBS actually remained the most watched network for the night overall with an average of 18.29 million viewers to ABC's 17.4 million. ABC's 7.2 rating in the 18-49 demo was 18 percent higher than CBS' 6.1 rating.

CBS and ABC weren't the only networks programming on Thursday, though.

NBC, which had a longtime stranglehold on Thursdays, got solid 8 p.m. hour performances from the second season premiere of "My Name Is Earl" (8.9 million viewers, 3.8 demo rating) and the third season launch of "The Office" (9.1 million viewers, 4.3 demo). Facing a somewhat lighter 10 p.m. foe with "Without a Trace" shipped to Sundays, the venerable "ER" premiered to 15.6 million viewers and a 6.8 demo rating, winning the hour in both measures.

In its regular morning ratings release, normally boisterous FOX noted simply, "FOX was not a factor last night."