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Thursday ratings breakdown: News 'Flash'
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Ups and downs in the ratings from a big night of TV, including a strong start for ABC's new drama and why CBS shouldn't be too worried about its performance.Winner: "FlashForward." The well-reviewed sci-fi/mystery series opened to pretty strong numbers, drawing 12.47 million viewers (up a smidge from 12.41 in the morning ratings) and a 4.0 rating in adults 18-49 (down slightly from its overnight 4.1). It grew in its second half-hour, which is an encouraging sign for any show, and won the 8 o'clock hour across the board.
"FlashForward" was a big upgrade in the time period -- last year's "Ugly Betty" premiere averaged 9.81 million viewers -- and beat "Survivor: Samoa" in both viewers and the 18-49 demographic. It also became the first regular series broadcast to beat "Survivor" in the demo since the next-to-last episode of "Friends" in 2004.
Losers: "Community" and "Fringe." Against the tougher competition of "CSI" and "Grey's Anatomy," NBC's freshman comedy and FOX's second-year drama both dropped sharply in their second weeks. "Community" fell about 30 percent (7.89 million to 5.39 million), while "Fringe" bled 27 percent of its viewers from last week, going from 7.82 million to 5.73 million.
Winner, but ...: "Grey's Anatomy." The two-hour season premiere was far and away the night's most-watched show, drawing a shade over 17 million viewers and a 6.7 18-49 rating. The demo rating is at the moment tied for the week's best (with "House"), with only NBC's Sunday-night NFL game likely to challenge it. However, the premiere was off a little from last season's debut, which scored close to 18.5 million people.
Loser, but ...: "CSI." The long-running crime drama took a big hit from last season's premiere (which came a couple weeks into the season), which averaged 23.5 million people as it concluded the story of Warrick's death and began William Petersen's final run on the show. Thursday's show drew 16 million viewers, a steep drop but still well within the top 10 for the week. It's likely that "CSI" and "Grey's" will settle into a familiar pattern next week, with "CSI" grabbing more viewers and "Grey's" winning the demo race.
No real cause for alarm: "The Mentalist." The show's second-season premiere was, a little surprisingly, down from its debut last year (15.6 million in '08 vs. 15.07 million this year). Chances are, though, that with somewhat lesser competition in the coming weeks -- "Private Practice" isn't nearly as big a show as "Grey's Anatomy" is -- "The Mentalist" will assume the lead in viewers and at least be a very close second in the demos.
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TV ratings: 'Grey's Anatomy,' 'FlashForward' score for ABC Thursday
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I'm very glad fringe is down that much in the second episode. They deserve to be they had an awesome season finale last year and then left us hanging everyone tuned in last week hoping for some good stories and what do we get? Freaking Charlie being burned.. Hey FOX your audience is obviously not that stupid..so if you plan on waiting for Nov sweeps to truly continue the story you may loose your ratings game all together
ABC's totals will dive when the tepid Private Practice returns. Such a poor show it deserves its poor ratings. Gray's should and will sink. People are sick of the unbelievable storylines. I bet Flash will continue to do well, but not with numbers like the premiere. It is a much stronger show than Ugly betty was.
I'm really glad to see NBC's shows dropping. They are all NOT FUNNY and overated. They do not deserve to be nominated for an award nevermind actually win. How did Parks ever make it on the air??? Someone should be fired over that mistake.
Fox should have NEVER moved Fringe to Thursday @ 9pm.
Makes no sense at all to go up against Grey's, CSI, NBC's comedy block and the final season of Supernatural.
There’s already enough serialized or paranormal-type shows with FlashForward, Bones and Supernatural airing the same night.
I understand wanting to get away from the DWTS & AI, but Thursday's are WAY too crowded with scripted programming whereas other nights are not.
I rather see Lie to Me run Thursdays @ 9 (and attempt to win over former viewers of the aging CSI) and have Fringe air on Monday's after House.
I agree with both Steve & Good espically about "fringe" last night had to be the worst show ever. I rarely watch Network TV the rest of the week because everythings on Thursday.
I watched Fringe on DVR. Its a great show and should survive. CSI is the same old same old but Fringe is the best. Everyone should get a dvr
Wow, so far ABC is five for five with its premieres doing extremely well. FlashForward in the leadoff position beat all of its competition and Grey's Anatomy dominated. CBS is way down on Thursday. Survivor and CSI look extremely vulnerable this year. Fox is a distant third and got absolutely slaughtered at 9pm. Still, the story of the week has got to be the huge turnouts for all of ABC's new shows. FlashForward as the starter probably getting a strong 'LOST' following and Modern Family and CougarTown both scoring bigger demo numbers than DWTS and Eastwick equalling DWTS means better than expected success across the board. And the quality of the crime solving stories on The Forgotten coupled with the advent of new methods of investigation leads me to believe people are really going to get hooked on it. I would watch for that one to really start to grow by leaps. Ditto for Modern Family, the funniest tv comedy by a country mile. Still, I think ABC's best new show won't even premiere until November. The preview they showed during FlashForward looked amazing!
Simon...you may have the absolute worst taste in television and little insight into the current tv landscape.
Grey's isn't going anywhere. 17 million people after the past 2 VERY subpar seasons? The only thing I see sinking is your prediction.
NBC comedies are some of the funniest on TV. Just because you don't get that comedy or appreciate it doesn't mean it's not funny to others. 30 Rock as deserved all of the accolades that it's received. So sorry that your 2 and a half men didn't win. I presume that you like dreck like this if you can appreciate a good comedy.
My math must very very bad..
How (2008) 15.6 VS (2009) 15.7 is *down* for the Mentalist???
I mean 15.6 - 15.7????
O.o
@ Gabi
Look again: That's 15.6 and 15.07
See where the decimal is?
Yup, Fringe had huge momentum and blew it with an explosive case of amnesia. I cut the show loose right then and there.