CSI Sinks Anatomy; SNL Rises

Fri., Oct. 10, 2008 1:22 PM PDT by Joal Ryan

Dana Edelson/NBC, Robert Voets/CBS

CSI was very, very bad for Grey's Anatomy. The presidential election was very, very good to Saturday Night Live—again.

In the first big Thursday night of the fall season, a premiering CSI (23 million viewers) killed a declining Grey's Anatomy (14.5 million).

On an otherwise so-so night for NBC, a half-hour SNL election special was the network's most watched show (10.6 million), even without Tina Fey or Sarah Palin, who may (or may not) show up on Saturday's late-night show.

Other highlights from the night of premieres, per Nielsen Media Research stats:

Life on Mars (11.6 million), ABC's new flashback cop show, edged Eleventh Hour (11.55 million), CBS' new (what else?) procedural crime show.
Both new 10 p.m. shows outdrew the millionth 15th (and final) season premiere of NBC's ER (9.4 million).
Proving it's not wise to underestimate elders, ER schooled both Life on Mars and Eleventh Hour in the all-important 18-to-49 demographic.
A year ago, the quickly canceled Big Shots premiered with about the same number of viewers (11.1 million) as Life on Mars. Big Shots' crime was that it squandered nearly half of its supersized lead-in. Life on Mars' advantage is that that same lead-in, Grey's Anatomy, isn't nearly as supersized anymore.
From its premiere week to last night, a "span" of two episodes, ABC's Grey's lost 4 million viewers.
CBS's CSI was actually down 2 million viewers from last fall's premiere. But it wasn't complaining, not after beating Grey's by its widest margin in total viewers, and for the first time in an 18-49 heat.
The SNL special, which did feature cameos by alums Bill Murray and Chris Parnell, was the most watched SNL anything, anytime since 2001, NBC said.
Thanks to the audience-downsized My Name Is Earl (7.1 million), the new NBC comedy Kath & Kim (7.5 million), by comparison, looked pretty big.
Don't mention the 18-to-49 demo to ABC's Ugly Betty (8.3 million), which ran an ugly third in that race behind CBS' Survivor: Gabon (13.3 million) and NBC's Earl/Kath & Kim.
Baseball did all right by Fox, which averaged 7.7 million viewers for its first playoff action of the fall, compared to 7.4 million viewers for its opener last year.