DFW viewers love the return of CSI

by Ed Bark of UncleBarky.com

A trio of new series premieres and the return of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation in its first fall matchup against Grey's Anatomy sparked a very eventful Thursday night. Let's get to it, beginning with 8 p.m.'s main event.

Who says this isn't a baseball town? Hoo-hah.

Among advertiser-craved 18-to-49-year-olds, Grey's nipped CSI by a score of 170,284 to 163,977. Usually it's a rout.

ABC then had big opening night returns at 9 p.m. for the premiere of Life on Mars. It drew a bigger total homes crowd than Grey's, amassing 241,124 in routing CBS' post-CSI premiere of Eleventh Hour (160,750). A new episode of NBC's ER hit the intensive care unit with a barely life-sustaining 94,988 homes.

Life on Mars also won by a mile in the 18-to-49-year-old Nielsens, but fell well short of Grey's stats with 114,473.

The night's other series premiere, NBC's Kath & Kim, ran a competitive third at 7:30 p.m. with 116,909 total homes opposite the closing half-hours of ABC's Ugly Betty (141,265) and CBS's Survivor: Gabon (124,216). Kath & Kim inched into second, behind Betty, among 18-to-49-year-olds, with Survivor an earthworm or two behind in third.

Fox's baseball struck out all night, ending up with an overall average of 46,276 homes.

In the local news derby, WFAA8 again pounded bumps on all comers at 10 p.m. Its 267,912 homes (second only to CSI among all of Thursday's programming) pushed CBS11 into a distant second place with 182,670 homes. WFAA8 also won comfortably among 25-to-54-year-olds, the main advertiser target audience for news programming.

The 6 a.m. total homes competition went to Fox4, but by just one-tenth of a rating point (2,436 homes) over NBC5. Among 25-to-54-year-olds, the Peacock and WFAA8 tied for first, with Fox 4 a mere one-tenth of a point behind.

WFAA8 won in total homes at 6 p.m., but had to share first place in the 25-to-54 fight with NBC5.

The Peacock had comfortable wins in both measurements at 5 p.m., where WFAA8 swept the field in the May "sweeps" but lately looks look vulnerable to both NBC5 and Fox4 as the November sweeps near.

Check out Uncle Barky's blog for his review of USA's series The Starter Wife.