• by Wayne Friedman , October 3, 2014

The second Thursday of the new TV season offered up a repeat of the first week, more or less. CBS wins with football, while ABC continues to make it interesting with its three dramas.

CBS’ “Thursday Night Football,” between 9 p.m. and 11 p.m., earned a top Thursday result with a Nielsen preliminary 4.4 rating/13 share among 18-49 viewers for live-plus-same-day viewing, down a bit from a week ago.

ABC’s “Scandal” at 9 p.m. came in at another strong 3.3/10, down about a half a rating point. ABC’s new “How To Get Away With Murder” at 10 p.m., also continued with stellar results -- at a 3.2/10, down seven-tenths of a rating point. ABC’s “Grey’s Anatomy” at 8 p.m. was at a steady 2.6/8, down half a rating point.

Fox attempted to start up a new drama, “Gracepoint” at 9 p.m. -- but ran into tough competition from ABC and CBS. Just a 1.2/3 among 18-49 viewers. Earlier in the evening, “Bones” was at a 1.5/5.

NBC didn't have a better time of it with two new comedies, “Bad Judge” and “A To Z,” in the 9 p.m. hour, posting a 1.3/4 and a 1.2/3 respectively.

CW started another season of “Vampire Diaries” (0.9/3) and “Reign” (0.4/1) -- down 25% and 50% respectively from their premieres a year ago.

As with all TV programs these days, final results, as well as three- and seven-day time-shifted viewing, will add on for bigger tallies -- key for many TV networks’ advertising deals. Among 18-49 viewers with preliminary results for the night, CBS scored a 4.2/13 followed by ABC at a 3.0/9; Fox and NBC each with a 1.3/4; Univision, a 1.1/3; and CW, a 0.6/2.