• by Wayne Friedman , October 17, 2014

Just about a month into the new TV season and networks are settling into a predictable outcomes -- especially on Thursday night.

CBS again was tops on the night, coming in large part from a Nielsen preliminary live program-plus-same day 3.9 rating/12 share among 18-49 viewers for its “Thursday Night Football,” a bit below results of a week ago.

CBS averaged a 3.7/11 for the night, down 24% from a week ago.

ABC continued to be a strong second-place network with a 2.7/8, down just 6%. “Grey’s Anatomy” scored a 2.4/8; “Scandal” had a 2.9/9; and “How To Get Away With Murder” earned a 2.7/9.

New Thursday night shows continued their mediocre to downright weak efforts: NBC’s “Bad Judge” at 9 p.m. was the best of the bunch, at a 1.2/4; NBC’s “A to Z” was smaller at 1.0/3; and Fox’s “Gracepoint,” also at 9 p.m., earned less -- a 0.8/3.

Three established Thursday shows offered middling results: Fox’s “Bones” at 8 p.m. scored a 1.6/5, for its best effort on the night. NBC’s best result came from “The Biggest Loser” with a 1.3./4 at 8 p.m. and “Parenthood,” also at a 1.3/4 at 10 p.m.

After CBS and ABC, there was a three-way tie on the night for third place: Univision, Fox, and NBC all each earning 1.2/4. Versus the week before Univision was up 17%; NBC was flat; and Fox was down 2%.

CW earned a 0.7/2 among 18-49 viewers, up 17% from the week before, from “The Vampire Diaries” (0.9/3) and “Reign” (0.5/1).