ABC Wins First Sweeps Night, But Top Shows Suffer

abc showBlame increased DVR usage, apathy over the writers' strike, or just bad programming. Network shows continued to suffer, and this trend continued on the first night of the May sweeps, which was won by ABC.

Returning from the writers' strike, "Grey's Anatomy" was the top show of the night with a Nielsen preliminary 6.3 rating among 18-49 viewers, close to its season low. But other top shows were also suffering. CBS' "CSI", which runs against "Grey's" at 9 p.m., hit a near-series-low of 4.6 rating. NBC's 9 p.m. show, "The Office," lost a full rating point--a 3.9 from a 4.9 the week before.

That's not all. At 10 p.m., CBS's "Without a Trace" finished 40% lower to a 3.3, with NBC's "ER" sinking to a series low at 2.9.

Somewhat immune to all of this--and giving ABC some good news--was that "Lost" in its new 10 p.m. time slot earned a 5.5 rating, as the second-best-rated show of the night. The score is just 0.2 off what it had been averaging this season.

ABC pulled through with a 4.8 rating overall among 18-49 for a first-place spot. CBS came in second place at 4.0/11. NBC was way back in third place at 2.9/8, Fox fourth at 2.3/6, Univision fifth at 1.7/5, and CW sixth at 1.2/3.

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