• by Wayne Friedman , October 24, 2008

CBS had another winning Thursday--all against the World Series and its perennial Thursday competitor ABC. The great American pastime, meanwhile, struck out.

Fox witnessed lower numbers for the "World Series" than a year ago for the first two games--by some double-digit percentage decreases. Preliminary results show that the second game went to a 4.2 rating among 18-49 viewers, down from a 4.8 rating from game one. It should land at a 3.3/8 for the night.

CBS was so solid that it almost beat second-place ABC by a full rating point among 18-49 viewers--a Nielsen preliminary 4.4/11 to ABC's 3.6/9. CBS won each of the three prime-time hours: at 8 p.m. with "Survivor: Gabon," a 4.4/12; "CSI" at 9 p.m., a 5.5/13, and somewhat surprisingly, a 3.2/8 with its rookie show "Eleventh Hour."

CBS also surprised a bit at 9 p.m. with "CSI" getting the better of ABC's "Grey's Anatomy," albeit by the slimmest of margins--a 5.5/13 to "Grey's" 5.4/13.

"CSI" rarely beats "Grey's Anatomy" in head-to-head original episodes. "Grey" was down from a 5.9/15 the week before. Still, it had something to tout; it was the night's best show among young viewers 18-34, with a 5.4/14.

ABC also had problems:"Ugly Betty" barely improved to 2.8/8 from a 2.7/8 the week before. Later on in the evening, at 10 p.m., "Life on Mars" tallied the same numbers as a week ago, with a 2.5/7.

Final numbers won't do much to change anything at NBC. It looks like it will land at a 3.2/8 for the night with its typical Thursday lineup suffering somewhat: "My Name Is Earl" (2.4/7); "Kath & Kim " (2.2/6); "The Office" (4.0/10); and "ER" (a 3.6/10). NBC averaged a 3.2/8 for Thursday.

The CW's Thursday shows did a bit better than the week before: "Smallville" earned a 1.7/5 in 18-49 viewers and a 1.9/5 among the 18-34 crowd. "Supernatural" was at a 1.3/3 for both 18-49 and 18-34 viewers. It averaged a 1.5/4 among 18-49 viewers for the night.