• by Wayne Friedman , May 21, 2010

Broadcast program finales elbowed into each other on the last Thursday of the 2010-2011 season with ABC and "Grey's Anatomy" getting top honors. Many predictable results continued, with many top programs expectedly down from their finales of a year ago.

"Grey's Anatomy" earned a Nielsen preliminary 5.3 rating/15 share among 18-49 viewers -- the best-rated show of the night. But it was down 10% versus a year ago.

NBC's "The Office" -- now the second-best-rated show running against "Grey's" between 9 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. -- was at a 3.4/10, down 3%. CBS' "CSI" drifted back 10% to a 3.2/9 at 9 p.m., while "The Mentalist," running at 10 p.m., moved down 14% versus last season to a 3.2/9.

Some lower-rated Thursday shows eked out gains: Fox's "Bones" in the 8 p.m. slot -- running against less competition as a result of "Survivor"s absence in this week's time period -- pushed up 8% to a 2.8/9. This also seemed to help NBC's "Parks & Recreation," running in its 8:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. time period and climbing 5% higher to a 2.1/9.

NBC's "30 Rock" at 9:30 p.m. grabbed the network's biggest season-to-season finale percentage gain -- 12% -- to land at a 2.8/8. CW stayed out of the big fight for the broadly targeted 18-49 viewers, going with two repeats of "Smallville."

For the night overall, ABC had a 4.1/12 among 18-49 viewers well ahead of second-place CBS at a 2.6/8; NBC and Fox tied for third with a 2.4/7, followed by Univision at a 1.6/5 and CW at a 0.5/2.

Source: The Nielsen Co. (live plus same day ratings)