• by Wayne Friedman , August 20, 2010

Fox won a slow August Thursday on the back of a modestly viewed NFL pre-season game. The network scored a Nielsen 2.1 rating/7 share among 18-49 viewers for the contest featuring the Atlanta Falcons-New England Patriots, pushing Fox to an average 2.0/7 for Thursday night. 

CBS was a bit behind, partly because of reruns after its summer reality "Big Brother" series.

"Brother" actually posted the best ratings for a network prime-time show on Thursday with a 2.5/9, giving CBS an average 1.7/6 for the night. Despite the somewhat stronger competition from the NFL, "Brother" was able to keep pace with its 2.6/9 on Wednesday night, around its summer seasonal average.

ABC was a half a rating point behind, in second place with a 1.5/5. It had two hours of original programming with "Rookie Blue" (1.6/5) and "Nightline Prime: Secrets of the Mind: Why We Do What We Do?" (1.1/3). But its best ratings came from continued strong rerun performances from "Wipeout" at a 1.8/6, from 8 p.m. to 9 p.m.

NBC was in full rerun mode -- its four Thursday comedies and "Law & Order: SVU." For the night, the network checked in with a 1.0/3. CW brought up the rear with two hours of vampire-laden content: a rerun of "Vampire Diaries" and a rerun from the canceled CBS show, "Moonlight." It earned a 0.4/1 for its Thursday prime-time efforts.