• by Wayne Friedman , April 10, 2006

TV's big Thursday night show, CBS' "CSI," took a hit from a new inventing program. At the same time, that upstart show--ABC's new reality darling "American Inventor"--came across as less inventive than in recent weeks.

"Inventor" got a good taste of what real Thursday night competition is all about when CBS' "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" came back on with a fresh episode. All that sunk the Simon Cowell-produced "Inventor" to a preliminary 3.6 rating/9 share among key 18-49 viewers--way down from a 5.1/13 the week before.

"CSI" led the night, but not before getting nicked a bit. Still leading all of Thursday's shows with a 7.3/19, "CSI" fell some from its 8.5 season average and its previous 8.8 number from an original episode in March. "CSI" took time off during the last several weeks for the NCAA basketball tournament.

Still, CBS was number one for the night with a 5.8/16. Steady, NBC cruised into through the evening for its comedies with an expected 3.6/10 demographic and a second-place spot. Its "My Name Is Earl" took in 4.7/12 numbers, the network's best of the evening.

All this pushed ABC to third with a 2.9/8. Fox was next with a 2.1/6--with its best show, "The OC," showing up with a 2.4/6. Rounding out the bottom three: The WB brought home a 1.6/4; UPN closed with a 0.9/3.

The WB crowed that its "Smallville" tied for the number one spot with CBS' "Survivor" among men 18-34 with a 2.3/9. In that viewing category, those two beat ABC's "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition," NBC's "Will & Grace" and "My Name is Earl," Fox's "That 70's Show" and "The Loop," and UPN's comedies.