ABC Sitting Pretty With 'Ugly Betty,' Takes Thursday

ABC continues to triumph on Thursday night with "Grey's Anatomy," again beating CBS' "Crime Scene Investigation"--albeit with a closer win than the week before.

"Grey's" beat "CSI" by 19 percent--a 9.4/22 among adults 18-49 versus 7.9/19 for "CSI." Overall for the night, ABC earned a 6.2/16 to CBS' 6.0/16. The week before, ABC won with a 7.2/19 to CBS' 6.0/16.

The narrower victory versus the week before had much to do with ABC's debut of a new show, "Ugly Betty," versus "Survivor" in the 8 p.m. time slot. The previous week, ABC ran a recap "Grey's Anatomy" show at 8 p.m., which helped ABC to bigger Thursday numbers.

Still, "Ugly Betty" fared pretty well, earning a 4.9/14 and 16.1 million viewers. Even better, the show grew in its first half-hour to its second half-hour, going from a 4.2/12 in adults 18-49 to a 5.6/15. "Betty" also won out in younger and female demos over "Survivor."

The other ABC show bracketing "Grey's Anatomy" at 9 p.m. was "Six Degrees" at 10 p.m., which again beat out CBS' new drama "Shark." The bad news: "Degrees" was down 24 percent from its premiere, from a 5.4 to a 4.4. The good news for CBS: "Shark" stayed the same at a 4.2.

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But neither show could match NBC's big effort from "ER," winning the 10 p.m. time period for the second week in a row. "ER" pulled in with a 6.1/16 in 18-49 and 14.2 million viewers overall.

"ER" has gotten a new lease on life, thanks to cast changes and CBS moving "Without a Trace" to Sunday night and replacing it with "Shark."

For the evening, after ABC and CBS, NBC earned a 4.3/11. Then came Univision at 2.0/5. Fox and the CW tied at 1.9/5.

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