CBS Sweeping Thursday Sweeps

For the second night in a row, CBS narrowly sideswiped ABC, with a key November sweep Thursday night win.

CBS beat ABC with a Nielsen Media Research live-plus-same-day 5.1 rating/13 share to ABC's 5.0/13.

The key difference was a widening distance in the two networks' 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. respective shows. At 8 p.m., CBS' "Survivor: China" earned a 4.8/13, compared to ABC's "Ugly Betty" at 3.5/9.

Then at 10 p.m., ABC swapped in Friday's "Women's Murder Club" in the highly desired post-"Grey's Anatomy" time period to aid the network's struggling "Big Shots." But "Club" could only muster a 3.0/8 to CBS' "Without a Trace" winning 4.1/11 in the time slot.

Still, ABC's "Grey Anatomy", at 9 p.m., kept up its end of the bargain with its strongest numbers this season--a 8.2/19, easily besting CBS' "CSI," which did a solid 6.5/15.

NBC scored better numbers this week with most of its comedies: "My Name is Earl" at a 3.7/10; "30 Rock" with 3.2/8; and "The Office" coming in at 4.8/11. But "Scrubs" at 9:30 p.m. couldn't maintain the trend, and slipped to a 3.1/7. "ER" brought the network back some with a 3.9/10, coming in second in the time period. For the night, NBC finished with a 3.7/9.

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Fox offered up "Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?" with a special appearance from Kellie Pickler of "American Idol." The show earned a 2.9/8. "Don't Forget the Lyrics" offered a 2.1/5. Fox averaged a 2.5/6 for the night.

CW brought in the same numbers this Thursday as in recent weeks--with "Smallville" reaching a 1.9/5 and "Supernatural" at 1.2/3--which gave the network a 1.6/4 average.

MyNetworkTV's theatrical movie "Phone Booth" came in at 0.6/2.

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