• by Wayne Friedman , September 29, 2008

Although it was down 15% from last season's debut, ABC's "Grey Anatomy" crushed the competition, giving ABC a dominating win on the first Thursday of the season.

For its two-hour premiere, "Grey" earned a Nielsen Media Research 7.4 rating/18 share among 18-49 viewers--easily the best-rated show of the night. Its nearest competitor at 9 p.m. was NBC's premiere of "The Office," which was at the same level as its numbers of a year ago with a 4.9/11.

"Grey" was off around 2.5 million viewers for the night, and down 1.3 ratings among 18-49 viewers from its debut a year ago. But ABC says that much of those differences will be made up when the live-plus-seven-day DVR playback rolls in a few weeks. "Grey" is one of the top network shows for recording, the network says.

Another big heavyweight of Thursday, CBS' long-running "Survivor," pulled in a decent performance, now in its 17th edition with "Survivor: Gabon." It earned a 4.5/11 for its two-hour special season opener--winning the 8 p.m. hour, and coming in third in the 9 p.m. hour. Like "Grey," it was off 2.5 million viewers from its premiere a year ago, and recorded its lowest debut among 18-49 viewers since the start of the show.

Other premieres had a mixed night.

ABC's "Ugly Betty" could only muster a 3.3/9 against 18-49 viewers, although it was the overall winner among younger viewers 18-34, with a 3.5/11. NBC's "My Name is Earl" had a tougher road--it earned a slim 2.7/8 among 18-49 viewers for its premiere and even lower numbers among younger viewers 18-34, with a 2.6/8. NBC had somewhat better luck with its venerable "ER," now in its last season, with a respectable 3.3/8.

In the wake of some big hitters, more modest network players suffered a bit. Fox's two-hour "Kitchen Nightmares" could only reach a 1.9/5 for its first hour at 8 p.m. and a 2.1/5 for its second hour at 9 p.m.

CW's "Smallville" got smaller versus a week ago, but by just a bit in its key young demos and for viewers overall. The show earned a 1.7/5 among 18-34 viewers and 4.1 million overall viewers. CW's "Supernatural" was less super than the week before--now at a 1.2/3 among its young viewers and 3.2 million overall viewers.

After ABC's night-leading 6.0/15 among 18-49 viewers, CBS was a distant second at 3.8/10 and NBC came in at 3.6/9, followed by Fox (2.0/5), Univision (1.7/5) and CW (1.5/4). ABC also easily won the night among 18-34 viewers with a 6.5/18.