ABC Wins The Night With Grey's Anatomy

ABC won the night Thursday in the 18-49 demo with a 5.3 rating/4.6 share thanks to a new Grey's Anatomy, which averaged an 8.8/21 to win its 8-9 time period, and beat  CSI with an episode that featured two marriage proposals.

Grey's, which didn't appear to suffer from the controversy swirling around co-star Isaiah Washington, delivered just enough lead-in audience to the Anne Heche vehicle Men In Trees for ABC to edge out CBS' Shark at 10-11p.m., with a 3.9/11 to Shark's 3.8/10.

CBS was second on the night with a 4.6/12 thanks to CSI's 6.6/16 at 9-10 p.m.. There was ABC and CBS--and then there was everybody else.

NBC was a distant third at a 2.7/7. It's top show was a repeat of The Office at 8:30 (3.7/10). In fact, the Peacock was spending the night at The Office, slating three repeats of the show including back to back at 10-11 p.m. instead of ER.

The CW actually tied Fox for fourth at a 1.7 rating, and edged it by a share point at a 5 to its 4.

The CW was led by Smallville, which averaged a 2.1/6 at 8-9, topping Fox's combination of a repeat of 'Til Death and a new War at Home.

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.