CBS Wins Thursday

CBS won Thursday night in the 18-49 demo with a 3.4 rating/10 share for an all-repeat night of Joan of Arcadia, CSI and Without a Trace.

Overall it was a lackluster effort for all the nets, though the only original, nonnews show of the night drew the smallest rating, a .5 for the first half hour of WB's Pepsi Smash.

It was the first night after the end of the May sweeps, which explains the programming hangover, and the come-down for Fox from the high of the previous night's Idol final was dramatic. It drew a 1.9/6, compared to an 11.7/31 Wednesday night.

In second place behind CBS was ABC, with a 3.2/10 for theatrical Coyote Ugly and news mag Primetime.

In third was NBC, with repeats of  Friends, Will & Grace, Scrubs and ER.

In fourth was UPN with a 1.5/5 for WWE Smackdown. In a distant sixth with a .6/2 was The WB for its Pepsi Smash music series and repeats of The Jamie Kennedy Experiment and Steve Harvey.

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.