The season premiere of ABC's Private Practice easily beat out its 10 p.m. competition Thursday night, scoring a 4.5/13 rating and 11.5 million viewers. That's considerably higher than the show's 3.38 and 8.1 million viewers for last season's premiere. Elsewhere, ABC's FlashfForward dipped from its Sept. 24 debut, falling into a tie for first place in the 8 p.m. time slot, while Grey's Anatomy also slipped but retained sole possession of first place at 9.
FlashForward and Survivor: Samoa tied for first at 8, both pulling in at 3.7/11. Survivor won the hour in viewers with 11.7 million. FlashForward dropped from its opening number of 4.1/12, while Survivor stayed even with last week's rating and is still ahead of its debut rating (3.5/11). Bones on Fox was next at 2.6/8, up from last week but still down from its debut of 3.0/9. NBC came in at 1.8/5 for SNL Weekend Update (1.8/5) and Parks and Recreation (1.9/5). The CW's Vampire Diaries was fifth at 1.6/5.
Grey's Anatomy led the 9 p.m. hour at 6.0/15. The show delivered a 6.6/17 and a 6.6/18 in the 9 and 10 o'clock hours respectively for its two-hour debut last week. CSI: Miami, which debuted down nearly 40% from last year's premiere, stayed even from last week at 4.0/10. It finished just ahead of Grey's in viewers for the hour with 15.6 million compared to Grey's 15.4 million. NBC's The Office (3.7/10) and Community (2.9/7) averaged a 3.3/8 on the hour. Fox's Fringe was next at 2.3/6, even from last week. The CW was fifth with a 1.2/3 for Supernatural.
Private Practice's 4.5/13 was tops at 10. CBS came in at 3.7/10 for The Mentalist, up from last week's 3.4/9 premiere. The show was first in viewers with 15.2 million tuning in. NBC's The Jay Leno Show came in at 1.6/4.
On the night, ABC was tops at 4.7/13. CBS finished second at 3.8/11 and first in viewers with 14.2 million. Fox was third at 2.5/7. NBC was next with a 2.2/6. The CW finished fifth with a 1.4/4.
