Reality rocks Thursday ratings

Reality shows featuring millionaire wannabes were the big draws in Thursday night's ratings, as Big Brother went toe-to-toe with Who Wants To Be a Millionaire?.

CBS's second series about housebound housemates trying to survive each other's company for two months to win a million bucks gained ratings momentum with a 4.4 rating, 12 share among adults 18-49 in Nielsen fast national numbers. But ABC's million-dollar pyramid quiz show won the match-up in total viewers, with 12.5 million to Big Brother's 10 million.

Both provided strong lead-ins for, respectively, ABC's Primetime Thursday with 10.8 million viewers and a C.S.I. rerun, which drew 11.5 million viewers. - Richard Tedesco