Ratings: Death Becomes CSI, Mars Shows Life

• Oct 10, 2008 12:02 PM ET
• by Matt Mitovich

CSI and Life on Mars

Thursday's ratings rundown:

8 pm/ET
Survivor: Gabon this week topped the hour (and demos) with 13.3 million total viewers, up 450K. In second, Ugly Betty held steady at 8.48 mil. NBC's Earl matched last week's 7.1 mil, while brand-new lead-out Kath & Kim added 360 thou to that count. Smallville inched up 130K, to 4.08 mil.

Fox's coverage of the NCLS Game 1 averaged 7.7 million baseball fans through 11 pm.

9 pm
CSI returned to an audience of 22.99 mil, down seven percent from its previous opener, and bested Grey's Anatomy in the 18-49 demo for the first time ever. Grey's dropped 20 percent from its premiere, with 14.54 mil. The Office did a typical nine mil, then SNL's new Thursday showcase built the audience to 10.6 mil. (Yeah, that’s the ticket!) Supernatural slid 430 thou, to 3.14 mil.

10 pm
It was neck-and-neck for dueling newbies Life on Mars (11.6 million) and Eleventh Hour (11.59 mil), though ABC came out on top in the demos. As a Grey's lead-out, Mars improved on Big Shots' year-ago performance by three million. Eleventh Hour, meanwhile, showed 50 percent retention of CSI's premiere audience, whereas Without a Trace delivered 67 percent last September. At 9.35 mil, ER surged 18 percent from its season premiere.