ABC Thursday on rise

Ratings Flash - Rick Kissell

By RICK KISSELL

"Grey's Anatomy," "Ugly Betty" and "Men in Trees" were all on the high end of their ratings range Thursday night, lifting ABC to victory among young adults and its second best averages of the season. "Survivor: Fiji," meanwhile, got off to a solid start for CBS.

According to preliminary nationals from Nielsen, "Grey's Anatomy" (10.7 rating/25 share in adults 18-49, 25.1 million viewers overall) was up week to week, again logging its best scores since its season premiere and notching its second highest numbers to date in categories including adults 18-34 (11.0/27) and women 18-34 (16.2/36). "Ugly Betty" remained potent at 8 (4.7/12 in 18-49, 14.3 million viewers overall), matching its best-since-premiere result of a week earlier, and "Men in Trees" could hit series highs with roughly a 3.9/10 in 18-49 and 10.3 million viewers overall.

At CBS, "Survivor: Fiji" (5.8/15 in 18-49, 16.7 million viewers overall) led the 8 o'clock hour in most key categories with its premiere; although this was the highest-rated Thursday seg for the series since last fall's premiere, it repped the show's lowest-rated season opener. "CSI" (6.8/16 in 18-49, 22.3 million viewers overall) didn't seem to get a lift from "Survivor," although it again placed a solid second to "Grey's" in most categories, and "Shark" (4.1/10 in 18-49, 14.4 million viewers overall) finished out the night with a second-place demo finish while winning its hour in total viewers.

NBC's opening-hour comedies "My Name Is Earl" (4.2/11 in 18-49, 9.6 million viewers overall) and "The Office" (4.4/11 in 18-49, 8.8 million viewers overall) were down a bit vs. their recent hot perfs, though this repped the best showing to date in the half-hour for "Earl" opposite "Survivor." Also lower were middle-hour comedies "Scrubs" (3.1/7 in 18-49, 6.2 million viewers overall) and "30 Rock" (2.5/6 in 18-49, 5.1 million viewers overall) and 10 o'clock drama "ER" (4.8/13 in 18-49, 11.5 million viewers overall), which remained the hour's leader in demos.

Fox tied Univision for fourth place with its lineup of "Til Death" (2.0/5 in 18-49, 5.0 million viewers overall), "The War at Home" (1.9/5 in 18-49, 4.4 million viewers overall) and "The OC" (1.6/4 in 18-49, 3.6 million viewers overall).

Preliminary 18-49 averages for the night: ABC, 6.5/16; CBS, 5.6/14; NBC, 4.0/10; Fox, 1.8/5; Univision, 1.8/5; CW, 1.5/3.

In total viewers: CBS, 17.8 million; ABC, 16.7 million; NBC, 8.8 million; Univision, 4.2 million; Fox, 4.1 million; CW, 3.8 million.