ABC wins slow Thursday as ratings slump continues

By James Hibberd

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - The Thursday night ratings slowdown continues.

The performance drops that alarmed the industry the first night of the May sweeps were again evident this week, with many key shows flat or falling a little further. Notably, the market penetration of digital video recorders clicked another point to hit 24 percent this week (compared to 15 percent last year).

Overall, ABC won the night among adults 18 to 49 (averaging 11.4 million viewers, 4.4 adults 18-to-49 rating and a 12 share) while CBS took the total viewers crown (14.4 million, 4.1/11).

In its second week back to original episodes, ABC's "Ugly Betty" (7.9 million, 2.4/7) was on par with last week's series low while "Grey's Anatomy" (15.1 million, 6.0/15) dropped 8 percent to create a new series low. At 10 p.m., "Lost" (11.1 million, 4.8/13) was down 9 percent from its time period premiere last week. In the demo, "Grey's" and "Lost" won their respective hours.

Coming in second, CBS' "Survivor" (12.5 million, 4.0/12) won 8 p.m., followed by "CSI" (17.8 million, 5.0/13) and a flat "Without a Trace" (12.9 million, 3.3/9).

In third, NBC's 8 p.m. comedies rebounded a bit this week, with "My Name Is Earl" (6.8 million, 2.8/9) up 17 percent and "Scrubs" up 16 percent (5.9 million, 2.9/8) to finish second in their time periods. At 9 p.m., "The Office" (7.7 million, 3.9/10) was a season low, followed by "30 Rock" (5.4 million, 2.6/7). At 10 p.m., "ER" (7.7 million, 3.0/8) matched last week's series low.

Fourth-place Fox aired "Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader" (8.3 million, 2.2/7) and "Don"t Forget the Lyrics" (7.3 million, 2.5/6).

The CW had the 150th episode of "Smallville" (3.6 million, 1.5/5) and "Supernatural" (2.5 million, 1.0/3).

Reuters/Hollywood Reporter