'CSI' Hits Ratings 'Jackpot'

See Also: 'Jackpot' Episode Guide

Viewers tuned into CSI: Crime Scene Investigation in droves on Thursday night to watch Grissom and the case of the mysterious severed head.

"Jackpot" scored a 20.6 rating / 29 share, according to overnight ratings figures published at Mediaweek. This means approximately 20.6 percent of American households with television sets were tuned into CSI, while the episode was viewed by 29 percent of households watching television at the time.

This performance bettered the overnights from the two-part season premiere, "Assume Nothing" and "All For Our Country", which achieved figures of 19.9/28 and 20.0/28, respectively. Ratings were also up from last week's "Fur and Loathing", which managed a 19.8/29 (story).

Once again, CSI was the clear winner in the 9:00 p.m. timeslot, with NBC comedies Will & Grace (12.3/17) and Scrubs (9.4/13) a distant second. ABC's Extreme Makeover was third with a 6.6/10 overnight rating.

Fellow Jerry Bruckheimer crime drama Without a Trace continued to make inroads on ER's audience at 10:00 p.m. The missing persons drama scored a 14.2/22, only nine percent below the medical series's 15.5/23. In the same week last year, the difference was 65 percent.

CBS claimed overall victory on the night, with its average of 15.7/23 representing an upswing of 11 percent since 2002. NBC, a solid runner-up with a 13.8/20, was down 18 percent on its year ago figures, with its regular fixtures, Friends and ER, showing declines.

CSI and CSI: Miami also rated highly in last week's ratings wars, coming first and seventh, respectively, on the list of the week's most-watched programmes. "Fur and Loathing" (17.1/26) was watched by 27.3 million viewers, while a repeat of "Freaks and Tweaks" (11.6/19) attracted exactly 17 million.

The original ratings information can be found at Mediaweek and SFGate.com.

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