29.7 Million Humans Involved Thursday Night

See Also: 'No Humans Involved' Episode Guide

CSI: Crime Scene Investigation easily rose from its Thanksgiving week slump to attract almost 30 million viewers on Thursday evening.

"No Humans Involved" scored a 20.0 overnight rating / 29 share to claim the title of the night's most-watched show, Mediaweek reported. This means that approximately 20.0% of American households with television sets were watching CSI, while the episode was viewed by 29% of households watching television at 9:00 p.m. CSI averaged an audience of 29.7 million for the hour, up significantly on the 24.4 million who watched the previous first-run episode, "Mea Culpa", which aired on the night of Thanksgiving (story).

NBC's reality series, The Apprentice, filled its usual second place berth with a total of 15.9 million viewers. Donald Trump and his crew couldn't match CSI's adults 18-49 rating either, scoring a 7.6/18 in the coveted demographic, while the forensic scientists scooped a 10.6/26. With Survivor: Vanuatu and Without a Trace completing the line-up, CBS easily won the night with an average of 23.1 million.

Both CSI: Miami and CSI: New York were in repeats this week after running all-new episodes throughout the November sweeps period. Monday night's re-run of "MIA/NYC Non-Stop," which aired instead of the officially announced "Pro Per", scored a 12.5/9 rating to win the 10:00 p.m. timeslot ahead of ABC's Monday Night Football and NBC's Las Vegas. However, CBS's repeat-laded line-up, including Everybody Loves Raymond and Two and a Half Men, couldn't snatch overall victory from ABC.

A repeat of New York's first regular episode, "Blink", was second in total viewers for the 10:00 p.m. hour behind a new episode of Law and Order, scoring 11.78 million viewers to the NBC drama's 15.75 million. The episode achieved an overnight rating of 8.2/13. ABC won the evening overall with Lost, Wife Swap and 10 Most Fascinating People of 2004.

The original ratings news can be found at Mediaweek, The Hollywood Reporter and Variety.

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