'CSI' And 'The Apprentice' Go Head To Head Tonight

See Also: 'Butterflied' Episode Guide

After some timeslot jockeying, the new CSI: Crime Scene Investigations episode, "Butterflied", will air tonight against the new Donald Trump reality show, The Apprentice on NBC.

The New York Times chronicled the shuffling between the two shows, which first faced off last week when The Apprentice debuted. CSI won the ratings battle, scoring a 19.3/28 to The Apprentice's 12.6/18 (story), but The Apprentice performed better than expected. It scored very high in the 18-49 category, and also tied The West Wing for most viewers in high income ($75,000-100,000) households.

This week, The Apprentice was scheduled to move into its regular timeslot, 8-9pm Eastern time on Wednesday, after an hour and a half premiere from 8:30-10pm last Thursday. CBS decided to move a new episode CSI, which usually airs on Thursdays at 9pm, into the slot opposite The Apprentice, for this week. But then both networks announced Friday that they were moving the shows to Thursday: CSI's new episode would air in its usual timeslot, while The Apprentice would air from 8:30-9:30pm, in between new episodes of Friends and Will & Grace.

NBC President of Entertainment, Jeff Zucker, sees the shuffling as healthy competition. "Of course there's gamesmanship and competition between the networks, and that's O.K.," he said. "This is all good for network television." CBS spokesman Chris Ender agreed. "[It's] no big deal, just two successful and competitive networks jockeying for position," he said.

Thursday has long been a contested and lucrative night, with NBC's "Must-See TV" line-up facing off against CBS's crime show line up, led by CSI, usually the number one show of the night, and often the week. "The good part is, the first episode of The Apprentice did great numbers," Peter Gardiner, the chief media officer at Deutsch in New York, who will appear in the second episode of The Apprentice, said, "and NBC is using what appears to be a hit to bolster its ratings on what's arguably the most important night of the week."

For more on this story, read the article at The New York Times. Free registration is required.

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