Original 'CSI' Tops 30 Million Viewers Again

For the first time since November, the original CSI: Crime Scene Investigation last week managed to attract more than 30 million viewers.

After airing repeats of the original CSI in the Thursday 8:00pm timeslot for several weeks in January and February, CBS began offering new programming again last week, when it debuted the tenth edition of its hit series Survivor. According to Variety, Survivor: Palau attracted 23.6 million viewers, and thereby provided a strong lead-in for CSI's "King Baby," which was watched by 30.4 million viewers. The last time the show attracted this many viewers was in mid-November, when more than 31 million people tuned in for "Mea Culpa."

Thanks also to a strong performance by Without A Trace, CBS easily managed to win the overall Thursday ratings race. The Eye network attracted an average of 25 million viewers for the night overall, compared to NBC's 14.2 million and ABC's 8.2 million. NBC especially was hit hard by the competition from CBS, as its comedy shows Joey and Will & Grace both sank below 10 million.

Earlier last week, CSI: Miami also managed to win its timeslot by attracting 19 million viewers to "Identity." Although this was slightly more than the week before, Reuters noted the show is still perfoming below its season average. The primary reason for this is the strength of NBC's new show Medium, which with a viewership of 14.6 million again was a strong contender.

Finally, on Wednesday CSI: New York's "Til Death Do We Part" managed to hold off NBC's Law & Order, although the margin was very small: New York got 14 million viewers compared to L&O's 13.7 million. The difference was somewhat more pronounced in the important advertising demographic of viewers aged between 18 and 49, where New York had an edge of almost 15%. For the night overall, CSI: New York only placed third, after Fox's American Idol and ABC's Lost

For the full ratings reports from last week, head over to Reuters' reports on Monday and Wednesday, and Variety's report on Thursday.

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