'CSI' Takes Second Place

CSI isn't the most watched this year.

CSI: Crime Scene Investigation has enjoyed being the number one scripted show for the past several years. This year, however, CSI must hand its crown over to Desperate Housewives. Housewives finishes out the 2007-2008 season with an average of 18.2 million viewers. CSI can only boast 16.89 million.

While 16.89 million is enough to help CSI scrape past House for the second place spot, the forensic drama has never done worse. The first season of the show pulled in an average of 17.8 million. CSI's best season was 2002-2003--it came out on top with 26.2 million viewers and beat every other show on TV, scripted or not.

At the beginning of the season, CSI was on top in scripted TV. The writers' strike, however, took away 21% of the viewers. Desperate Housewives only lost 7% of the viewers after the strike started. Housewives came out on top because it actually managed to gain viewers year to year, pulling in a million more people this season.

Overall, Housewives comes in sixth place behind such unscripted fare as Dancing with the Stars and American Idol. When looking at just season finales, CSI came in fourth with 18.1 million viewers, beating Housewives with 16.8 million (a sixth place finish). In the 18-49 demographic for scripted shows, however, CSI finished behind Housewives, Grey's Anatomy, House and Two and a Half Men.

The original article is from Yahoo News.

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