'CSI' Gobbles Up The Competition

See Also: 'Mea Culpa' Episode Guide

The CSI franchise performed strongly this Thanksgiving week, even though CSI: New York lost its regular Wednesday night battle with Law & Order.

CSI: Miami was the number one program for the night of Monday, November 22, with "Pirated" swashbuckling its way to a fast national rating of 14.2/23, according to Zap2it. This means that approximately 14.2% of American households with television sets were watching CSI: Miami that night, while the episode was viewed by 23% of households watching television at 10:00 p.m.

ABC's stalwart Monday Night Football was second in the time-slot with a 9.7/15, while NBC's The $25 Million Dollar Hoax (5.8/9) failed to hit the jackpot. CBS scored a touchdown to win the night with a 11.3 rating/17 share, ahead of ABC (8.7/13) and NBC (6.4/10).

It was the peacock network's chance to crow on Wednesday, November 24, with Law & Order pipping CSI: New York to the post for number one at 10:00 p.m. The NBC drama managed a 8.5/13 fast national rating, just ahead of the 8.2/14 scored "Three Generations are Enough". This success, coupled with a strong showing from The West Wing, ensured that NBC scored overall victory with a 7.5/13 average throughout the night. CBS (6.5/11) was denied second place by ABC (6.8/11), which aired The Bachelor VI finale.

But Thursday night's ratings showed that CSI: Crime Scene Investigation was no turkey, despite a traditional downturn in viewership due to the Thanksgiving holiday. Grissom's "Mea Culpa" still scored a 13.4/24 fast national rating and was the most-watched programme for the evening. The Apprentice (7.4/14) still showed it has much to learn, while Fox's Spider-Man re-run was third with a 6.0/11. CBS won the evening both in total viewers (11.4/21) and in the coveted adults 18-49 demographic (6.9).

The final ratings for the week of November 15-21 put CSI's one hundredth episode, "Ch-Ch-Changes" not only as the number one program for the week, but also for 2004 to date, the Associated Press reported. The episode's total viewership of 31.463 million just beat the 31.460 million who watched game seven of the baseball playoffs between the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox.

CSI: Miami was third for the week, with CSI: New York just out of the top ten at number eleven. CBS is currently on track to win the November sweeps period in total viewers and the adults 18-49 demographic for the first time in almost twenty years.

The original ratings reports can be accessed via this page at Zap2it.com. The Associated Press report is available at CNN.com.

Discuss this news item at Talk CSI!
 Add CSI Files RSS feed to your news reader or My Yahoo!
Also a Desperate Housewives fan? Then visit GetDesperate.com!