Without 'Law & Order,' 17 Million Watch 'New York'

On Wednesday, viewers proved it's not CSI: New York's darker tone that keeps them from tuning into the show - it's the competition from NBC's Law & Order.

Rather than air a new or even a repeat episode of their long-running crime show, NBC this Wednesday decided to air a Katie Couric-hosted news special on teens and sex. Attracting only 9.2 million viewers, the special was well below the usual numbers for Law & Order, allowing CSI: New York to draw in a much larger portion of the audience than usual. According to Reuters, "Tanglewood" was watched by a total of 17.3 million viewers, a number not seen since the first weeks after the show premiered.

Elsewhere this week, the other CSI shows also performed well. On Monday, a rerun of Miami's "Legal" was watched by 15 million viewers. The show wasn't able to beat NBC's new hit Medium, which attracted 15.8 million viewers, but then that show aired a new episode rather than a repeat.

On Thursday, a repeat of the original CSI's "What's Eating Gilbert Grissom?" was the most-watched CSI episode of the week. 21.8 million viewers tuned in to see Grissom battle the Blue Paint Killer another time - 5 million more than saw Donald Trump fire Bryan on NBC's The Apprentice. On Fox, the new drama show Point Pleasant managed to get only 4.7 million viewers, already making the series a likely candidate for cancellation.

Finally, CBS aired a special repeat of CSI's "Turn of the Screws" on Friday. Although the show didn't do as well as the CSI episodes airing in their regularly scheduled timeslots, it still managed to win the hour for CBS. Actual viewership figures for this hour were not yet available.

For the full ratings reports, check out Reuters' articles on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday.

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