The Doctors Are In: 'Grey's Anatomy' Beats 'CSI'; 'ER' Edges Series Premieres

Ellen Pompeo, left, and Sandra Oh in ABC's "Grey's Anatomy," which won the most viewers in its new Thursday time slot. (By Scott Garfield -- Abc Photo Via Associated Press)

The new TV season's biggest faceoff so far went to the randy doctors.

In their first head-to-head competition, ABC's "Grey's Anatomy" beat CBS's "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," for years TV's most popular drama and leader of its own franchise.

"Grey's Anatomy" had 25.4 million viewers for its season premiere, compared with 22.6 million for "CSI" in the same 9 p.m. Thursday time slot, according to Nielsen Media Research. That's a sharp drop from last year, when more than 29 million people tuned in to the "CSI" season premiere.

ABC has heavily promoted the move of "Grey's Anatomy" from Sundays. It's always risky to move a series, but the potential payoff is big: Thursday is considered the most lucrative night in the television business, primarily because movie companies want to advertise right before the weekend.

It was ABC's best Thursday night with entertainment programming since May 2000, the network said.

There were mixed results for all the networks throughout the night. NBC's venerable "ER" came back to win at 10 p.m. with 15.6 million viewers, no small feat considering that at the same time both CBS and ABC premiered new dramas with powerful lead-ins.

CBS's lawyer drama "Shark" was second at 10 p.m. with 14.7 million; the ABC drama "Six Degrees" had 12.6 million viewers. In both cases, particularly "Six Degrees," there was a large drop in viewership during the second half-hour, an indication that people didn't like what they saw.

CBS, meanwhile, was pleasantly surprised that "Survivor: Cook Island," with 17.4 million, held up against strong competition at 8 p.m. ABC's clip show of "Grey's Anatomy" in that time slot drew 13.7 million viewers.