'Anatomy' beats 'CSI'

0 Comments | Deseret News (Salt Lake City), Sep 27, 2006 | by Scott D. Pierce Deseret Morning News

Round 1 goes TO the sexy doctors -- "Grey's Anatomy" handily and a bit surprisingly beat "CSI" in the ratings last week.

"Anatomy," transplanted from Sundays to Thursdays at 8 p.m. by ABC, attracted 25.4 million viewers to 22.6 million for CBS's "CSI" and won among younger viewers advertisers covet.

It's a measure of how hot "Grey's Anatomy" has grown in the past year that it was up about 6 million viewers from its September 2005 premiere; "CSI," meanwhile, was down about 6 1/2 million from its 2005 season premiere.

"CSI" didn't help itself with an episode that was not only boring but showed a surprising disregard for what the show is about. Viewers tune in to "CSI" to see interesting murder cases, not for an extended Cirque du Soleil performance or two numbers by John Mayer - - stunts that didn't work well at all.

If this is how "CSI" is planning to fight "Grey's Anatomy," it's a losing strategy.

"Anatomy," on the other hand, kept chugging right along with another fine episode that delivered its captivating mix of soap opera and medical drama.

CBS actually won the night in total viewers, with ABC winning among viewers 18-49. "Survivor" won the 7-8 p.m. hour, closely followed by a "Grey's Anatomy" repeat, with NBC's "My Name is Earl" and "The Office" a distant third.

And at 9 p.m., old warhorse "ER" edged out the premiere of CBS's "Shark," while ABC's new "Six Degrees" trailed (and lost 47 percent of the "Anatomy" audience).

One week does not a season make, and "CSI's" numbers are still strong. The only thing that seems certain is that with both "CSI" and "Grey's Anatomy" airing from 8-9 p.m. on Thursdays, there won't be a whole lot of viewers watching anything else.

AT THE RISK OF SOUNDING like an egomaniac (and thus letting the cat out of the bag on that), I'll claim credit for asking the first- ever really snotty question at a TV critics press tour session for the new CW network.

In July, CW Entertainment president Dawn Ostroff (a perfectly lovely person) told us that her programming strategy was "selecting the best shows from both UPN and The WB" for the merged network. And, for the most part, I'd say she did.

But not entirely. Making an effort to keep the sarcasm out of my voice, I asked her, "Could you talk just for a second about the decision to bring back 'One Tree Hill' and how that fits into your strategy of picking the best shows from either network?"

The room erupted in laughter. And not just the critics were laughing, but so were at least some of the people who work for The CW. Several of them -- who shall remain nameless -- told me later that they also think "One Tree Hill" is awful.

Which it is. But the teen soap opera is back tonight (8 p.m., CW/ Ch. 30) with its fourth-season premiere.

It's a dreadful show, but it's not entirely without entertainment value. Sometimes it's so bad it's good. Or, at least, unintentionally funny.

E-mail: pierce@desnews.com