While Thursday night has long featured the most murderous competition of the week for hour-long dramas, comedy just became pretty heated, too. Last night, CBS brought the game to NBC's longstanding two-hour laughs block, debuting "Big Bang Theory" on its new night and time (8 p.m. vs. "Community"), while launching new William Shatner comedy "$#*! My Dad Says" at 8:30.
And for the most part, everyone came out OK ... save for the big dramas, most of which lost significant audience share.
• "Big Bang Theory" actually grew its audience by a haire from its season-two debut last year, averaging 14 million viewers and a 4.8 rating/15 share in the adults 18-49 demo. In its series debut,lead-out "$#/*! My Dad Says" retained a respectable amount of the "Big Bang" audience, averaging 12 million viewers and a 3.9/12.
• "Community" actually didn't seem to suffer from having the No. 1 comedy on television moved directly against it, scoring a 5 million-viewer average and a 2.2/7 in the key adult demo. It was down 42 percent from its series premiere a year ago, when it was positioned at 9:30 p.m. and leading out of "The Office." But probably more telling, it was up 16 percent from when NBC first moved it to 8 p.m. last season ... and 10 percent from its season finale. Also performing well for NBC was "The Office," which held its ground at 9 p.m. with 8.4 million viewers and a 4.3/11.
• As for the Peacock's mid-hour comedy performances, "30 Rock", now positioned at 8:30, was down 13 percent from its 9:30 premiere a year ago, but it built 28 percent on its "Community" lead-in, averaging 5.8 million viewers and a 2.6/8. "Office"-spawned freshman "Outsourced," meanwhile, averaged 7.4 million viewers and a 3.5/9 at 9:30, down 8 percent from "Community's" debut in the same slot last season.
• It was a tough night for hourlongs. ABC's "Grey's Anatomy" once again was the top-rated show on Thursday night, but it was down 21 percent premiere-to-premiere with 14 million viewers and a 5.3/14. "Private Practice," meanwhile, declined 28 percent to 9 million viewers and a 3.3/9. Over at CBS, procedural "CSI" dropped 17 percent to 14.6 million viewers and a 3.4/9, and the "Mentalist" dipped 8 percent to 15.3 million viewers and a 3.3/9. And over at Fox, "Bones" declined 13 percent to 9.8 million watchers and a 2.7/8, while "Fringe" dropped a whopping 30 percent to 5.8 million and a 2.1/5
