CBS powers its way to another Thursday night win

A night after more than 60 million tuned in to the Presidential Debates, viewer levels were back to normal Thursday night with CBS dominating the evening once again.

All ratings are from the adult 18-49 demo, unless otherwise noted:

– First hour of prime-time: the CBS Thursday Night Comedy Power Hour remains just that as The Big Bang Theory (4.9/16, 15.18 million viewers – flat from last week) and Two And A Half Men (3.6/11, 12.33 million viewers) dominated the competition. That’s more like it, Big Bang as Leonard and Penny are likely headed for another breakup. As for Two And A Half Men, it was up 3 percent from last week and did you notice Men outperformed every comedy in CBS’ Monday night lineup?

And the rest… Fox’s earned a 3.2/10 for X Factor, flat from last week. Next was ABC’s Last Resort, with a 1.9/6, down 14 percent from last week’s premiere, but still above what Charlie’s Angels earned in the time period last year. NBC was a non-factor with the season premiere of 30 Rock and Up All Night, each earning a 1.4/4. For all the talk 30 Rock yours truly hears (on podcasts, the Internet, etc.), its not showing up in the ratings unfortunately.

– Second hour of primetime saw ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy win with a 3.8/10, with CBS’ Person Of Interest with a 3.0/8, up 7 percent from last week’s season premiere – definitely a keeper. Fox’s Glee was next with a 2.6/7 – not bad, but way down from its heyday. NBC followed with The Office (2.2/6) and Parks And Recreation (1.9/5). Remember when Office had a 5 rating in the demo? As for Parks, chalk this up as one of the most improved shows creatively, if not in the ratings. And a 1.9 isn’t as bad as the critics make it out to be.

– In the final hour of primetime, maybe there is hope for our country after all: Elementary drew a 2.5/7, down 19 percent from its premiere last week, but still drew around 11 million viewers. ABC’s Scandal was next with a 2.0/6, down slightly from last week. NBC’s Rock Center drew a 1.0/3 in adults 18-49, but did better in the 25-54 news demo, drawing a 1.3/3. But even here, it was far behind Elementary (3.5/9) and Scandal (2.5/6).

Of particular note in the time period was the season premiere of MTV’s Jersey Shore, which was down 38 percent from its last season premiere (season 5). Again, maybe there is hope for our country…

– CW’s series finale of The Next had a 0.3/1. Next Thursday night, CW gets Vampire Diaries back and has the premiere of Beauty And The Beast, and will be glad for it.

– CBS affiliate KPHO in Phoenix and CW affiliate KPLR in St. Louis pre-empted network fare to carry NFL Network Thursday Night Football game between the former St. Louis Cardinals and the former Los Angeles Rams last night in St. Louis. Yes, I wrote that just to confuse you. Ratings were not available at press time.