CBS Tops Thursday Television Ratings

LOS ANGELES (CBS) — CBS continued its Thursday ratings dominance with all four of its primetime programs winning their time slots, according to live-plus same-day ratings released Saturday by The Nielsen Co.

CBS averaged 12.75 million viewers to finish first on Thursday for the seventh time in the eight weeks of the primetime television season.

The night's most-watched program was the CBS crime drama, "The Mentalist," which averaged 13.84 million viewers.

ABC was second for the night, averaging 7.78 million viewers. Its most-watched show was "Grey's Anatomy," which averaged 11.13 million, putting it fourth for the night behind CBS' "The Mentalist," "The Big Bang Theory" and "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation."

CBS also led among viewers ages 18-49, the group advertisers pay more for because they watch less television and are harder to reach, and viewers ages 25-54.

ABC was first for the eighth consecutive Thursday among women ages 18-34 and 18-49.

(©2010 CBS Local Media, a division of CBS Radio Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Wire services contributed to this report.)