'Grey' Matters

"Age before beauty" doesn't really apply in the land of Television, unless of course it refers to who's being shown the door.

ABC's "Grey's Anatomy" pretty effectively whipped CBS's "CSI" in their first showdown this season, 25.1 million viewers to 22 million. What really tilts things in "Grey's" direction are the numbers from premiere week last year: "GA" gained more than 6 million new viewers, while "CSI" lost 7 million. Somewhere, a very zealous TV writer is already pounding out "CSI's" obituary.

A clips show of "Grey's Anatomy" even did well at 8 p.m., with 13.5 million viewers, though "Survivor: It's Our Rancid Idea and We're Sticking With It" won the hour with 17.25 million. "Earl"/"Office" did what's considered OK for NBC these days, each with about 9 million fans, with yet more "Deal or No Deal" at 9 p.m. luring 10 million lobotomy patients.

At 10 p.m., "ER" -- the Michael Myers of TV; just when you think that finally, finally it's dead and you can return to going about your life, it springs up and assaults you anew -- won the hour opposite two new series' debuts. It began lucky season No. 13 with 15.6 million viewers. CBS's "Shark" had 15 million and ABC's "Six Degrees" had 13.3 million, but the big deal here is that "Six Degrees" lost a lot more of its lead-in audience than "Shark" did, not that "Shark's" viewer retention (not to be confused with water retention -- industry-ese is a joy to speak) was anything to write home about. More damning for "Six Degrees," however, is the fact that it lost 4 million viewers over the course of the episode, meaning many, many people just did not care if the guy who saw the girl with the kid was going to befriend the other guy whose brother knew a guy ...

Fox was hoping to be more competitive on Thursdays this season but it looks like it ain't gonna happen. Its lineup of "'Til Death:" "Happy Hour" and "Celebrity Duets" consistently lost steam as the night wore on, beginning with 6.8 million viewers and shedding half, to 3.3 million, by the time Little Richard and David Foster were done getting on one another's nerves.