“Big Shots:” Big Bust

Last year at this time, ABC was seriously challenging CBS for dominance on Thursdays, one of the most competitive nights of the week, given that advertising rates are at their highest due to all the movie studios angling to sell their movies opening the next day and everyone else is hoping to lure viewers into massive paroxysms of consumption over the impending weekend.

This year, ABC’s backed off a bit. CBS is squarely in the driver’s seat, with “Survivor,” “CSI” and “Without a Trace” all dominant.

Part of the problem is the viewer attrition ABC’s Thursday shows have suffered – both “Ugly Betty” and “Grey’s Anatomy” hemorrhaged 5 million viewers from their season premieres last year. “Betty” still had 11 million viewers, and “Grey’s” 20.5m, so they’re hardly out of the running, but they clearly have already peaked and are now just playing out the remainder of their runs.

Worse, “Big Shots,” the only new show to debut last night, managed to hold onto just over half of the audience ceded it by “Grey’s Anatomy.” Worser, it didn’t even manage the premiere audience that the quickly cancelled “Six Degrees” managed in the same time slot last year. Worsest, a whopping three million viewers decided they had seen enough a half-hour in and snapped off their set or resigned themselves to watching yet another episode of “ER” or just killed themselves in anguish.

NBC had a smidgen of good news: “The Office,” moved to the most competitive timeslot in all of TV, had the highest ratings in the lusted-after 18-49 demographic in its history. And Jim and Pam are totally doing it!