People do still watch TV, after all

Regardless of however the rest of the week may fare for the networks, they’ll always have Thursdays, and last night was so strong for them that Mediaweek ratings guru Marc Berman was uncharacteristically upbeat, declining to name any “losers” on the evening.

Biggest news: Thanks to Jerry Seinfeld’s cameo, “30 Rock” had 7.38m viewers and its highest ratings in the 18-49 demo in its history. (It was still No. 4 in its timeslot in overall viewers, though, behind “Survivor: North Korea,” “Ugly Betty’s Beauty Tips” and “Are You Smarter Than a Television Viewer?”) Of course, the real test will be how it does next week, when Jerry’s not around to tout “Bee Movie.”

Also big news: “Ugly Betty” has lost about 4½ million viewers somewhere along the way. This would seem to suggest that viewers are less interested in the sundry power struggles at Mode magazine and more interested in watching Betty keep her cheerful demeanor despite her attendant romantic complications. Get on that, will you, “UB” brain trust?

Also news: “Grey’s Anatomy” and “CSI” continue to battle it out for dominance, with the latter having more viewers (20.81m to 18.13m) but the former luring more younger viewers. “The Office” continues to intrepidly battle it out David-and-Goliath-like against these juggernauts, with 8.5m folks tuning in.

“Big Shots” shed almost 10 million of “Grey’s Anatomy’s” lead-in audience and 2.44 million from its viewership last week. You’d think its sudsy elements should make it a more compatible program. More people watched “Cavemen” this week, fer chrissakes.

In 1995, “ER” averaged 32 million viewers. Last night, it had 9 million. At this rate, in 2019, it’ll be down to 2.53 million, which, by ratings standards of that year, will be just enough for it to merit yet another renewal.