On a Night Crowded With Hits, \'Big Bang\' and \'Grey\'s Anatomy\' Stand Out

By BILL CARTER

The television season's first Thursday - a night always packed with hit shows - delivered some of the most-watched episodes of premiere week with established favorites like “The Big Bang Theory” and “ Grey's Anatomy” coming back strong.

New entries like “Elementary” on CBS and “Last Resort” on ABC got off to promising starts. And Fox's “X-Factor” proved it has found its audience level, which is lower than last year but still competitive on a tough night.

NBC's results for its comedy are the hardest to gauge because, while better in every case than last week, they are most likely skewed because NBC stations in two cities, Cleveland and Baltimore, carried an N.F.L. game between the Browns and the Ravens Thursday night, no doubt to huge local audiences. NBC's true results won't be clear until about 4 p.m. Friday.

What is clear is that “Big Bang” remains the biggest power on Thursday. It has th e most viewers of any show, 15.3 million, and the best rating in the advertiser-preferred audience segment of 18- to 49-year-olds-a 4.8. That has been topped in premiere week only by ABC's comedy powerhouse “Modern Family,” which had a 5.5 rating.

But ABC had strong results for a drama it has had to fear might be fading, “Grey's Anatomy.” Perhaps because of its dealing with a compelling cliffhanger from last season, “Grey's” posted a strong 4.3 rating in the 18-49 group, with about 11.5 million viewers.

The network's new drama, “Last Resort,” which had probably the best critical reception of any new series, scored a 2.2 rating in the 18-49 audience at 8 p.m. with a solid nine million viewers. Best news for that drama, it added about 700,000 viewers in its second half-hour.

“Elementary,” CBS's latest crime drama (the only kind of drama the network does anymore), recorded a solid 3.1 in the 18-49 rating, with a total of 13.3 million viewer s. The fact that it exceeded its lead-in, “Person of Interest,” in the 18-49 segment was a promising sign. “Person of Interest,” meanwhile, turned in a typically sound 18-49 number (3.0) and a resounding total viewer total 14.2 million.

But much will be made of the precipitous drop in ratings for the premiere of “Two and a Half Men” on CBS. Statistically it was down 67 percent from last season (when it was on Monday) but that number was hugely inflated by the national attention surrounding the departure of Charlie Sheen. The actual numbers for “Men” last night, a 3.5 with 12.3 million viewers, would not be bad for any network show, though CBS will surely watch closely where they move from here.

Fox now knows basically what it has in “X-Factor” â€" a more-than-respectable show on a super-competitive night, though not anything like the blockbuster the network once hoped the show might become. “X” averaged a 3.2 rating in the 18-49 segment, down only 6 percent from last week despite the greatly increased competition. It had 9.2 million total viewers. The numbers are still well better than the average for network shows.

“Glee” may be more a concern. Once a breakout hit, the show slid to a 2.5 rating within the 18-49 group, which had been the core for the series. That was down 14 percent from a week ago; it had 5.9 million viewers.

NBC's comedies did show some growth, but football was surely a boost. The four shows jumped by an average of about half a million viewers over totals from last week. As usual, “The Office” was the best performer, and its 18-49 rating, a 2.4, looked much more robust than the puny 2.1 for its premiere a week ago. But that will surely come down when football numbers are factored out.

And then it will go up again, as delayed viewing is eventually counted in. “The Office” has always been among the biggest gainers in all of televisi on when delayed viewing is included. The other NBC shows also perform at more acceptable levels when those numbers are included.

Indeed, all the shows, especially on a competitive night like Thursday, need to be re-assessed first after three days, and then after seven days of recorded viewing is reported by Nielsen.

Bill Carter writes about the television industry. Follow @wjcarter on Twitter.