Nellie Andreeva

It’s a new time slot and much smaller lead-in, but that has had little effect on NBC’s 30 Rock. While it never became a broad hit, the Emmy-winning comedy held steady behind The Office, and now it’s doing the same at 8:30 PM. Last night, it kept its entire 18-49 audience from premiere week while almost every series posted double-digit declines. The worst drops came for the three freshmen, My Generation (31%), Outsourced (22%) and $#*! (20%).

30 Rock (2.6/8) finished tied for second place at 8:30. Its lead-in, Community (1.9/6) was down 14% from last week’s season premiere featuring Betty White. In its second week in the Thursday 8 PM slot last year it did a 2.0. The Office (3.7/10) was down 16%, Outsourced (2.8/7) down 22%. It’s retention was 76% vs. 74% for Community in the same slot for the same week last year. The Apprentice (1.4/4) was the only show besides 30 Rock that didn’t slide week-to-week. Like 30 Rock, it also matched last week’s performance but that still is at an all-time low for the show, and The Apprentice finished dead last in the 10 PM slot.

CBS’ The Big Bang Theory (4.3/14) was down 12% from its Thursday premiere last week, followed by rookie $#*! My Dad Says (3.2/10), which held onto a so-so 70% of the Big Bang demo lead. (In total viewers, retention was 80%, which is understandable since $#*! star William Shatner is 50+ years older than the Big Bang cast.) Both Big Bang and $#*! won their time slots in viewers and adults 18-49. At 9 PM, CSI (3.0/8) was down 12% from last week, followed by The Mentalist (3.0/9, 14.6 million viewers overall), also down 12% as the two crime dramas posted matching 18-49 ratings for a second consecutive week. The Mentalist won the 10 PM hour by a landslide in total viewers  and by a hair in 18-49. It was the most watched program of the night. CBS won the night (as it also did last week) in both total viewers (13.2 million) and 18-49 (3.3/10)

Not much to say about ABC’s My Generation, which drew a 1.1/3, down 31% from its premiere. The question with the show’s future seems to be not if but when it will be pulled. With virtually no lead-in, Grey’s Anatomy managed a 4.4/12, down 19% from its season premiere. It was Grey‘s lowest-rated fall telecast ever but the ABC medical drama still ranked as the night’s top-rated series in 18-49, edging Big Bang. Private Practice (2.9/8, 8 million) was down 9%.

Fox’s Bones (2.5/8) was down 7% and finished second in the 8 PM hour behind CBS’ comedies. Fringe (1.9/5) was down 10 %.

CW’s drops were minimal, .1 in the adults demos for both Vampire Diaries and Nikita.

TV Editor Nellie Andreeva - tip her here.