Grey's roars back

ABC medical drama beats CBS's stalwart crime show CSI by a few million viewers.

The Grey's Anatomy/CSI head-on lived up to its hype last night.

Grey's Anatomy

The ABC medical drama, returning for its third season, was seen by a whopping 25 million viewers in the 9 p.m. hour against CBS's CSI, which nabbed 22 million viewers with its seventh season premiere. In total viewers for the night, CBS triumphed, but in the important 18-49 demographic, ABC was the winner.

Grey's was up 30 percent from its second season premiere. The still-formidable CSI was off 9 percent from its sixth season premiere.

Elsewhere, new series Six Degrees lost 47 percent of its Grey's lead-in, and CBS's new show Shark plummeted 40 percent from its CSI lead-in--but with 15 million viewers Shark is the most watched new series of the season. NBC's ER rose 6 percent from its 12th season premiere to best Six Degrees and Shark.

At 8 p.m., CBS took first with Survivor at a 6.4 rating in the 18-49 demographic, followed by ABC with a Grey's recap show at a 4.8 and NBC's season premieres of My Name Is Earl at a 3.7 at 8 p.m. and The Office at a 4.3 at 8:30 p.m. Fox lagged with new sitcoms 'Til Death at 2.2 in the 8 p.m. slot and Happy Hour at 1.7 in the 8:30 p.m. slot. CW and a Smallville repeat took sixth at 1.1.

At 9 p.m., Grey's scored a 10.9 rating, CSI took 7.5, NBC's Deal or No Deal snared a 3.5, Fox's Celebrity Duets came in with a 1.2, and CW's Supernatural rerun scored a 0.9.

At 10 p.m., NBC's ER took the lead with a 6.8, followed by the series premiere of Six Degrees on ABC at 5.8 and CBS's Shark premiere at a 4.2.

In the 18-49 demographic, ABC was first with a 7.2 rating and 19 share, CBS was second with 6.0/16, NBC was third at 7.4/12, Fox was fourth at 2.9/4, and CW was fifth at 1.6/2.