“30 Rock,” “The Office,” “Grey’s Anatomy” Ratings Drop

Thursday’s big players in the adults 18-49 demographic, namely “The Office” and “Grey’s Anatomy,” dropped in the ratings this week as the premiere of “30 Rock” failed to electrify audiences.

“Grey’s” posted its all-time worst demo rating in the Thursday at 9PM timeslot; it garnered just a 4.9 with 13.9 million viewers. As for “The Office,” the lack of a heavily-hyped Jim-Pam wedding sent the rating down to a 4.0 with 8.1 million viewers. While the week-to-week drop was expected, it is nonetheless disappointing for the NBC series to suffer such a decline after an October episode that is already generating Emmy buzz. One would have hoped such an acclaimed episode would keep curious viewers dialed into the series.

It seems it was Tina Fey’s buzz for her Sarah Palin impression, rather than last year’s Emmy success, that helped “30 Rock” come strongly out of the gate in 2008. This year’s premiere, once again on the heels of an Outstanding Comedy Series Emmy victory, dipped to just 6.3 million viewers and a 3.0 demo rating; losing 25% of its “Office” lead-in, the premiere was down more than 27% from last year.

NBC’s 8PM hour continued to disappoint–”Community” and “Parks” both earned a 2.0 adults rating, with the former airing before an additional few hundred thousand viewers (5.1 million to 4.7 million). “The Jay Leno Show” closed the night for the Peacock with 5.2 million viewers and a 1.8.

The news was not all bad–The CW’s “Vampire Diaries” rose yet again to 3.9 million viewers and a 1.8 rating (“Supernatural” followed with a typical 1.2 rating and 2.6 million viewers). CBS’ lineup also showed gains, with “Survivor” (11.9 million, 3.5), “CSI” (15.1 million, 3.6) and “The Mentalist” (14.4 million, 3.4) all up slightly.

Over at ABC, “FlashForward” rose slightly to 9.1 million viewers and a 3.1 rating. Following “Grey’s,” “Private Practice” posted a solid 3.9 rating with 10.4 million viewers.

FOX’s “Bones” (9.1 million, 2.6) and “Fringe” (6 million, 2.2) were in the middle of the action.