“Flash Forward,” “Grey’s Anatomy” Ratings Winners; “Community, “CSI” Disappoint

Ratings Highlights: “Flash Forward” and “Grey’s Anatomy” give ABC a dominant victory as a returning “CSI” disappoints. NBC’s comedy lineup, notably “Parks and Recreation” and “Community” offered the network a dose of bad news, while FOX’s “Fringe” took a tumble of its own. “The Vampire Diaries,” nonetheless, showed some strength for The CW–episode three, against stiffer competition, made slight gains.

Television ratings for the first big Thursday of the season are slowly trickling in, and the early verdict is positive for ABC.

Buzzworthy “Flash Forward,” though reviewed as creatively falling short of hit series “Lost,” opened to an impressive audience of 12.4 million viewers with a 4.1 rating in 18-49. The number easily gave the premiering series the 8PM hour; the show beat out CBS’ “Survivor” (11.9 million, 3.7), FOX’s “Bones” (8.8 million, 2.7), NBC’s “Weekend Update/Parks of Recreation” (4.7 million/1.8, 4.2 million/1.8) and The CW’s “Vampire Diaries” (3.8 million, 1.7).

ABC then maintained its 8PM momentum as “Grey’s Anatomy” pulled off a dominant season premiere performance. Though it was down 11% from last year, the show pulled the highest scripted adults 18-49 rating so far this season with a 6.6; an average of 16.8 million viewers watched from 9-11.

News was not so good for CBS’ “CSI,” which slipped 44% in the ratings for its latest season kickoff (15.7 million, 4.0). Similarly, while “The Mentalist” was solid in its new timeslot at 10PM, its numbers hardly were those of a megahit (14.3 million, 3.4).

With “Grey’s” in the picture, FOX’s “Fringe” and NBC’s “Community” faced hard times. “Fringe” (5.8 million, 2.3) dipped a sharp 23% in its second Thursday airing, while the well-reviewed “Community” (5.4 million, 2.8) dropped 26%, suffering a far bigger ratings decline than lead-in “The Office” (7.3 million, 3.8).

“The Jay Leno Show” did a poor number, earning just 5 million viewers.