ABC’s Thursday is taking shape nicely, as “FlashForward” stayed hot in its second outing and “Private Practice” returned surprisingly strong.

Oh yeah, and in between, is the week’s No. 1 scripted program in demos, “Grey’s Anatomy.”

The Alphabet won the night comfortably among adults 18-49 (4.8/13 to 3.9/13 for CBS), according to Nielsen. ABC also held off CBS in adults 25-54 (5.3/13 to 5.0/13), while the Eye held the advantage in total viewers (14.4 million to 12.7 million).(…)

The third-season premiere of the AMC drama at 10 p.m. Sunday drew 2.8 million viewers, up 34% over the previous season’s premiere and the biggest aud in the series’ history.

“Mad Men” drew 2.1 million viewers for its second-season premiere last July and averaged 1.5 million viewers during its soph sesh.

Skein drew 1.2(…)

“Hung” was the biggest (sigh, trying to avoid the puns) premiere for the network since “John From Cincinnati,” which aired after the series finale of “The Sopranos.”

Lead-in “True Blood,” meanwhile, hit yet another series high, drawing 3.7 million viewers. “Hung” held 76% of its lead-in.

If you throw in encore presentations of both(…)

USA Network held off rival TNT to win the second-quarter ratings crown, averaging 1.37 million adults 18-49, an increase of 9% over its Q2 ’08 delivery. Despite a five week stretch in which TNT’s coverage of the NBA Playoffs churned up record ratings for the Turner net, USA was able to hold(…)

An elaborate marketing campaign paid off handsomely for “True Blood,” which opened its second season Sunday as the most-watched program on HBO since the finale of “The Sopranos” two years ago.

The vampire drama drew 3.7 million viewers for the 9 p.m. airing and 1.4 million more for the 11 p.m. telecast, making for the largest Sunday audience for an episode of the series.

The 9 p.m. showing was up 157% vs. the series premiere Sept. 7 and up 51% in comparison to the Nov. 23 finale.

“It even surpassed our expectations,” Michael Lombardo, president of the HBO programming group and West Coast operations, told Daily Variety. “What we saw last season was a phenomenon that grew by word of mouth and that has continued. People who finished with the show brought friends with them. The word had gotten out.”(…)

In a tight battle, ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy beat CBS’ CSI to win Thursday’s ratings race with 15.3 million viewers. Meanwhile, Ugly Betty’s audience grew slightly over last week; My Name Is Earl continued to hemorrhage viewers and fell to its lowest ratings ever; Parks & Recreation’s audience also declined week-to-week but did(…)

Fox may have expected a ratings bump for Lie To Me, having made the decision to air original programming instead of Pres. Barack Obama’s press conference, but Lie To Me’s total viewership was consistent with last week’s episode. Meanwhile, the American Idol results show audience was down about two million from its(…)

Fox and CBS waged a tight battle for Monday’s primetime lead among young adults, with the Eye’s “Two and a Half Men” and Fox’s “House” standing as the night’s top programs in key demo categories.

NBC, meanwhile, failed to see any uptick for the season finales of “Chuck” and “Heroes,” with both placing(…)

On a Thursday night when most shows — Survivor, Bones, In the Motherhood, Samantha Who?, The Office (which aired two new episodes), 30 Rock — were down from their season averages, CBS won the ratings race thanks, of course, to CSI. As for the evening’s much-publicized new programs, NBC’s cop drama Southland(…)

The American Idol results show dominated Wednesday night’s ratings, as usual, and the CBS lineup put in some typically solid results. But there was little good news for ABC, whose sitcoms Scrubs and Better Off Ted lost half a million viewers from last week. Lost, too, was down 14 percent from last(…)