Quick Take for Thursday, March 11, 2010 (Fast Affiliate Live + Same Day Ratings)

Building on its Lead-in by 6.6 Million Viewers and by 255% in Adults 18-49, ABC's "Grey's Anatomy" Wins its Time Period and is Thursday's No. 1 Scripted Show

"Private Practice" Wins at 10pm with Adults 18-34 and Key Women, while Beating NBC's "Marriage Ref" by 1.9 Million Viewers and 7% in Adults 18-49

"Grey's Anatomy" (9:00-10:00 p.m.)

Building on its lead-in by 6.6 million viewers (11.0 million vs. 4.4 million) and by 255% in Adults 18-49 (3.9/11 vs. 1.1/3), ABC's "Grey's Anatomy" won the 9 o'clock hour in the key young adult sales demographic. Despite each network's decided Adult 18-49 lead-in advantage coming into the hour with original programming including "Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains," "Community"/"Parks and Recreation" and "American Idol," "Grey's" outperformed CBS' "CSI" by 18% (3.3/9), NBC's "The Office"/"30 Rock" by 15% (3.4/9) and Fox's "Kitchen Nightmares" by 26% (3.1/9), respectively.

� "Grey's Anatomy" registered as Thursday's No. 1 TV scripted show among Adults 18-49. "Grey's" logged its 15th time in 16 original broadcasts this season to qualify as Thursday's top scripted series with young adults.

"Private Practice" (10:00-11:00 p.m.)

Growing over the prior week's telecast in viewers and young adults, ABC's "Private Practice" took second in the 10 o'clock hour, beating NBC's "Marriage Ref" by 1.9 million viewers (7.9 million vs. 6.0 million) and by 7% in Adults 18-49 (2.9/9 vs. 2.7/8). The ABC drama won its time period, outperforming its drama competition in the hour, CBS' "The Mentalist," by 37% in Adults 18-34 (2.6/9 vs. 1.9/6), by 74% in Women 18-34 (4.0/12 vs. 2.3/7) and by 13% in Women 18-49 (4.4/12 vs. 3.9/11). In fact it was the 16th consecutive original telecast this season for "Private Practice" to register as the No. 1 scripted show in its slot in Adults 18-34, Women 18-34 and Women 18-49.

A note about increasing DVR penetration and year-to-year rating comparisons: Year-to-year rating comparisons based on the Live + Same Day data stream are distorted by the level of DVR penetration in the Nielsen sample, which has jumped up to 36% currently, from 30% at the same point in 2009. More viewers are watching shows on their own timetables, which may not be reflected in the overnight next day numbers. The only truly valid year-to-year comparison would be one based on the Live + 7 Day metric, once those stats are released by Nielsen.

Source: The Nielsen Company (Fast Affiliate, Live + Same Day Ratings), 3/11/10.