NBC's celebrity-filled second supersized episode of The Apprentice once again delivered a ratings performance that should place it just outside the Top 10 in the week's Nielsen rankings, however clearly it's having little impact on CBS competitor CSI, as last night's CSI episode was the most watched regularly scheduled broadcast on any network this season.
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According to preliminary in-home viewing figures from Nielsen Media Research for Thursday, February 12, airing from From 8:40-9:59 PM ET, the sixth episode of the Donald Trump-hosted series drew 18.0 million viewers and a 9.0/21 rating/share in the Adults 18-49 demographic -- numbers that placed it well behind CSI in two key figures despite beating out the CBS series in the younger Adults 18-34 demographic.
In widening its advantage versus last week, based on Nielsen preliminary affiliate based ratings, CSI topped Apprentice in the 9-10 PM hour by +53% in households (18.2/27 vs. 11.9/17), +31% in Adults 25-54 (12.8/27 vs. 9.8/21), +12% in Adults 18-49 (10.2/24 vs. 9.1/22) and by just over 12 million viewers (30.71 million vs. 18.50 million, a difference of 12.21 million viewers).
The performance was is CSI's third most watched episode ever (with the top two spots held by October 2002 broadcasts) and the season's most watched episode of any regularly scheduled program on any network -- surpassing American Idol's 30.09 million viewers on February 3, 2004.