Hope This News Doesn't Pain Oprah's Vajayjay

Something's always up at Seattle Grace. Except this season, the ratings are down.

Through its first five telecasts, ABC's Grey's Anatomy is averaging some 3.5 million fewer viewers this fall than last.

On one hand, Grey's Anatomy is in no different straits than other shows: Almost everything, thanks to increased TiVo use or wicked Wii play, is down when the weekly rankings are first issued. CBS' CSI has fallen from 22.6 million viewers last season to 21.5 million viewers; ABC's Desperate Housewives, from 21.7 million to 19.2 million.

On the other hand, Grey's Anatomy (from 23.9 million to 20.2 million) has shed significantly more viewers than its fellow top 10 residents, three of whom, Fox's House, ABC's Dancing with the Stars and CBS' NCIS, are actually bigger than they were last year.

There seems to be no clear-cut explanation for Grey's losses. CSI, its main competition on Thursdays, while holding its own, is certainly no stronger. After a season of change, ranging from the set up of the Private Practice spinoff to the Isaiah Washington offscreen exit, the new season's story lines seemingly aren't riling up fans the way, say, Desperate Housewives' or Lost's off-track sophomore seasons did. And its zeitgeist touch is still deft, with Sunday's New York Times devoting a lengthy article in praise of the medical drama's coining of vajayjay for vagina.

One possible crimp in Grey's Anatomy's style: Ugly Betty.

The hourlong comedy, the freshman ratings star and Emmy winner, is not nearly providing the lead-in it did for Grey's last year. In fact, it's slumping even more than Grey's, averaging nearly 4 million fewer viewers. Last week, it finished a so-so 34th place (10 million viewers), and failed to crack the Top 25 in the money 18- to 49-year-old demographic.

Overall, Grey's Anatomy  is still a very big deal. Last week, it was TV's fourth-most watched show, averaging 18.2 million total viewers, and TV's second-highest rated show among 18- to 49-year-olds.

But given its current ratings decline, the next time the doctors at Seattle Grace come up with the new vajayjay, it may take a little longer for the catchphrase to catch on.

Elsewhere, here are the ratings highlights for the TV week ended Sunday, per Nielsen Media Research stats:

• Don't tell Marie Osmond that Monday's Dancing with the Stars (21.4 million) was TV's most watched show of the week—she may faint. Again. 
• For Fox, the only thing wrong with the World Series was that it didn't last longer. The Boston Red Sox's four-game sweep of the Colorado Rockies averaged 17.2 million viewers, up 9 percent from last October's Fall Classic, which ran five games. Sunday's Game 4 (second place, 20.9 million) was the biggest of the bunch, and the biggest thing on all of TV, save for the Marie Osmond swoon.
• While the 2007 Red Sox were big, the 2004 Red Sox were bigger. The latter team's four-game World Series sweep averaged 25.4 million fans for Fox.
• One more Grey's Anatomy thing: Last week's low came opposite a repeat, not a new CSI (12th place, 15 million), and, oh, Game 2 of the World Series (eighth place, 17 million).
• With Grey's looking slightly pale, House (fifth place, 18.1 million) moved in to take the top spot in the 18-49 demo.
• NBC's Heroes (29th place, 10.8 million) is starting to pull an Office—so-so overall numbers, but Top 10 drawing power among young adults. (It ranked 10th for the week in the demo.)
• Actually, The Office (40th place, 9 million) wasn't quite The Office last week—it landed out of the Top 10 among 18- to 49-year-olds, settling for 12th.
• ABC's Samantha Who? (18th place, 13.7 million) fell a bit (700,000) from its premiere week, but still stepped up as one of only two new shows—the other's Private Practice (24th place, 11.9 million)—in the top 25.
• NBC's Bionic Woman (56th place, 7.8 million), we hardly knew ye...
• ABC's not having good luck with shows named "men," a la Men in Trees (70th place, 6.4 million) and Cavemen (71st place, 6.2 million).
• "Man" doesn't work all that well, either, judging by NBC's Journeyman (72nd place, 6.1 million).
• Male-ish euphemisms, à la Big Shots (61st place, 7.4 million), also aren't cutting it—ABC's already booked what's billed as a one-night only preemption of the Thursday night show in November to make way for the season premiere of October Road.
• "Girl," as in CW's Gossip Girl (109th place, 2.5 million), works if you have very specific definition of success.  
• On the upside, NBC's Friday Night Lights (79th place, 5.8 million) outdrew CW's Friday Night Smackdown (83rd place, 4.7 million) in the battle of shows named "Friday." 
• The seventh and final season of NBC's Scrubs (64th place, 7 million) got off to a top 25 start in the 18-49 demo. Let's see Family Guy put that in a song lyric. 
• Who knew that spoon-bending, as celebrated in NBC's Phenomenon (45th place, 8.5 million), was way more popular than music, as presented in Fox's The Next Great American Band (100th place, 2.9 million)?
• The CW's Life Is Wild (133rd place, 1.1 million) may not look like a hit show, but if it were on ABC Family Channel, it'd be right up there with replays of the Casper and Scooby-Doo movies.
• In cable, ESPN's Monday Night Football (12.5 million) killed, and everything else just kind of died. A Saturday morning edition of Nickelodeon's Spongebob Squarepants (4.3 million) was the most watched scripted show. Disney Channel's Wizards of Waverly Place (3.670 million), MTV's The Hills (3.669 million) and USA's all-new Law & Order: Criminal Intent (3.6 million) were prime-time standouts. 
• Sure, Nostradamus was psychic, but did he call the History Channel's big numbers for its special, Lost Book of Nostradamus (3.5 million)?

In the network races, baseball powered Fox to a second straight week as TV's most watched and demographically desirable network. Overall, it averaged 13.8 million viewers.

ABC (11.19 million) snared a pair of second-place finishes, edging CBS (11.17) in both races. NBC (7 million), sans Sunday Night Football, had a worse than usual week.

The CW (3 million) was led by America's Next Top Model (82nd place, 4.7 million). If it were a cable network, it would have totally kicked butt. Only ESPN (3.1 million) averaged more prime-time viewers, among actual cable networks, that is.

Here's a look at the 10 most watched broadcast network prime-time shows for the week ended Sunday, according to Nielsen Media Research:

1. Dancing with the Stars (Monday), ABC, 21.4 million viewers
2. World Series Game 4 (Colorado vs. Boston), Fox, 20.9 million
viewers
3. Desperate Housewives, ABC, 18.3 million viewers
4. Grey's Anatomy, ABC, 18.2 million viewers
5. House, Fox, 18.1 million viewers
6. Dancing with the Stars (Tuesday), ABC, 18.06 million
7. NCIS, CBS, 17.3 million
8. World Series Game 2 (Colorado vs. Boston), Fox, 17 million viewers
9. World Series Game 3 (Colorado vs. Boston), Fox, 16.9 million viewers
10. CSI: Miami, CBS, 15.7 million