Salma Hayek Nurses 30 Rock Back to Health?

Comedy series enjoys big ratings night; Grey's Anatomy, Private Practice crossovers pack 'em in again; CSI scores Thursday's biggest audience

By Joal Ryan Feb 13, 2009 8:15 PMTags
Salma Hayek, Alec Baldwin, 30 RockJessica Miglio/NBC

Thursday TV's Lesson: So go the headlines, so goes 30 Rock. Last fall, Tina Fey's Sarah Palin phase helped grow the show's audience. This week, guest star Salma Hayek's breastfeeding bit seemingly did the same. Compared to last week, the comedy was up about 20 percent in total viewers (7.6 million, per Nielsen estimates) and 18-49-year-olds.

Other Potential Non-Breastfeeding-Related Reasons for 30 Rock's Big Night: The second part of two-part The Office (8.9 million) gave Fey's comedy an even bigger lead-in than usual. Also, neither show had to go up against Kitchen Nightmares, which had the night off.

Ka-Ching! The Grey's Anatomy-Private Practice crossover is the gift that keeps on giving. Grey's (15.1 million) was about even with last week but dominant over an all-new CSI (night-best 17.8 million) in the demo at 9 p.m. Private Practice (14.2 million) was up 1 million-plus viewers, and hit a series high among 18-49-year-olds.

Etc.: The premiere of the latest Survivor: Tocantins (13.8 million), was an improvement over the premiere of the last Survivor: Gabon (13.1 million). Ugly Betty (7.4 million) was up over last week. The NAACP Image Awards (4.2 million) was up over last year.