OMG! So many premieres, so little time. "The Office," "Grey's Anatomy" and "CSI" went head-to-head in an all-out battle of the primetime heavyweights Thursday night. "Grey's" came out swinging in the 18 to 49 demographic. "The Office" got in a couple of good jabs and debuted to its largest audience ever. But "CSI" went in for the kill and knocked out the competition by grabbing nearly 25 million viewers. Well played CBS. Better luck next week ABC and NBC.
I think it's the subject matter of these three shows that dictate which one is the most popular. The networks have always loved shows that reinforce social norms, and that is what CSI does. The bad guys, for the most part, get caught. The Office and Grey's Anatomy, they take two of our institutions (where we all go to work, and where we go when we're sick) and make them look, well, like they are flawed. Public at large, they don't like to think people in charge are flawed. The world feels safer with this unreality reinforced. I guess this answers the question of why the networks schedule bad shows; the public likes them.