SHATNER’S RATINGS BEGINNING TO LOOK LIKE $#!?

Producers of CBS’s $#!? My Dad Says probably said that about Thursday night’s ratings for the show. According to overnight Nielsen’s the show, which stars William Shatner, drew 9.78 million viewers, after launching three weeks ago with 12.58 million and dropping to 10.43 million last week. Nevertheless, the show remained in first place in its 8:30 p.m. time slot, aided by another strong showing for The Big Bang Theory, which attracted 12.49 million in the first half of the hour. The deteriorating ratings for $#!? may also have pulled down those for CSI: Crime Scene Investigation in the 9:00 p.m. hour. CSI wound up with 12.29 million viewers, edged out by ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy with 12.49 million. CBS regained first place at 10:00 p.m., however, with The Mentalist, which became the highest-rated show of the evening with 14.29 million. The news was not good for NBC, which saw all of its Thursday-night shows decline, including newcomer Outsourced, which fell to 5.23 million after landing 7.49 million in its debut and 5.85 million a week later. But NBC’s most audience-deprived show of the night turned out to be Donald Trump’s The Apprentice, which drew just 3.76 million viewers.