THE SKED'S THURSDAY NETWORK SCORECARD

Unfortunately for NBC, there are other nights in the week besides Monday.

NBC:  The gradual season-long collapse of THE OFFICE continued last night, as the show's 2.5 hit not just a season low, but its lowest rating since Season 1 in 2005--i.e., the season that almost got it canceled.  That was still by far the s network's highest number of the night.  30 ROCK was misleadingly up from last week, which was an aberration caused by a program description that resulted in DVRs not picking up the episode; last night's 1.6 was in line with the other episodes this season (and slightly below recent episodes of Parks & Recreation, which it replaced for the night).  UP ALL NIGHT tied its Thursday low.  Perhaps the most pathetic news of the evening was that the meager 1.5 earned by a repeat of the post-Super Bowl VOICE at 10PM still marked almost double the rating Prime Suspect and The Firm had been doing in that slot.

FOX:  AMERICAN IDOL was up 0.2 to a 5.7 (losing again in its first half-hour to Big Bang Theory), still down more than 20% from the parallel night last year.  THE FINDER was down slightly, mired in 4th place for its hour.

CBS:  BIG BANG THEORY continued to win its half hour, dead even with the past 2 weeks.  ROB, too, has spent the past 4 weeks within a tiny range of 0.2 up or down.  This stability has been great for PERSON OF INTEREST and THE MENTALIST, which both tied their season highs--Mentalist won its hour, and Person was a strong 2d at 9PM.

ABC:  WIPEOUT hit a new season low, but after that the news improved.  GREY'S ANATOMY, back on track after the previous week's "alternate universe" episode, had its highest rating in more than a month, while PRIVATE PRACTICE was on the lower end of its numbers, but very stable.

CW:  VAMPIRE DIARIES' steady 1.2 put it in hailing distance of both NBC and ABC for the hour.  SECRET CIRCLE was up slightly to (for CW) a very strong 0.8.

No sweeps events tonight, just an evening of all-new episodes.  On Saturday, NBC repeats its entire Monday night line-up all over again, while ABC prepares for the return of Cougar Town with a mini-marathon after a Valentine's Day-themed Charlie Brown special.  And FOX gets into the holiday spirit, too, with America's Most Wanted:  Crimes of Passion Special Edition.