QUICK TAKES - Jan. 24, 2009

CBS on Thursday night got a peek of its new life without William L. Petersen, and it wasn’t pretty.

“CSI: Crime Scene Investigation,” which last week scored big audiences for star Petersen’s finale after 8 1/2 seasons, was still the night’s most-watched program, with 17.5 million viewers, according to early data from Nielsen Media Research. But the forensics drama, with Laurence Fishburne as Petersen’s replacement, found tough competition in ABC’s “Grey’s Anatomy” (14.2 million).

And “Grey’s” handily dispatched “CSI” in the ad-friendly demographic of adults ages 18 to 49, with “CSI” off 11% compared with its previous season average.

At 10 p.m., an interesting battle is developing between ABC’s “Grey’s” spinoff, “Private Practice,” and CBS’ crime drama “Eleventh Hour.” “Eleventh Hour” won in total viewers (12.3 million versus 9.6 million), but “Practice” had a clear advantage among viewers 18 to 49.

-- Scott Collins