Ratings: Runway Finishes Strong, CBS Topples ABC

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Project Runway wrapped its first season on Lifetime with season-best numbers.

The Season 6 Runway finale was watched by 4.2 million viewers, topping the night amongst the cable competition. That number was roughly 500,000 people fewer than Season 5's finale on Bravo.

Over on the networks, CBS finally loosened ABC's stranglehold on Thursday night, as it took the top spot in total viewers and in the adults 18-49 demographic. The return of Red John on The Mentalist (15.8 million viewers) was the night's most-watched show, building on solid numbers from CSI (15 million viewers) and Survivor: Samoa (12. 3 million viewers.)

All of the networks' numbers were down, but ABC took the hardest hit: FlashForward (8 million viewers) slid 8 percent in the demo, Grey's Anatomy's overstuffed holiday episode (14 million viewers) had its lowest demo score ever and Private Practice (9 million viewers) was down 21 percent from the week before.

NBC's comedy block averaged 4.9 million viewers at 8 o'clock and 6.5 million viewers at 9. Fox's Bones (9.8 million viewers) was down about 8 percent from a week ago and Fringe slid further to 5.9 million viewers. The CW's dramas were similarly down: The Vampire Diaries pulled in 3.7 million viewers, and Supernatural drew 2.7 million viewers.

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• Grey's Anatomy
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