'Bones,' 'Fringe' score highs; CBS' 'Moment' passes

Fox won Thursday night against mostly repeats, with "Bones" and "Fringe" reaching season highs.

"Bones" was seen by 12.4 million viewers and drew a strong 3.6 rating, while "Fringe" had 8.9 million viewers and cracked the 3s with a 3.0 rating. For "Bones" this was the show's highest rating in two years, while "Fringe" matched its season high. 

In October, when Fox was really struggling on Thursdays with its new drama lineup, I wrote a post titled "Did Fox blunder moving 'Fringe' to overstuffed Thursdays?" Last night gave Fox a competition-free playing as one could ever hope for, yet given the network's recent Thursday gains, the conclusion of that post -- that Fox should stay the course -- seems to have proven correct.

Also Thursday, Jeff Probst's well-intentioned "Live for the Moment" special/backdoor pilot (4.7 million, 1.1) tanked in the ratings, hurting the chances of reality projects starring the terminally ill everywhere (sorry, CBS, that convalescent home edition of "Big Brother" will just have to wait). CBS knew "Moment" wasn't going to fly, but there's a relationship to protect here, and the network gamely gave it a shot.

The second week of ABC's "The Deep End" (6 million, 1.7) slipped a tenth, followed by repeats. CBS aired repeats. The CW's "Vampire Diaries" (3.7 million, 1.8) perked back up, climbing 13% for its second episode post hiatus. In fact, "Vampire" came in second place in the 8 p.m. hour. "Supernatural" (2.6 million, 1.2) was basically on par.