While last night's Florida Marlins / New York Yankees World Series game might have been alluring to some viewers, clearly it wasn't able to pack the ratings punch of last week's seventh game of the Boston Red Sox / New York Yankees ALCS, as CBS's broadcast of Survivor: Pearl Islands won its 8-9PM timeslot versus FOX's World Series game and NBC's combined Friends/Scrubs sitcoms.

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According to final Nielsen ratings for October 23, Survivor: Pearl Islands was first in households (11.7/18), viewers (20.19m), adults 25-54 (9.3/22) and second in adults 18-49 (7.5/20). At 8:30PM, Survivor was first in households (+35% ahead of NBC), adults 25-54 (+55% ahead of NBC), adults 18-49 (+23% ahead of NBC) and had +7.58m more viewers than NBC.

Survivor: Pearl Islands was up at 8:30 PM by +18% in households (12.6/19 from 10.7/17), +21% in adults 25-54 (10.2/23 from 8.4/21), +29% in adults 18-49 (8.5/22 from 6.6/18) and added +3.44m viewers (21.91m from 18.47m) from its 8:00PM delivery.

Survivor: Pearl Islands's average of 20.19 million viewers for the 8-9PM hour was up 840,000 viewers from last week's 19.35 million viewers and 470,000 viewers above its previous season average of 19.72 million viewers.

In a historic first that further reinforces the changing of the guard on television's most competitive night, CBS won Thursday in adults 18-49 with and against regularly scheduled programming on NBC for the first time since the advent of people meters. Coming on one of the most competitive Thursdays of the season that included Game 5 of the World Series, CBS won the night in households (12.8/20), viewers (20.90m), adults 25-54 (9.3/21) and adults 18-49 (7.5/19). CBS trailed NBC by –2.8 rating points in adults 18-49 on premiere Thursday.

As CBS posted its first win in adults 18-49 in at least 16 years, conversely NBC delivered its lowest household (10.2) and adult 18-49 (7.4) ratings for a Thursday night of regularly scheduled original programming since Nielsen began metering homes in 1987.