* Like a lot of post-Super Bowl CBS shows this week, “Survivor” did really well, its two-hour 20th season premiere beating all Thursday comers. It was nearly a full point higher in 18-49 than its 19th season premiere, and beat every episode of the 19th season, including the million-dollar finale. Were I CBS, I’d be looking into a way to cancel all the “CSI” repeats (or move the deflated forensics drama to Sundays at 10) and talking to Mark Burnett about re-editing as many future episodes of this all-star edition as possible into two-hour extravaganzas. “Biggest Loser”/”Celebrity Apprentice”-style. The idea of more all-star two-hour “Survivors” should scare silly the folks at the other four broadcast networks, which all took hits against this edition filled with a decade’s worth of the series’ most memorable contestants.
* Two hours of “Survivor” also did wonders for “The Mentalist,” which beat or matched all its 18-49 scores going all the way back to September.
* ABC’s “Grey’s Anatomy” hit an all-time personal low and even “Private Practice,” which did not compete directly with “Survivor,” fell way behind “The Mentalist” to match its season low. At 8 p.m., "The Deep End," lost to a "Bones" repeat.
* You wouldn’t think “Survivor” would hurt The CW’s “Vampire Diaries” or “Supernatural,” but both shows fell to new all-time lows.
* Fox’s “Past Life” made a miserable debut in its regular timeslot, way, way down from its 3.1 Tuesday post-“Idol” debut and racking up a substantially lower 18-49 score than the lowest-rated installment of “Fringe” ever. (Fringe has averaged 2.4 this season and 2.7 this year.)
* In a rare outing in “Survivor’s” shadow, NBC’s demotion-of-Jim “Office” matched its season low in 18-49. (It should be back big after the Olympics with the hour-long March 4 episode welcoming Pam Halpert’s baby; autumn’s hour-long Jim/Pam wedding episode was easily the series’ highest-rated this season.) The Elizabeth Banks/Bon Jovi episode of “30 Rock” tied for the series’ third-worst performance this season.
* Now the weird parts. Even against the might of “Survivor,” a REPEAT of “Bones” came in third place, beating new episodes of “The Deep End” and “The Vampire Diaries” (which is the CW’s top scripted show). It was the best-rated repeat of “Bones” this season.
* Also weirdly and counter-intuitively strong against the “Survivor” juggernaut were NBC’s “Community” and “Parks and Recreation.” “Parks” actually matched its season high in 18-49. (Blame the sheer suckitute of “Deep End”?) “Parks” already has its third-season order and now that “Community” is beating everything on NBC except “Biggest Loser,” “The Office” and “30 Rock,” one has to suspect the Joel McHale vehicle is a lock for next season as well.
* Cable comedies “Important Things With Demetri Martin,” “The Sarah Silverman Program” and “Archer” all fell to season lows.
* Finally, a 10 p.m. REPEAT of “The Office” easily beat every Thursday episode of “The Jay Leno Show” aired this year, and it beat or tied in the 18-49 demo 17 of the 19 Thursday editions of “Leno.” The 10:30 repeat of “The Office” beat or tied every 2010 airing of “Leno” as well. Needless to say, both repeats far outperformed last week’s final Thursday “Leno,” which hit a personal Thursday low of 1.1 in that slot. A key question: While “Leno” episodes were cheap, did they cost NBC less to air than “Office” repeats?
Find James Hibberd’s analysis here.