While CBS took Thursday with a rising NFL game, aided by overtime between Tennessee and Pittsburgh, ABC locked the race for second.

Its three-drama block held reasonably well with last week's premieres — each of which saw significant time-shifting. Grey's Anatomy and How to Get Away With Murder, averaging a 2.3 rating among adults 18-49, bookended the night's top performer in the key demo, Scandal. The 9 p.m. drama averaged a 2.8 rating with adults 18-49. As far as week-to-week drops, Grey's lost half of a point in its same-day showing, while Scandal fell by four-tenths and Murder dropped by three-tenths.

NBC has its first reasonable Thursday two-hour block in some time. Heroes, also a time-shifting success in its first week, dropped three-tenths of a point to a 1.6 rating among adults 18-49 in its one-hour outing. And the return of The Blacklist, though down significantly from last fall's Monday premiere, returned to a 1.8 rating among adults 18-49. That's very much in line with its Thursday performance at the end of last season.

Bones returned to Fox with a 1.3 rating in the key demo. That sits nicely between its previous premiere and finale scores. Sleepy Hollow, shifting from Monday, fell a full point in its return. The drama took an average 1.0 rating in the key demo.