Despite promising cannibals and volcanoes, CBS' Thursday (Sept. 16) premiere of "Survivor: Vanuatu" yielded only minimal fire. However, despite opening with some of the lowest ratings in the franchise's history, "Vanuatu" helped CBS top NBC's Must See Thursday lineup.

"Survivor: Vanuatu" was watched by 20.06 million viewers. Other than the 19.86 million fans for last fall's "Survivor: Pearl Islands" premiere, it was the weakest "Survivor" launch since the very first installment. As a point of comparison, "Survivor: Amazon," the last time the series attempted a men vs. women battle, drew 23.26 million viewers and "Survivor: Thailand," long considered a disappointment, pulled in just under 23 million.

The last "Survivor" season, "All-Stars," had a wildly inflated first episode thanks to a post-Super Bowl slot, but the show's time period premiere had an audience of 23.07 million.

The 18-49 ratings were also tepid. "Vanuatu" got a 7.8 rating in the advertiser-friendly demographic. "Pearl Islands" had an 8.4 for its premiere and "All-Stars" had an 8.9 rating among young adults in its first Thursday episode this spring.

CBS trumpeted the fact that for the first time since Nov. 2003, a "Survivor" was able to beat a first-run NBC comedy from 8:00-8:30 p.m. ET in total viewers. It was the first time since May of 2001 that a "Survivor" (in that case "Outback") topped a new NBC comedy in adults 18-49 for that half-hour.

The network owes much of that achievement to the so-so performances by NBC's new comedies. After attracting 18.6 million viewers for its premiere, "Joey" was down to 15.4 million. While that's a steep slide, NBC can take some solace in the fact that among adults 18-49, "Joey" only went from a 7.5 rating to a 7.0 figure, a more reasonable dip.

The premiere of "Will & Grace" improved on the super-sized "Joey" and was up to 16.5 million viewers, down nearly 4 million viewers from last September's premiere.

After averaging only 14 million viewers across its 82-minute bow, "The Apprentice 2" got some good news as the 90-minute second episode averaged 15.9 million viewers, improving with each half-hour.

NBC still won the night among adults 18-49, its benchmark of success, though the true test will come next week when "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" and "Without a Trace" begin their new seasons on CBS and NBC starts airing new episodes of "ER."