Politics has been kind to ratings-starved shows lately. On Wednesday, Pushing Daisies received a nice bump thanks to Obama’s primetime ad. Now 30 Rock has Tina Fey’s recent popularity to thank. Last night, the NBC comedy saw its highest numbers ever. But a minor ratings boost wasn’t enough to help NBC. By night’s end, CBS was still on top in both the viewers and the demos.

8pm

• Survivor: Gabon (13.1 million, 4.1/12 in 18-49) was off by 300,000.
• Ugly Betty (8.6 million, 2.5/7) was down a notch.
• My Name is Earl (6.2 million, 2.4/7) did about the same; Kath & Kim (5.5 million, 2.3/6) picked up 500,000.
• Smallville (4.2 million, 1.7/5) remained steady.
• A Kitchen Nightmares* repeat (1.5/4) served 3.6 million.

9pm

• CSI (18.6 million, 4.7/11 in 18-49) fell by 600,000.
• Grey’s Anatomy (15.1 million, 5.5/14) added on 900,000.
• The Office (9.3 million, 4.7/12) grew by 1.6 million; 30 Rock (8.5 million, 4.1/10) did 16% better than this time last year.
• An original Kitchen Nightmares (1.7/4) cooked up 4 million.
• Supernatural (3.5 million, 1.5/4) rounded up 200,000 more.

10pm

• Eleventh Hour (11.5 million, 2.9/8 in 18-49) gave up 700,000.
• ER (9.1 million, 3.4/9) raised 400,000.
• Life (8.4 million, 2.7/7) gained 300,000.

*denotes repeat

(You can review last Thursday’s ratings here.)