There’s nothing like real-life family to make holiday episodes festive - and successful. Zooey Deschanel’s appearance on yesterday’s Bones helped the show pick up its best numbers of the season. Meanwhile CBS - facing only repeats from ABC - had easy wins in both the viewers and the demos.

8pm

• Survivor: Samoa (13.8 million, 4.3/12 in 18-49) raised 1 million.
• Bones (10.8 million, 3.1/9) added on 900,000.
• Community (6 million 2.3/7) was up 600,000.
• Parks and Recreation (5.6 million, 2.3/6) improved by 800,000.
• FlashForward* (4 million, 1.0/3) lost 3.3 million.
• The Vampire Diaries* (1.9 million, 0.8/2) did about the same.

9pm

• CSI (17.1 million, 4.1/11 in 18-49) had the night’s biggest audience.
• The Office (9.2 million, 4.4/12) rounded up 1.1 million more.
• 30 Rock (7.5 million, 3.5/9) scored another 1.3 million.
• Fringe (6.3 million, 2.3/6) fell by 600,000.
• Grey’s Anatomy* (1.4/4) turned in 4.9 million.
• Supernatural* (0.7/2) settled for 1.4 million.

10pm

• The Mentalist (16.9 million, 3.8/11 in 18-49) killed in its hour.
• The Jay Leno Show (5.8 million, 1.9/5) climbed by 1.1 million.
• Private Practice* (1.2/3) checked in 3.9 million.

*denotes repeat

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