"Sons of Anarchy," FX's biker drama, rolled ahead of the networks Thursday night, beating out the Big Three in head-to-head competition in the key demographic and taking third place in total viewers.
Airing at 10 p.m., "Sons" grabbed a 2.88 rating in the advertiser-cherished 18-49 demographic, placing it ahead of its timeslot competitors: CBS's "Vegas" (which scored a 2.1), NBC's "Parenthood" (1.7) and ABC's "Private Practice" (1.6).
In total viewers, "Sons" compared impressively but less favorably, taking a narrow third place ahead of "Parenthood," with 4.6 million versus "Parenthood"'s 4.5 million.
In the 8 to 11 p.m. primetime overall, "Sons" placed fifth.
Tuesday's "Sons of Anarchy," which was the third highest-rated episode of the series in the demo, showed marked improvements over last week's episode, which scored a 2.45 in the demo and drew 3.8 million total viewers.