More viewers are voting themselves off ‘Survivor’

Eating bugs, stabbing fish with a makeshift spear and tropical island backstabbing appear to be losing their appeal for “Survivor” fans.

The long-running CBS game isn’t immune to the general malaise affecting network TV this spring, as only 13.6 million people watched Sunday as California advertising executive Earl Cole unanimously won the Fiji edition, according to Nielsen Media Research.

That’s down 17% from the 16.4 million people who watched the end of the previous edition in December. Last spring’s finale had 17.1 million viewers, Nielsen said.

It illustrates how long it has been since the first “Survivor” in the summer of 2000 electrified fans and drew 51.6 million people to its conclusion. The latest game was the 14th “Survivor” edition.

CBS notes, however, that “Survivor” consistently wins its time slot against a hot new hit, ABC’s “Ugly Betty,” and NBC’s “My Name Is Earl.”

Even television’s May sweeps, usually a season’s climax, can’t seem to get viewers excited. Only the two “American Idol” episodes and “House” on Fox brought in more than 20 million viewers last week, Nielsen said. ABC’s “Desperate Housewives” slipped to 16.1 million viewers.

The veteran CBS comedy “King of Queens” went out with a small wave of nostalgia, however. It was the most-watched sitcom on the air last week, and the 13.4 million who watched this Monday’s finale was its biggest audience since 2003.

CBS was the nation’s most popular network last week, averaging 11.3 million viewers in prime time. Fox had 10.2 million and won among viewers ages 18 to 49, a coveted demographic.

The week’s only premiere, the ABC drama “Traveler,” was 38th for the week and third in its Thursday 10-11 p.m. time slot with 8.6 million viewers. Viewership dropped 19% from the first half-hour to the second.

For the sixth consecutive week, HBO’s “The Sopranos” was cable’s most-watched show of the week, with 6.49 million viewers for its first airing Sunday, which would have put it 56th among the programs on the five major broadcast networks.

ABC’s “World News” won the evening news ratings race, averaging 7.9 million viewers. NBC’s “Nightly News” had 7.2 million viewers and the “CBS Evening News” was third for the 33rd consecutive week, with 6.1 million viewers.

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Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (May 7-13) as compiled by Nielsen Media Research. They are based on the average number of people who watched a program from start to finish. Nielsen estimates there are 283.5 million potential viewers in the U.S. ages 2 and older. Viewership is listed in millions.

*--* 1 American Idol (Wed.) FOX 28.20 2 American Idol (Tue.) FOX 25.47 3 House (Tue.) FOX 21.36 4 Grey’s Anatomy (Thu.) ABC 19.58 5 Dancing With the Stars (Mon.) ABC 19.44

6 CSI CBS 18.75 7 CSI: Miami CBS 17.18 8 Dancing With the Stars (Tue.) ABC 16.86 9 Desperate Housewives ABC 16.13 10 Without a Trace (Thu.) CBS 14.31

11 NCIS CBS 13.88 12 Survivor: Fiji CBS 13.76 13 Survivor: Fiji Finale CBS 13.63 14 King of Queens CBS 13.42 15 Two and a Half Men CBS 13.27

16 Criminal Minds CBS 12.92 17 CSI: NY CBS 12.83 18 Lost ABC 12.11 19 Brothers & Sisters ABC 11.61 20 “Survivor: Fiji Reunion” CBS 11.43

21 Heroes NBC 11.14 22 Law & Order: SVU (Tue.) NBC 10.94 23 24 FOX 10.92 24 The Unit CBS 10.74 25 Deal or No Deal (Mon.) NBC 10.43

26 The Bachelor: An Officer and a Gentleman ABC 10.38 27 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition ABC 10.35 28 Close to Home CBS 10.27 29 Bones FOX 10.23 30 Numb3rs CBS 10.03

31 Boston Legal ABC 9.98 32 Ugly Betty ABC 9.63 33 60 Minutes CBS 9.50 34 E.R. NBC 9.39 35 Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? (8 p.m.) FOX 9.32

36 Ghost Whisperer CBS 9.15 37 Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? (9 p.m.) FOX 8.70 38 “Traveler” ABC 8.60 39 Law & Order (Fri.) NBC 8.30 40 Without a Trace (Tue.) CBS 8.15

41 Medium NBC 7.91 42 New Adventures of Old Christine CBS 7.82 43 Jericho CBS 7.72 44 How I Met Your Mother CBS 7.69 45 House (Mon.) FOX 7.48

46 Law & Order (Sat.) NBC 7.41 47 Family Guy FOX 7.22 48 The Office NBC 7.17 49 America’s Funniest Home Videos ABC 7.04 50 48 Hours Mystery CBS 6.99

51 Law & Order: Criminal Intent NBC 6.94 My Name Is Earl NBC 6.94 53 The Simpsons (8:30 p.m.) FOX 6.86 54 Dateline: NBC (Fri.) NBC 6.78 55 The Simpsons (8 p.m.) FOX 6.54

56 Crimetime Saturday (9 p.m.) CBS 6.42 “Shrek” NBC 6.42 58 According to Jim (8 p.m.) ABC 6.35 59 20/20 (10 p.m.) ABC 6.15 60 Law & Order: SVU (Sat.) NBC 5.97

61 Crimetime Saturday (8 p.m.) CBS 5.71 62 Notes From the Underbelly ABC 5.70 63 American Dad FOX 5.67 64 Crossing Jordan NBC 5.34 65 Scrubs NBC 5.31

66 Thank God You’re Here (Wed.) NBC 5.27 67 Destilando Amor (Mon.) UNI 5.00 68 Dateline: NBC (Tue.) NBC 4.98 69 Destilando Amor (Thu.) UNI 4.96 70 America’s Top Model 2 (Wed.) CW 4.92

71 NBA Playoffs (8:12 p.m.) ABC 4.91 72 La Fea Mas Bella (Mon.) UNI 4.89 73 Destilando Amor (Tue.) UNI 4.88 La Fea Mas Bella (Wed.) UNI 4.88 75 Destilando Amor (Wed.) UNI 4.85

76 Dateline: NBC (Sat.) NBC 4.82 77 Real Wedding Crashers NBC 4.77 78 “Fox NASCAR Nextel Pre-Show” (Sat.) FOX 4.67 79 Destilando Amor (Fri.) UNI 4.63 80 George Lopez (Tue.) ABC 4.60

81 Friday Night Smackdown CW 4.56 82 According to Jim (9 p.m.) ABC 4.55 83 La Fea Mas Bella (Tue.) UNI 4.42 84 George Lopez (Wed.) ABC 4.41 85 Cristina UNI 4.40

86 20/20 (9 p.m.) ABC 4.34 87 Grey’s Anatomy (Fri.) ABC 4.30 88 La Fea Mas Bella (Fri.) UNI 4.15 La Fea Mas Bella (Thu.) UNI 4.15 90 Gilmore Girls CW 3.99

91 Cops (8:30 p.m.) FOX 3.87 92 King of the Hill (7:30 p.m.) FOX 3.68 93 Dateline: NBC (Sun.) NBC 3.67 Thank God You’re Here (Sun.) NBC 3.67 95 “Daddy Day Care” FOX 3.64

96 Cops (9:30 p.m.) FOX 3.57 97 Cops (9 p.m.) FOX 3.47 98 Nuestra Belleza (Tue.) UNI 3.44 99 Smallville CW 3.43 100 Aqui y Ahora UNI 3.35

101 Don Francisco Presenta UNI 3.33 102 7th Heaven (8 p.m.) CW 3.32 103 Bailando Boda Suenos UNI 3.23 104 One Tree Hill CW 2.95 105 King of the Hill (7 p.m.) FOX 2.90

Supernatural CW 2.90 107 Girlfriends CW 2.89 108 Duelo de Pasiones (Wed.) UNI 2.87 109 Duelo de Pasiones (Thu.) UNI 2.77 110 Casos Vida UNI 2.67

111 Duelo de Pasiones (Mon.) UNI 2.63 112 Duelo de Pasiones (Fri.) UNI 2.60 113 Duelo de Pasiones (Tue.) UNI 2.48 Everybody Hates Chris CW 2.48 115 “NBA Playoffs” (Sat., 8 p.m.) ABC 2.47

116 All of Us CW 2.29 117 Sabado Gigante UNI 1.96 118 Veronica Mars CW 1.85 119 Futbol Liga Mexicana UNI 1.70 120 America’s Top Model 2 (Sun.) CW 1.67

121 7th Heaven (7 p.m.) CW 1.44 122 Dame Chocolate (Mon.) TEL 1.31 123 Dame Chocolate (Tue.) TEL 1.29 Dame Chocolate (Wed.) TEL 1.29 125 Zorro (Tue.) TEL 1.22

126 Dame Chocolate (Fri.) TEL 1.18 127 Esclava Isaura (Mon.) TEL 1.16 128 Zorro (Wed.) TEL 1.15 129 Zorro (Mon.) TEL 1.14 130 Esclava Isaura (Tue.) TEL 1.12

131 Marina (Wed.) TEL 1.12 132 Marina (Tue.) TEL 1.10 133 Hora Pico UNI 1.09 134 Marina (Mon.) TEL 1.08 135 Zorro (Fri.) TEL 1.07

136 Cinemundo del Sabado TEL 1.06 137 Dame Chocolate (Thu.) TEL 1.03 138 Zorro (Thu.) TEL 1.01 139 Marina (Fri.) TEL 1.00 140 Esclava Isaura (Thu.) TEL 0.95

141 Esclava Isaura (Wed.) TEL 0.92 142 Esclava Isaura (Fri.) TEL 0.87 143 Marina (Thu.) TEL 0.86 144 Cine Nuestro TEL 0.78 145 Cine Millonario TEL 0.76

146 Marav Mundo Disney TEL 0.56

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Network averages

Here is the number of viewers (in millions) that each network averaged per hour of prime time, for last week and for the season.

*--* Network Last week Season to date CBS 11.30 12.25

FOX 10.22 10.08

ABC 9.61 9.62

NBC 6.88 8.72

UNI 3.71 3.62

CW 3.14 3.14

TEL 1.00 0.86

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