CBS Sweeps Again

Television audiences flocked to favorite series such as “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” and “Friends” as well as a variety of specials during the November sweeps, as the first major ratings survey since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks provided further insight into the kind of programming people appear to be seeking and the prime-time menu networks will probably dish out in the months ahead.

As has been the case throughout the fall, established programs have generally thrived while new series “have had a hard time, harder than normal,” as CBS Television President Leslie Moonves put it, reflecting what programmers characterize as people gravitating to the familiar in turbulent times.

Vast audiences also showed up for CBS’ nostalgic “The Carol Burnett Show” and “I Love Lucy” specials as well as musical events showcasing Michael Jackson and to a lesser degree Jennifer Lopez, making it inevitable that similar fare will be replicated in future sweeps.

Tim Brooks, head of research at the Lifetime cable network and co-author of “The Complete Directory to Prime-Time Network and Cable TV Shows,” cited “a great desire to get back to normal” among TV viewers after past periods of tumult, adding in regard to new shows, “This is not a great time for experimentation.... This is a time for embracing what we know.”

Gauging the traditional jockeying among the networks, meanwhile, was rendered topsy-turvy by scheduling delays that resulted in the wake of the terrorist strikes--which pushed a trio of World Series games on Fox and CBS’ Emmy and Country Music Assn. Awards telecasts into the four-week sweeps competition that officially concluded Wednesday.

Propelled in part by its specials, CBS made inroads to win the sweeps by a solid margin in overall viewing while ABC’s sharp ratings decrease left that network fourth both in terms of total viewing and the key young-adult demographics most avidly sought by advertisers.

CBS averaged 13.7 million viewers in prime time, with its most significant series gains attributable to its second-year crime drama “CSI” and “Everybody Loves Raymond”--the latter dominating its time slot, gaining 10% versus the same four-week stretch in 2000.

NBC, thanks to such core series as “Friends” (up 13% from a year ago, before “Survivor” invaded Thursdays), “ER,” “The West Wing” and the three-headed “Law & Order” monster, averaged 12.9 million viewers, a 7% decline from the previous year; however, NBC finished first--narrowly edging Fox--in terms of the age 18-to-49 demographic, which serves as TV’s coin of the realm and thus most directly translates to profitability.

Moreover, NBC’s rock-solid roster of 10 o’clock dramas helped the network command the biggest nightly audience from 10:30 to 11 p.m.--the most important half-hour to affiliated TV stations for whom sweeps are staged because it funnels viewers directly into their late local newscasts.

Fox averaged 11.9 million viewers, a 20% increase attributable primarily to baseball; by contrast, ABC’s audience slipped 24%, to 10.7 million, as ratings dived for such long-running series as “Dharma & Greg,” “Spin City,” “The Drew Carey Show” and even “The Practice,” which no longer benefits from having “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” leading into it.

Those overall results aside, Fox nevertheless has cause for concern in the steep ratings dive experienced by two of its key franchises: “Ally McBeal,” which has shed 20% of its ratings weight compared to last year opposite CBS’ “Raymond”; and “The X-Files,” whose audience fell by a third versus last November.

Regarding “X-Files,” Fox Television Entertainment Group Chairman Sandy Grushow said the network had “no illusions that the show was going up this year” without original star David Duchovny and is hoping the audience will build. The network has yet to commit to future seasons of either program.

Fox has also garnered disappointing results for “Temptation Island 2”--the most glaring example of the steep drop experienced by unscripted programming this fall. Even CBS’ “Survivor: Africa,” which is performing more than respectably, is tracking far behind its most recent predecessor against a reinvigorated “Friends.”

Most programmers attribute the downward trend to a glut of such fare this season, though they haven’t ruled out the horrifying images witnessed in September as a factor that may have helped diminish interest in fabricated “reality shows.”

“Those kind of shows seem to work best when the reality of your life doesn’t seem as daunting.... We’re all looking at those shows now from a different place,” said ABC Entertainment Television Group Co-Chairman Lloyd Braun.

Notably, the month and indeed the television season to date have seen no appreciable fluctuation in TV viewing levels compared to 2000, despite a ratings surge among news programs and all-news cable networks immediately after Sept. 11. “For the most part, there’s been a real stability in viewing and that hasn’t really changed,” said Alan Wurtzel, NBC’s president of research and media development, regarding the percentage of sets in use during prime time.

In fact, roughly 49.2 million people watched one of the four major networks at any given moment in prime time this month, a mere 1% drop compared to the previous year that, admittedly, would have doubtless been steeper had so many high-profile events not been postponed into sweeps that weren’t there in 2000.

The fledgling broadcast networks, the WB and UPN, also had an impact. WB has shown strength in particular on Tuesdays thanks to “Gilmore Girls” and “Smallville,” though its weekly audience declined slightly, to 4.2 million viewers, as ratings dropped for “Felicity,” “Dawson’s Creek” and “Charmed.” (The WB is part-owned by Tribune Co., owner of the Los Angeles Times.)

UPN, meanwhile, cashed in on its acquisition of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and the latest incarnation of “Star Trek,” “Enterprise,” to increase its average to 4.5 million viewers despite a shrinking audience for wrestling show “WWF Smackdown!”

Feature films also demonstrated that they can still draw sizable ratings, though the two most-watched examples during sweeps each had a gimmick involved. ABC ran Steven Spielberg’s war epic “Saving Private Ryan” unedited, while Fox’s telecast of “Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace” bypassed the usual advance exposure on pay television.

At the same time, made-for-television movies and miniseries--a sweeps staple in years past--had virtually no impact on the just-concluded survey; in fact, the lone miniseries, NBC’s World War II drama “Uprising,” had the misfortune of opening against the Emmys and the decisive seventh game of the World Series--the most-watched baseball game in a decade.

For all the attention networks focus on sweeps bragging rights, TV executives say temporary stunts are no substitute for having programs to which viewers will consistently return--a point NBC officials and even one of their affiliates drummed home during a conference call Wednesday.

“While specials are good ... the regular series performance is critical to us, month in and month out,” said Jack Sander, president of the television group for Belo Corp., which owns TV stations affiliated with all four major networks.

*

Times staff writer Greg Braxton contributed to this story.