Premieres on NBC Set Early Pace

NBC’s Thursday-night lineup combined with solid season premieres for “Frasier,” the two existing “Law & Order” series and new drama “Crossing Jordan” to pace that network to ratings victory during the first week of the delayed television season, based on viewing estimates issued Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research.

NBC’s Thursday scorecard reflects the enduring strength of the night’s two tent poles, “Friends” and “ER,” along with the vulnerability of the programs between them.

New sitcom “Inside Schwartz” fell nearly 30% off “Friends”’ lofty heights, while “Will & Grace” and “Just Shoot Me” trailed “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” in overall viewing (though they did surpass the second-year CBS hit among the young adults sought by advertisers).

Notably, there was virtually no audience for a “Schwartz” rerun Saturday, a night ABC dominated with the movie “Forrest Gump.”

On Sunday, three new dramas--”Alias,” “Law & Order: Criminal Intent” and “UC: Undercover”--each drew respectable viewer sampling, while a showing of CBS’ “The Education of Max Bickford” slipped a modest 11% from its premiere.

The WB’s “7th Heaven” opened its sixth season with the family drama’s biggest audience since January, but its Monday-night companion “Angel” lost 40% of that audience.

The World War II miniseries “Band of Brothers,” meanwhile, continues to do well by HBO’s standards, attracting roughly 6.1 million viewers on Sunday.

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.

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Network Last week Season To date NBC 13.53 13.53 CBS 12.52 12.52 ABC 11.76 11.76 FOX 6.85 6.85 UPN 5.70 5.70 WB 3.02 3.02

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Cable Top 10

Here are the Top 10 cable programs (based on total viewers in the millions) for the week of Sept. 24-30.

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No. Program Network Viewers 1. Sunday Night Football ESPN 8.32 million 2. Band of Brothers HBO 6.13 3. Wrestling (Mon., 10 p.m.) TNN 5.83 4. Wrestling (Mon., 9 p.m.) TNN 5.56 5. NFL Primetime ESPN 5.35 6. The Sopranos HBO 3.74 7. SpongeBob NICK 3.44 8. Tough Enough MTV 2.99 “Ghost” TBS 2.99 10. SpongeBob (8:30 p.m.) NICK 2.91

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