CBS Has Year-End Success

The holidays couldn’t end soon enough for the broadcast networks, as only Viacom-owned CBS and UPN improved on viewing levels versus the corresponding week a year ago--before “Survivor” joined CBS’ Thursday lineup--en route to the former network’s eighth consecutive weekly ratings win, based on estimates issued by Nielsen Media Research.

Notably, “Survivor: Africa” has experienced only modest gains through the holidays opposite “Friends” reruns, making it interesting to see how next week’s final installment will fare. As it stands, the program’s third edition has been a success for CBS but has cooled considerably compared with the second edition that launched last January.

Most other established series were in reruns last week, but viewing of ABC and Fox still fell substantially compared with their results during the final week of 2000. In fact, viewing of ABC was down by nearly 4 million viewers versus the same week last year, when the network was still riding the coattails of “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.”

“Monday Night Football,” meanwhile, played on Saturday for the second week. Though tune-in rose from the pre-Christmas game, viewing was still down more than 20% versus the final Monday night showing last season.

Brian Lowry

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National Nielsen Viewership

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Tabular data not included