‘Survivor,’ cop dramas, ‘Simple Life’ connect with viewers

Conniving island castaways, homicide detectives and rich girls down on the farm all connected with huge TV audiences last week, according to national viewing data released Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research.

CBS’ “Survivor: Pearl Islands” was the top-rated series among total viewers for the second week in a row, with more than 22.2 million viewers. This Sunday’s finale should be one of the highest rated shows of the season.

The police procedurals “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation,” “Law & Order,” “CSI: Miami” and “Cold Case” all landed in the top 10. Fox’s “The Simple Life” had a solid premiere, while NBC’s “The Tracy Morgan Show” fared reasonably well after its post-”Friends” broadcast. ABC’s new drama “Line of Fire” did not catch fire in its first episode.

On Monday night, ABC’s “Primetime Monday” and “Monday Night Football,” featuring the St. Louis Rams against the Cleveland Browns, just barely topped NBC’s “Fear Factor” and the season finale of “Average Joe.” “The Tonight Show With Jay Leno” continues to dominate in late night, closing out the November sweeps with its highest ratings in three years, despite publicity surrounding David Letterman of CBS’ “Late Night With David Letterman” becoming a first-time father.

In cable news, the three-hour first part of HBO’s epic “Angels in America” attracted 4.2 million viewers in 2.9 million HBO households, becoming the pay-cable network’s highest rated movie this year. HBO will air the second part this Sunday.

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Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (Dec. 1-7) 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 272.04 million potential viewers in the U.S. age 2 and older. Viewership is listed in millions.

*--* 1 Survivor: Pearl Islands CBS 22.20 2 CSI CBS 22.08 3 ER NBC 20.72 4 60 Minutes CBS 18.70 5 “Undercover Christmas” CBS 17.32

6 Everybody Loves Raymond CBS 16.75 7 Law & Order NBC 16.61 8 Monday Night Football ABC 16.36 9 CSI: Miami CBS 15.49 10 Cold Case CBS 15.39

11 Friends NBC 14.64 12 Will & Grace NBC 14.23 13 Average Joe NBC 14.08 14 Fear Factor NBC 14.01 15 Two and a Half Men CBS 13.81

16 Without a Trace CBS 13.72 17 NFL Monday Showcase ABC 13.65 Law & Order: SVU NBC 13.65 19 Simple Life (Wed.) FOX 13.31 20 “Trista & Ryan’s Wedding 2” ABC 13.18

21 Simple Life (Tue.) FOX 13.01 22 JAG (Tue.) CBS 13.00 23 Las Vegas NBC 12.83 24 The West Wing NBC 12.77 25 Scrubs NBC 12.18

26 Extreme Makeover (Wed.) ABC 12.10 27 “Miss Congeniality” CBS 12.04 28 King of Queens CBS 11.96 29 Still Standing CBS 11.83 30 Dateline: NBC (Fri.) NBC 11.75

31 Tracy Morgan Show (Thu.) NBC 11.68 32 “Christmas at Rockefeller Center” NBC 11.26 33 “Charlie Brown Christmas” ABC 11.22 34 Joan of Arcadia CBS 11.00 35 According to Jim ABC 10.98

36 20/20 (Fri.) ABC 10.85 37 Frasier NBC 10.68 38 24 FOX 10.51 39 The Simpsons FOX 10.50 40 Yes, Dear CBS 10.45

41 Becker CBS 10.40 42 60 Minutes II CBS 10.27 43 That ‘70s Show (Wed.) FOX 10.19 44 “Big 12 Championship Game” ABC 10.00 45 Tracy Morgan Show (Tue., 8 p.m.) NBC 9.88

46 Third Watch NBC 9.71 47 48 Hours Investigates CBS 9.39 48 Line of Fire ABC 9.37 49 Bernie Mac FOX 9.31 50 O.C. FOX 9.27

51 “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation” NBC 9.20 52 My Wife and Kids ABC 9.14 53 America’s Funniest Home Videos ABC 8.91 54 10-8 ABC 8.86 Primetime Monday ABC 8.86

56 Happy Family NBC 8.85 57 Less Than Perfect ABC 8.79 58 Hope & Faith ABC 8.76 59 Tracy Morgan (Tue., 8:30 p.m.) NBC 8.72 60 America’s Most Wanted FOX 8.66

61 JAG CBS 8.61 Alias ABC 8.61 63 Malcolm in the Middle FOX 8.37 64 The Practice ABC 8.23 65 Cops (8:30 p.m.) FOX 8.05

66 Extreme Makeover (Thu.) ABC 7.98 67 Life With Bonnie ABC 7.95 68 It’s All Relative ABC 7.67 69 George Lopez ABC 7.61 70 “TV’s Naughtiest Blunders” FOX 7.29

71 That ‘70’s Show (Tue.) FOX 7.25 72 The Handler CBS 7.19 73 Cops FOX 6.97 74 Miss Match NBC 6.76 75 Primetime Thursday ABC 6.72

76 “SNL Christmas ‘03” NBC 6.45 77 “Home Depot SEC Championship Game” CBS 6.39 78 Arrested Development FOX 6.31 79 Threat Matrix ABC 6.29 80 Married to the Kellys ABC 6.20

81 King of the Hill FOX 6.10 82 “Big 12 Championship Game” ABC 6.07 83 “Wizard of Oz” WB 5.98 84 Boston Public FOX 5.75 85 “Funniest Wedding Outtakes” FOX 5.69

86 “Wedding Singer” FOX 5.39 87 WWE Smackdown UPN 5.19 88 Tru Calling FOX 4.70 89 7th Heaven WB 4.66 90 “It’s a Very Muppet Christmas” NBC 4.64

91 Tracy Morgan Show (Sun.) NBC 4.49 92 King of the Hill (7 p.m.) FOX 4.41 93 Smallville WB 3.87 94 Steve Harvey’s Big Time WB 3.79 95 Girlfriends UPN 3.72

96 Eve UPN 3.67 97 Reba WB 3.63 98 Half and Half (Mon.) UPN 3.56 99 The Parkers UPN 3.51 100 All of Us UPN 3.38

101 One on One UPN 3.24 102 “Ironman Triathlon” NBC 3.23 103 Gilmore Girls WB 3.21 104 Everwood WB 3.13 105 Grounded For Life WB 3.00

106 Enterprise UPN 2.80 107 Angel WB 2.72 108 What I Like About You WB 2.63 109 One Tree Hill WB 2.60 110 Rock Me Baby UPN 2.48

111 Jamie Kennedy WB 2.46 112 Like Family WB 2.41 113 Half and Half (Tue.) UPN 2.38 114 Run of the House (Sun.) WB 2.21 115 Run of the House WB 1.95

116 Jake 2.0 UPN 1.75 117 “Lost & Found” UPN 1.54

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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 12.98 13.45

NBC 10.58 11.00

ABC 9.82 9.77

FOX 7.64 10.05

WB 3.70 4.13

UPN 3.10 3.59

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