‘Survivor’ shows its talent for survival

In the battle of reality shows, “Survivor” proved it’s still the champion.

The conclusion of the Pearl Islands “Survivor,” the seventh edition of CBS’ game, reached 25.2 million viewers Sunday, Nielsen Media Research said.

That enabled “Survivor” to beat two other big reality events, the finale of NBC’s “Average Joe” and “The Bachelorette,” Trista Rehn’s wedding on ABC.

The penultimate episode of “Survivor,” broadcast Thursday, was seen by just under 22 million people. The reality game has been a consistent winner, and the promise of an all-star “Survivor” with favorite contestants starting in February makes CBS executives smile.

“Average Joe” drew a hearty 17.4 million viewers for NBC last week, upsetting ABC’s opulent wedding. NBC has a second version of the show filmed and ready to go in January.

Trista and Ryan’s wedding was seen by 17.1 million people.

The popular Christmas show “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” drew 13.7 million viewers for CBS, helping the network to another easy ratings win. CBS averaged 13.7 million viewers for the week, and also won among the 18-to-49-year-old demographic that NBC usually dominates.

NBC’s “Nightly News” won the evening news ratings race, averaging 11.2 million viewers. ABC’s “World News Tonight” had 10.4 million, and the “CBS Evening News” had 8 million.

In the hotly contested cable news race, Fox claimed the most viewers when news of Saddam Hussein’s capture was first announced, from 2 to 3 a.m. Sunday, while CNN said it was No. 1 among cable news outlets from 6 to 11 a.m.

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Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (Dec. 8-14) 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 CSI CBS 26.81 2 Survivor: Pearl Islands (Sun.) CBS 25.23 3 Survivor: Pearl Islands CBS 22.39 4 Survivor: Pearl Islands: Reunion CBS 21.86 5 ER NBC 19.72

6 60 Minutes CBS 18.76 7 Average Joe NBC 17.44 8 “Trista & Ryan’s Wedding” ABC 17.08 9 Without a Trace CBS 16.39 10 Monday Night Football ABC 15.27

11 Law & Order NBC 15.21 12 Everybody Loves Raymond CBS 15.12 13 Friends NBC 14.84 14 Fear Factor NBC 13.95 15 “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” CBS 13.69

CSI: Miami CBS 13.69 17 Law & Order: SVU NBC 13.16 18 According to Jim ABC 12.95 19 NFL Monday Showcase ABC 12.90 20 Will & Grace NBC 12.82

21 JAG CBS 12.56 22 Law & Order (9 p.m.) NBC 12.53 23 “Secret Santa” NBC 12.47 24 Two and Half Men CBS 12.46 25 Frasier NBC 11.71

26 Still Standing CBS 11.60 27 Good Morning Miami NBC 11.34 28 The Simpsons FOX 11.28 29 My Wife and Kids ABC 11.09 Scrubs NBC 11.09

31 Yes, Dear CBS 10.86 32 The Simple Life FOX 10.81 33 Less Than Perfect ABC 10.62 34 Happy Family NBC 10.38 35 Joan of Arcadia CBS 10.31

36 “I Want a Dog for Christmas, Charlie Brown” ABC 10.21 37 Dateline: NBC (Sun.) NBC 10.03 38 “Billboard Music Awards” FOX 9.81 39 NFL Sunday Post-Game FOX 9.71 40 20/20 (Fri.) ABC 9.40

41 It’s All Relative ABC 9.37 42 Third Watch NBC 9.22 43 Bernie Mac Show FOX 9.13 44 The District CBS 9.09 45 Line of Fire ABC 9.05

46 24 FOX 8.87 47 Dateline: NBC (Fri.) ABC 8.86 “Price Is Right” CBS 8.86 49 America’s Funniest Home Videos ABC 8.84 50 Malcolm in the Middle FOX 8.71

51 Hope & Faith ABC 8.64 52 King of Queens CBS 8.61 53 60 Minutes II CBS 8.58 54 Extreme Makeover ABC 8.31 55 Primetime Thursday ABC 8.12

56 Becker CBS 7.96 57 King of the Hill FOX 7.94 58 America’s Most Wanted FOX 7.91 59 Law & Order: Criminal Intent NBC 7.87 60 “ABC News Special” ABC 7.78

Whoopi NBC 7.78 62 Ed NBC 7.74 63 That ‘70s Show (Tue., 8 p.m.) FOX 7.65 64 The Tracy Morgan Show NBC 7.64 65 Hack CBS 7.57

66 Primetime Monday ABC 7.52 67 Judging Amy CBS 7.45 68 Cops (8:30 p.m.) FOX 7.44 69 The Handler CBS 7.32 70 “I’ll Be Home for Christmas” ABC 7.31

71 Life With Bonnie ABC 7.30 72 George Lopez ABC 7.04 73 Cops FOX 6.78 74 “A Charlie Brown Christmas” ABC 6.72 75 The Practice ABC 6.64

76 Married to the Kellys ABC 6.58 77 “It’s a Wonderful Life” NBC 6.34 78 “TV’s Naughtiest Blunders 2” FOX 6.30 79 Arrested Development FOX 6.11 80 48 Hours Investigates CBS 6.00

81 Miss Match NBC 5.91 82 The Guardian CBS 5.71 83 WWE Smackdown! UPN 5.42 84 “Nutty Professor 2: The Klumps” FOX 5.38 85 The Simple Life (Thu., 9:30 p.m.) FOX 5.26

86 Alias ABC 4.81 87 The Simple Life (Thu., 9 p.m.) FOX 4.50 88 Tru Calling FOX 4.48 89 7th Heaven WB 4.43 90 Threat Matrix ABC 4.16

91 “Minute With Stan Hooper” FOX 4.10 92 Smallville WB 3.81 93 “Minute With Stan Hooper” (9:30 p.m.) FOX 3.67 94 Reba WB 3.62 95 Eve UPN 3.54

96 “Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer” WB 3.52 The Parkers UPN 3.52 98 Girlfriends UPN 3.32 99 Half and Half UPN 3.22 100 Charmed WB 3.09

101 All of Us UPN 2.89 102 One on One UPN 2.83 103 Grounded for Life WB 2.82 104 Everwood WB 2.81 105 Gilmore Girls WB 2.62

106 Smallville: Beginnings WB 2.60 107 What I Like About You WB 2.57 108 Like Family WB 2.52 109 Half and Half (Tue.) UPN 2.48 Angel WB 2.48

111 Rock Me Baby UPN 2.37 112 One Tree Hill WB 2.21 113 Jamie Kennedy WB 2.15 114 Enterprise UPN 2.09 115 “Dr. No” UPN 2.03

116 Jake 2.0 UPN 1.64 117 Run of the House WB 1.44

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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 13.68 13.47

NBC 11.24 11.02

ABC 9.52 9.75

FOX 7.72 9.87

UPN 3.02 3.55

WB 2.94 4.03

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