CBS shows elbow out challengers to lead week

Christmas appears to have arrived early for CBS, as the network, propelled by a country music awards special and strong performances from its “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” franchise, scored another weekly ratings win during the November sweeps, according to Nielsen data released Tuesday.

CBS had six of the top 10 shows, with the top-rated “CSI,” “Survivor: Pearl Islands” (No. 2), “The 37th Annual CMA Awards” (No. 3), “CSI: Miami” (No. 7), “Everybody Loves Raymond” (No. 8) and “Without a Trace” (No. 9). The network also was boasting about the viewership of “The Elizabeth Smart Story,” which aired Sunday in a showdown with NBC’s highly touted original movie “Saving Jessica Lynch.” The film attracted about 16 million viewers, while “Saving Jessica Lynch” pulled in just short of 15 million.

ABC, meanwhile, was pleased with the showing of a special hourlong episode of “8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter” (No. 6), which dealt with the death of the character played by the late John Ritter. Also performing well were Barbara Walters’ interview with Martha Stewart on “20/20” (No. 18) and an episode of the new comedy “Hope & Faith” in which star Kelly Ripa squared off with her “Live with Regis and Kelly” co-host Regis Philbin (No. 41).

Several new series continue to struggle, including ABC’s “Karen Sisco” and NBC’s “Miss Match.” Fox last week canceled “Skin.” And though the shows have not yet caught on, Fox continues to express confidence in “Tru Calling” and “Arrested Development.”

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Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (Nov. 3-9) 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 29.65 2 Survivor: Pearl Islands CBS 21.44 3 “CMA Awards” CBS 20.75 4 8 Simple Rules ABC 20.51 5 Friends NBC 20.37

6 ER NBC 20.04 7 CSI: Miami CBS 19.52 8 Everybody Loves Raymond CBS 18.62 9 Without a Trace CBS 18.45 10 Friends (8:30 p.m.) NBC 18.17

11 60 Minutes CBS 17.59 12 Monday Night Football ABC 16.64 13 Law & Order NBC 16.38 14 “The Elizabeth Smart Story” CBS 16.04 15 Two and a Half Men CBS 16.02

16 “Saving Jessica Lynch” NBC 14.91 17 According to Jim ABC 14.78 18 NFL Monday Showcase ABC 14.69 19 Will & Grace NBC 14.68 20 Cold Case CBS 14.39

21 20/20 (Fri.) ABC 13.90 22 Fear Factor NBC 13.77 23 The Bachelor ABC 13.49 24 Judging Amy CBS 13.36 25 Law & Order: Criminal Intent NBC 13.18

26 Law & Order: SVU NBC 13.07 27 JAG CBS 13.05 28 The Simpsons (8:30 p.m.) FOX 12.57 29 The West Wing NBC 12.48 30 The Simpsons FOX 12.38

31 Still Standing CBS 12.08 32 The Guardian CBS 11.81 33 Navy NCIS CBS 11.77 34 Las Vegas NBC 11.72 35 Yes, Dear CBS 11.36

36 Joan of Arcadia CBS 11.33 Scrubs NBC 11.33 38 Average Joe NBC 11.19 39 Fear Factor (Tue.) NBC 11.07 40 Less Than Perfect ABC 11.00

41 NYPD Blue ABC 10.69 42 Hope & Faith ABC 10.41 My Wife and Kids ABC 10.41 44 Frasier NBC 10.21 45 Dateline: NBC (Fri.) NBC 10.01

46 Dateline: NBC (Sun.) NBC 9.87 47 Malcolm in the Middle FOX 9.63 48 America’s Funniest Home Videos ABC 9.44 49 Third Watch NBC 9.43 50 Primetime Monday ABC 9.36

51 The Practice ABC 9.33 52 Alias ABC 9.26 53 Hack CBS 9.04 54 Ed NBC 8.97 55 The District CBS 8.95

56 Life With Bonnie ABC 8.93 57 24 FOX 8.69 58 It’s All Relative ABC 8.57 59 48 Hours Investigates CBS 8.54 60 George Lopez ABC 8.51

61 Extreme Makeover ABC 8.20 62 Threat Matrix ABC 8.10 63 The Handler CBS 7.81 10-8 ABC 7.81 65 Primetime Thursday ABC 7.77

66 Law & Order: SVU (Sat.) NBC 7.73 67 That ‘70s Show FOX 7.69 68 America’s Most Wanted FOX 7.67 69 O.C. FOX 7.52 70 King of the Hill FOX 7.41

71 Cops (8:30 p.m.) FOX 7.27 72 Married to the Kellys ABC 7.21 73 7th Heaven WB 6.79 74 Smallville WB 6.72 75 Arrested Development FOX 6.70

76 Cops FOX 6.65 77 Karen Sisco ABC 6.62 78 Wonderful World of Disney ABC 6.15 79 Joe Millionaire (Mon.) FOX 5.92 Miss Match NBC 5.92

81 WWE Smackdown! UPN 5.81 82 Las Vegas (Sat.) NBC 5.67 83 Everwood WB 5.35 84 Minute With Stan Hooper FOX 5.20 85 Charmed WB 5.18

86 Gilmore Girls WB 5.10 87 Boston Public FOX 4.88 88 Reba WB 4.85 89 King of the Hill (7 p.m.) FOX 4.41 90 8 Simple Rules ... (Sat.) ABC 4.36

91 Wanda at Large (8:30 p.m.) FOX 4.28 92 “Average Joe” NBC 4.24 93 Enterprise UPN 4.06 94 Skin FOX 4.05 Girlfriends UPN 4.05

96 Angel WB 4.02 97 Tru Calling FOX 3.92 98 24 (Tue.) FOX 3.82 99 Half and Half UPN 3.81 100 Wanda at Large FOX 3.78

101 All of Us UPN 3.77 102 Eve UPN 3.66 103 One Tree Hill WB 3.62 104 Grounded For Life WB 3.56 105 Like Family WB 3.50

106 One on One UPN 3.24 107 Steve Harvey’s Big Time WB 3.13 108 All About the Andersons WB 3.05 The Parkers UPN 3.05 110 Rock Me Baby UPN 3.03

111 Smallville: Beginnings WB 3.02 112 O.C. (Thu.) FOX 2.94 Tarzan WB 2.94 114 Girlfriends (Tue.) UPN 2.90 115 Jamie Kennedy WB 2.88

116 Jake 2.0 UPN 2.32 117 “Kingdom Come” UPN 2.07 118 Run of the House WB 1.98 119 What I Like About You WB 1.92

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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 15.67 13.32

NBC 11.72 11.10

ABC 10.27 9.66

FOX 6.23 11.39

WB 4.25 4.22

UPN 3.59 3.49

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