‘Restaurant’ reality is less than savory

As a reality TV star, Rocco DiSpirito isn’t nearly in the same league as Donald Trump or Boston Rob.

“The Restaurant,” the colorful Mark Burnett-produced series set in a Manhattan dining establishment, failed to make a smash in its second-season debut. It reached only 6.5 million viewers, or less than a third of the regular audience for “Survivor” and “The Apprentice.”

Fox has to be at least mildly encouraged by the staying power of its makeover series “The Swan,” which had the network’s highest ratings outside of “American Idol” and “24.” Still, it finished in 32nd place with just over 10 million viewers, nowhere near the 23.4 million for “Idol” last Tuesday.

Counting down to its final episode, “Friends” drew 22.6 million viewers last Thursday. Six of the 10 most-watched programs last week were seen on Thursday. “Friends” was the top show among the 18-to-49-year-olds most coveted by advertisers.

CBS won the ratings week, averaging 11.7 million viewers. NBC was second with 11 million viewers, but won among the 18-to-49-year-old viewers. Fox had 8.8 million viewers, ABC 7.1 million, the WB 3.4 million and UPN 2.8 million, according to Nielsen Media Research.

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Prime-Time TV Rankings

Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (April 19-25) 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.

*--* Program Net- work View- ers Program Net- work View- ers

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*--* 1 American Idol (Tue.) FOX 23.40 2 Friends NBC 22.64 3 American Idol (Wed.) FOX 21.23 4 CSI CBS 21.12 5 CSI: Miami CBS 21.02

6 Survivor: All-Stars CBS 20.99 7 Friends (8:30 p.m.) NBC 20.33 8 ER NBC 19.85 9 Law & Order NBC 17.21 10 Will & Grace NBC 16.36

11 Everybody Loves Raymond CBS 16.08 12 “Plainsong” CBS 15.35 13 Cold Case CBS 14.83 14 Two and a Half Men CBS 14.58 15 Without a Trace CBS 13.80

16 Scrubs (Thu.) NBC 13.56 17 Law & Order: SVU NBC 12.82 18 Law & Order: Criminal Intent NBC 12.12 19 Fear Factor NBC 12.00 20 The Bachelor ABC 11.95

21 Crossing Jordan NBC 11.27 22 Dateline: NBC (Fri.) NBC 11.20 23 60 Minutes CBS 11.17 24 The West Wing NBC 11.10 25 Las Vegas NBC 11.06

26 Frasier NBC 10.76 27 Still Standing CBS 10.59 28 24 FOX 10.54 29 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition ABC 10.38 30 NYPD Blue ABC 10.20

31 The O.C. FOX 10.13 32 The Swan FOX 10.08 33 That ‘70s Show FOX 9.94 34 The Simpsons (8:30 p.m.) FOX 9.87 35 Navy NCIS CBS 9.82

36 Third Watch NBC 9.73 37 The Guardian CBS 9.60 38 Extreme Makeover (Wed.) ABC 9.54 39 Yes, Dear CBS 9.50 40 “Most Outrageous Game Show Moments” NBC 9.45

41 20/20 (Fri.) ABC 9.44 42 The Simpsons FOX 9.28 43 48 Hours Investigates CBS 9.26 44 King of Queens CBS 9.06 45 The Practice ABC 8.77

46 The District CBS 8.60 47 According to Jim ABC 8.54 48 60 Minutes II CBS 8.53 49 “American Idol: Uncut” FOX 8.49 50 According to Jim (9:30 p.m.) ABC 8.35

51 America’s Funniest Home Videos ABC 8.26 52 Alias ABC 8.25 Judging Amy CBS 8.25 54 Scrubs (Tue.) NBC 8.01 55 Without a Trace (Fri.) CBS 7.78

56 48 Hours Investigates (Sat.) CBS 7.73 57 Dateline: NBC (Sun.) NBC 7.70 58 My Wife & Kids (8:30 p.m.) ABC 7.59 America’s Most Wanted FOX 7.59 60 My Wife and Kids ABC 7.54

61 “Price Is Right” CBS 7.48 62 Yes, Dear (Wed.) CBS 7.34 63 Malcolm in the Middle FOX 7.21 64 JAG CBS 6.84 65 8 Simple Rules ABC 6.75

66 Restaurant 2 NBC 6.51 67 Primetime Thursday ABC 6.41 68 Cops (8:30 p.m.) FOX 6.38 69 “What Lies Beneath” ABC 6.32 70 “Space Cowboys” NBC 6.28

71 King of the Hill (7:30 p.m.) FOX 6.14 72 Joan of Arcadia CBS 6.10 73 Married to the Kellys ABC 5.91 74 Hope & Faith ABC 5.76 75 The Swan FOX 5.68

76 Arrested Development FOX 5.66 77 I’m With Her ABC 5.59 78 7th Heaven WB 5.55 79 George Lopez ABC 5.34 80 Whoopi NBC 5.28

81 “World’s Craziest Videos” (9:30 p.m.) FOX 5.14 82 Cops FOX 5.12 83 The Big House ABC 5.09 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (Thu.) ABC 5.09 King of the Hill (7 p.m.) FOX 5.09

86 Everwood WB 5.01 87 Happy Family NBC 4.94 88 WWE Smackdown! UPN 4.70 89 “World’s Craziest Videos” FOX 4.50 90 Smallville WB 4.43

91 One Tree Hill WB 4.40 92 Totally Outrageous Behavior (8:30 p.m.) FOX 4.29 93 Tru Calling FOX 4.15 94 Totally Outrageous Behavior FOX 4.02 95 “Almost Famous” ABC 3.99

96 The Gilmore Girls WB 3.95 97 Stephen King’s Kingdom Hospital ABC 3.78 98 Angel WB 3.69 99 Charmed WB 3.39 100 Reba WB 3.33

101 Enterprise UPN 2.86 102 High School Reunion (9 p.m.) WB 2.79 103 Steve Harvey’s Big Time WB 2.74 104 All of Us UPN 2.71 105 Eve UPN 2.63

106 What I Like About You WB 2.53 107 Grounded for Life WB 2.52 108 Jamie Kennedy WB 2.50 109 I’m Still Alive UPN 2.48 110 The Parkers UPN 2.41

111 Girlfriends UPN 2.40 112 Half and Half UPN 2.32 113 Jamie Kennedy (9:30 p.m.) WB 2.30 114 One on One UPN 2.10 115 Girlfriends (Tue.) UPN 2.08

116 Run of the House WB 2.02 117 “The Specialist” UPN 1.96 118 Rock Me Baby UPN 1.87 119 Like Family WB 1.78 120 High School Reunion (7 p.m.) WB 1.06

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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 11.70 13.20

NBC 10.96 10.93

FOX 8.80 9.69

ABC 7.10 9.13

WB 3.40 3.64

UPN 2.79 3.44

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