CBS tops with game, ‘All Stars’

The most watched Super Bowl in history and a gathering of veteran grubby castaways on an island propelled CBS to a ratings crown last week among total viewers and key demographics, according to data released Tuesday by Nielsen Media.

Sunday’s showdown between the victorious New England Patriots and the Carolina Panthers -- which also included the notorious halftime show featuring underdressed dancers and an even more disrobed Janet Jackson -- was viewed by an average audience of more then 87.3 million, with 143.6 million watching at least part of the game. The previous high was last year’s Super Bowl, when 138.9 million saw all or part of the match between the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Oakland Raiders.

The premiere of “Survivor: All Stars,” which followed the Super Bowl, also performed well, with more than 33.5 million viewers sticking around for the island action. CBS repeated the episode Tuesday; the show will settle into its regular Thursdays at 8 p.m. slot this week.

The two CBS super events knocked a bit of the glow off Fox’s powerhouse “American Idol,” which was still the top-rated regularly scheduled series.

Showing strength in its new Thursday 9 p.m. time slot is NBC’s “The Apprentice” with Donald Trump. And the couples edition of “Fear Factor” is boosting that unscripted series to some of its highest ratings ever.

In other reality-show news, “America’s Next Top Model” has gained momentum to become UPN’s most popular series, topping even the weekly “WWE Wrestling” in total viewers.

Greg Braxton

*

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (Jan. 26-Feb. 1) 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 Network Viewers 1 “Super Bowl XXXVIII” CBS 89.79 2 “Super Bowl Post-Game” CBS 58.96 3 “Survivor All-Stars” CBS 33.80 4 American Idol (Tue.) FOX 29.63 5 American Idol (Wed.) FOX 28.32 6 Friends NBC 20.92

7 CSI CBS 20.19 8 The Apprentice NBC 18.88 9 Fear Factor NBC 17.80 10 Without a Trace CBS 17.48 11 Will & Grace NBC 17.26

12 CSI (8 p.m.) CBS 15.89 13 Everybody Loves Raymond CBS 15.71 14 Law & Order NBC 14.29 15 CSI: Miami CBS 14.27 16 20/20 (Fri.) ABC 13.55

17 Big Fat Obnoxious Fiance FOX 13.44 18 Las Vegas NBC 13.42 19 ER NBC 13.34 20 Two and Half Men CBS 13.32 21 Law & Order: SVU NBC 12.28

22 Still Standing CBS 11.66 23 According to Jim ABC 11.57 24 Navy NCIS CBS 11.51 25 King of Queens CBS 11.50 26 The Guardian CBS 11.37

27 24 FOX 11.14 28 The Bachelorette ABC 11.08 29 Average Joe: Hawaii NBC 11.05 30 “Super Bowl ... Commercials, Part 3” CBS 11.04 31 Yes, Dear CBS 10.90

32 Becker CBS 10.55 33 Dateline: NBC (Fri.) NBC 10.53 34 Less Than Perfect ABC 9.79 35 48 Hours Investigates CBS 9.72 Joan of Arcadia CBS 9.72

37 60 Minutes II CBS 9.68 38 Law & Order: SVU (Sat.) NBC 9.17 39 JAG CBS 9.15 40 8 Simple Rules ABC 9.09 41 Wonderful World of Disney ABC 9.07

42 Hope & Faith ABC 8.86 43 Primetime Thursday ABC 8.40 44 Judging Amy CBS 8.32 45 Star Search CBS 8.27 46 My Wife and Kids ABC 8.17

47 America’s Most Wanted FOX 8.06 48 Life With Bonnie ABC 8.05 49 Celebrity Mole Yucatan ABC 7.94 50 Line of Fire ABC 7.84 51 Cops (8:30 p.m.) FOX 7.83

52 The West Wing NBC 7.71 53 O.C. FOX 7.66 54 Simple Life FOX 7.50 55 George Lopez ABC 7.45 56 “Armageddon’ ABC 7.29

Cops FOX 7.29 58 Ed NBC 7.15 59 America’s Next Top Model 2 UPN 7.11 60 Law & Order (Sat.) NBC 7.08 61 I’m With Her ABC 6.99

The Handler CBS 6.99 63 Married to the Kellys ABC 6.96 64 World’s Craziest Videos FOX 6.89 65 Extreme Makeover ABC 6.85 66 That ‘70s Show FOX 6.77

67 It’s All Relative ABC 6.65 68 7th Heaven WB 6.43 69 Apprentice (Wed.) NBC 6.38 The District CBS 6.38 71 Dateline: NBC (Tue.) NBC 6.28

72 Threat Matrix ABC 6.04 73 Whoopi NBC 5.91 74 Totally Outrageous Behavior FOX 5.83 75 “Notting Hill” ABC 5.59 76 Tracy Morgan Show NBC 5.57

WWE Smackdown! UPN 5.57 78 Third Watch NBC 5.50 79 Smallville WB 5.47 80 Everwood WB 5.20 81 Boston Public FOX 5.19

82 Dateline: NBC (Sun.) NBC 4.86 83 Gilmore Girls WB 4.82 84 “Independence Day” FOX 4.80 85 Queer Eye for the Straight Guy (10 p.m.) NBC 4.66 86 Big Fat Obnoxious Fiance (Thu.) FOX 4.58

87 Reba WB 4.45 88 Angel WB 4.34 89 Whoopi NBC 4.24 Tracy Morgan Show NBC 4.24 91 America’s Funniest Home Videos ABC 4.16

92 Tru Calling FOX 3.90 93 One Tree Hill WB 3.81 94 Queer Eye for the Straight Guy (9 p.m.) NBC 3.79 Eve UPN 3.79 96 Steve Harvey’s Big Time WB 3.78

97 Half and Half UPN 3.67 98 Girlfriends UPN 3.62 99 The Parkers UPN 3.56 100 One on One UPN 3.39 101 All of Us UPN 3.29

102 Queer Eye for the Straight Guy (8 p.m.) NBC 3.25 103 What I Like About You WB 3.22 104 America’s Next Top Model (Wed.) UPN 3.17 105 Grounded For Life WB 3.15 106 All About the Andersons WB 2.93

107 Enterprise UPN 2.72 108 Like Family WB 2.65 109 “The Cell” UPN 2.59 110 Surreal Life (Thu.) WB 2.12 111 Surreal Life (Sun., 9 p.m.) WB 2.10

112 Surreal Life (Sun., 8 p.m.) WB 1.84

*--*

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 25.28 13.68

FOX 9.83 9.79

NBC 9.39 10.74

ABC 7.89 9.48

UPN 4.00 3.46

WB 3.65 3.79

*--*