The end of ‘Frasier’ lands at beginning of the chart

The two-hour send-off to NBC’s long-running hit comedy “Frasier” brought the series to the upper reaches of the Nielsen ratings for the week ending Sunday. The final episode was the week’s most-watched show, while the preceding clips collection was good enough for eighth place.

Underscoring how important Thursdays are to television, six of the top 10 shows for the week aired that night, including the two “Frasier” episodes, “ER” and CBS’ “CSI.”

Other shows are winding up and making Nielsen ratings noise in the process. Fox’s juggernaut “American Idol” maintained its ratings steam in its quarter-finals last week, with upwards of 23 million viewers for the performance show Tuesday, a bit less for Wednesday’s shocking results show that saw La Toya London get the boot.

Wednesday’s “AI” show also finished second for the week in the 18- to 49-year-old demographic that advertisers and most networks care about primarily.

ABC’s departing drama “The Practice” also jumped up to 28th place Sunday for its series finale. Two weeks earlier, it finished in 43rd place.

And CBS continued to milk ratings out of “Survivor: All-Stars,” with the viewers’ choice episode drawing nearly 20 million viewers and finishing as the week’s seventh-most-watched show.

Nielsen glory didn’t strike the Manson family film “Helter Skelter” the second time. While the first was a ratings sensation when it aired in 1976, Sunday night’s three-hour redo drew just 9.3 million viewers and finished in 39th place.

-- Jonathan Taylor

Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (May 10-16) 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 Frasier NBC 25.25 2 ER NBC 23.88 3 American Idol (Tue.) FOX 23.27 4 CSI CBS 22.52 5 American Idol (Wed.) FOX 22.28

6 CSI: Miami CBS 20.94 7 Survivor: All-Stars CBS 19.11 8 “Frasier Clip Show” NBC 17.93 9 Without a Trace CBS 17.72 10 Everybody Loves Raymond CBS 16.92

11 Two and a Half Men CBS 16.00 12 Law & Order NBC 15.86 13 “Day After Tomorrow Preview” FOX 14.94 14 “Dick Van Dyke Show Revisited” CBS 14.56 15 Law & Order: Criminal Intent NBC 13.74

16 “Carol Burnett “ CBS 13.61 17 Crossing Jordan NBC 12.64 18 The Bachelor ABC 12.45 19 Judging Amy CBS 12.28 Law & Order: SVU NBC 12.28

21 24 FOX 12.19 22 That ‘70s Show FOX 11.53 23 “Super Millionaire” ABC 11.51 24 Las Vegas NBC 11.26 25 Still Standing CBS 11.08

26 Navy NCIS CBS 11.07 27 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition ABC 10.98 28 The Practice ABC 10.90 29 Fear Factor NBC 10.85 30 The West Wing NBC 10.76

31 60 Minutes CBS 10.36 32 Cold Case CBS 10.27 33 Everybody Loves Raymond (Wed.) CBS 9.94 34 60 Minutes II CBS 9.77 35 Dateline NBC (Tue.) NBC 9.71

36 Law & Order: SVU (Sat.) NBC 9.70 37 King of Queens CBS 9.60 38 Yes, Dear CBS 9.37 39 “Helter Skelter” CBS 9.33 40 “Bachelor: Women Tell All” ABC 9.28

41 JAG CBS 9.25 42 NYPD Blue ABC 9.12 43 My Wife and Kids (8:30 p.m.) ABC 8.90 44 The Swan FOX 8.82 45 Dateline NBC (Sun.) NBC 8.77

46 The Simpsons ABC 8.68 47 My Wife and Kids ABC 8.66 48 Lakers-Spurs Game 5 ABC 8.55 49 Dateline NBC (Fri.) NBC 8.27 50 Hope & Faith ABC 8.26

51 Joan of Arcadia CBS 7.91 52 America’s Funniest Home Videos ABC 7.79 53 That ‘70s Show (Sun.) FOX 7.70 54 According to Jim ABC 7.55 55 Malcolm in the Middle FOX 7.50

America’s Most Wanted FOX 7.50 57 Law & Order: Criminal Intent (Sat.) NBC 7.41 58 The Simpsons (9:30 p.m.) FOX 7.20 59 20/20 ABC 7.17 60 Wonderful World of Disney ABC 7.08

61 “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” ABC 6.85 62 Restaurant 2 NBC 6.69 63 George Lopez (8:30 p.m.) ABC 6.63 64 George Lopez ABC 6.58 65 Less Than Perfect ABC 6.53

66 8 Simple Rules ABC 6.49 7th Heaven WB 6.49 68 The Swan (8 p.m.) FOX 6.44 69 Everwood WB 6.38 70 Frasier (Tue., 8:30 p.m.) NBC 6.19

“Mentalist” NBC 6.19 72 Law & Order (Sat.) NBC 6.16 73 8 Simple Rules ... (8:30 p.m.) ABC 6.02 Cops (8:30 p.m.) FOX 6.02 75 Frasier (Tue., 8 p.m.) NBC 5.89

76 48 Hours Investigates CBS 5.78 77 “Frasier Finale” (Fri., 8 p.m.) NBC 5.59 78 King of the Hill FOX 5.13 79 “Cops: Caught Red-Handed” FOX 5.07 80 Cops FOX 4.98

81 “GMC NBA Hangtime” ABC 4.96 82 “Swordfish” CBS 4.94 83 Charmed WB 4.75 84 Gilmore Girls WB 4.61 85 Smallville WB 4.54

86 “Little Nicky” FOX 4.52 87 One Tree Hill WB 4.49 88 WWE Smackdown! UPN 4.45 89 The Parkers UPN 4.44 90 Angel WB 4.02

91 Eve UPN 4.01 92 America’s Next Top Model 2 UPN 3.95 93 Girlfriends UPN 3.65 Reba (8 p.m.) WB 3.65 95 King of the Hill (7 p.m.) FOX 3.63

96 Reba (8:30 p.m.) WB 3.55 97 Enterprise UPN 3.41 98 Half and Half UPN 3.30 99 All of Us UPN 3.12 100 One on One UPN 3.08

101 Reba (9:30 p.m.) WB 2.98 102 Reba (9 p.m.) WB 2.96 103 “Angel Eyes” UPN 2.11 104 Smallville: Beginnings WB 2.02 105 “Crazy Beautiful” WB 2.01

106 America’s Next Top Model 2 (Wed.) UPN 1.43

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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 11.80 13.12

NBC 11.21 11.08

FOX 9.22 9.61

ABC 8.31 9.02

WB 4.05 3.65

UPN 3.27 3.40

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