‘CSI’ takes CBS to top

In the last full week of the May ratings “sweeps,” CBS rode its “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” franchise to a dominant victory.

Fox slipped past NBC into second place for the week, as “American Idol” headed toward tonight’s finale and “That ‘70s Show” had a strong season finale, Nielsen Media Research said Tuesday.

“CSI” was the week’s most popular show, with 25.4 million viewers. Last Monday’s episode of “CSI: Miami,” which set up the second, New York-based spinoff that will go on the air in the fall, was seen by 23.1 million people.

In the key 18- to 49-year-old demographic, the two “Idol” episodes last week finished Nos. 1 and 2.

ABC’s often-ignored “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” ended very strongly Sunday, surging into 14th place overall, just over 1 million viewers behind time slot rival “Cold Case” on CBS. “Makeover” won handily in the 18-49 competition.

The Daytime Emmy Awards ceremony, which has slipped in popularity, was seen by just 8.4 million on NBC Friday night.

For the week, CBS averaged 12.1 million viewers. Fox had 10.1 million and dominated in the 18-49 demographic sought by advertisers. NBC had 9.6 million, ABC 8.5 million, the WB 3.7 million and UPN 2.7 million.

NBC’s “Nightly News” reclaimed the lead in a competitive evening news ratings race, averaging 8.9 million viewers. ABC’s “World News Tonight” had 8.4 million and the “CBS Evening News” had 6.8 million.

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Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (May 17-23) 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 CSI CBS 25.40 2 American Idol (Tue.) FOX 23.61 3 CSI: Miami CBS 23.08 4 American Idol (Wed.) FOX 22.41 5 Without a Trace CBS 19.62

6 Law & Order NBC 19.46 7 Law & Order: SVU NBC 18.36 8 Everybody Loves Raymond CBS 16.07 9 Two and Half Men CBS 15.20 10 Law & Order: SVU (9 p.m.) NBC 14.67

11 Cold Case CBS 14.53 12 CSI (8 p.m.) CBS 14.10 13 “That ‘70s Show Finale” FOX 13.47 14 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition ABC 13.20 15 The Bachelor ABC 13.07

16 Law & Order: Criminal Intent NBC 13.04 17 Crossing Jordan NBC 12.94 18 Las Vegas NBC 12.90 19 “Reversible Errors,” Part 1 CBS 12.78 20 CSI: Miami (Fri.) CBS 12.30

21 Fear Factor NBC 12.00 22 60 Minutes CBS 11.69 23 JAG CBS 11.53 24 Judging Amy CBS 11.31 25 The West Wing NBC 11.03

26 24 FOX 10.97 27 “American Idol: Final 3” FOX 10.78 28 According to Jim ABC 10.73 29 Navy NCIS CBS 10.39 30 That ‘70s Show FOX 10.15

31 “Super Millionaire” (Mon.) ABC 9.79 32 The Swan FOX 9.71 33 60 Minutes II CBS 9.61 34 “Super Millionaire” (Thu.) ABC 9.59 35 The Simpsons FOX 9.40

36 “Motown 45” ABC 9.29 37 “American Idol: Phenomenon” FOX 9.20 38 Still Standing CBS 9.15 39 Less Than Perfect ABC 9.05 40 “Super Millionaire” (Tue.) ABC 8.99

41 “Super Millionaire” (Sun.) ABC 8.98 42 King of Queens CBS 8.69 43 Dateline: NBC (Fri.) NBC 8.56 44 America’s Funniest Home Videos ABC 8.54 45 Law & Order: Criminal Intent (Thu.) NBC 8.51

46 Joan of Arcadia CBS 8.46 47 “Daytime Emmy Awards” NBC 8.38 48 Everybody Loves Raymond (Wed.) CBS 8.36 49 “Price Is Right ... “ CBS 8.31 50 20/20 (Fri.) ABC 8.26

51 Yes, Dear CBS 8.25 52 My Wife and Kids ABC 8.10 53 Malcolm in the Middle FOX 7.99 54 My Wife and Kids (8:30 p.m.) ABC 7.95 55 “Carol Burnett ... “ CBS 7.90

56 Dateline: NBC (Sun.) NBC 7.78 57 Alias ABC 7.65 58 “American Idol: Audition 2” FOX 7.58 59 48 Hours Investigates CBS 7.56 60 8 Simple Rules ABC 7.54

61 20/20 (Fri.) ABC 7.44 62 “Adventures of Seinfeld and Superman” NBC 7.29 63 Friends NBC 7.28 64 America’s Most Wanted FOX 7.27 65 George Lopez ABC 7.16

66 Friends (9 p.m.) NBC 7.15 67 “American Idol: Audition 1” FOX 6.98 68 “60 Minutes Salutes Don Hewitt” CBS 6.91 69 7th Heaven WB 6.86 70 “Most Outrageous Game Show Moments 2” NBC 6.73

71 Cops (8:30 p.m.) FOX 6.57 72 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (Thu.) ABC 6.31 73 King of the Hill FOX 6.14 74 Crossing Jordan (Mon.) NBC 6.13 Primetime Thursday ABC 6.13

76 “Friends Clipshow” NBC 6.06 77 Smallville WB 5.92 78 “Dick Van Dyke Show Revisited” CBS 5.87 79 Cops FOX 5.50 80 Gilmore Girls WB 5.46

81 The Simpsons (7 p.m.) FOX 5.43 82 “Legally Blonde” FOX 5.32 83 Angel WB 5.31 84 “The Fast and the Furious” ABC 5.23 85 WWE Smackdown! UPN 4.54

86 “Jurassic Park” NBC 4.32 87 “Superstar USA” (Tue.) WB 3.69 88 Enterprise UPN 3.46 “Superstar USA” (Mon.) WB 3.46 90 “Nick/Jessica Variety Hour” ABC 3.45

91 “There’s Something About Mary” WB 3.21 92 Half and Half UPN 2.79 93 Girlfriends UPN 2.77 94 All of Us UPN 2.73 95 Half and Half (8:30 p.m.) UPN 2.53

96 One on One UPN 2.51 97 Eve UPN 2.45 98 “Never Been Kissed” WB 2.33 99 I’m Still Alive UPN 2.06 100 “Superstar USA” (Fri., 9 p.m.) WB 2.03

101 “Superstar USA” (Fri., 8 p.m.) WB 1.93 102 Rock Me Baby UPN 1.74 103 Rock Me Baby (9:30 p.m.) UPN 1.65 104 “The Best Man” UPN 1.52

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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 12.14 13.09

FOX 10.13 9.63

NBC 9.55 11.04

ABC 8.46 9.00

WB 3.72 3.65

UPN 2.72 3.38

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