A significant resurgence of unreality

Just when people were worried about the future of scripted television, a new crop of shows has given Hollywood a reason for optimism.

Five of the top 18 programs in Nielsen Media Research’s prime-time rankings last week were freshman scripted shows, four of them dramas and the most popular, “Desperate Housewives,” skirting the line between comedy and melodrama.

The other strong performers: ABC’s “Lost,” NBC’s “Medium,” Fox’s “House” and CBS’ “CSI: NY.” The networks were relying on the shows during a ratings sweeps month -- often the time for specials and gimmicks -- and they delivered.

The latest edition of “Survivor,” this time in Palau, made a strong return to CBS’ Thursday lineup with 23.7 million viewers. The flip side was the continued deterioration of NBC’s competing comedies: “Joey” was in 40th place for the week with 9.8 million viewers, Nielsen said.

Another proven Nielsen commodity came up short last week. ABC drew only 8.8 million for its two-hour special on Michael Jackson’s friendships.

CBS won the week, averaging 13.4 million viewers. Fox easily won among the closely watched youthful demographic. Among all viewers, NBC had 10.7 million, ABC 10.4 million and Fox 10.2 million. The WB had 3.5 million, UPN 3.2 million and Pax TV 670,000.

NBC’s “Nightly News” won the evening news ratings race, averaging 10.2 million viewers. ABC’s “World News Tonight” had 9.7 million viewers and the “CBS Evening News” had 7.4 million.

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Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (Feb. 14-20) 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 277.93 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 30.72 2 American Idol (Tue.) FOX 27.10 3 American Idol (Wed.) FOX 26.30 4 Desperate Housewives ABC 24.18 5 Survivor: Palau CBS 23.66

6 Without a Trace CBS 21.01 7 CSI: Miami CBS 19.35 8 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition ABC 18.27 9 “Stone Cold” CBS 17.98 10 Lost ABC 17.87

11 ER NBC 17.74 12 Everybody Loves Raymond CBS 17.18 13 Two and a Half Men CBS 16.78 14 Cold Case CBS 15.41 15 Apprentice 3 NBC 15.28

16 Medium NBC 14.52 17 House FOX 14.22 18 CSI: NY CBS 14.04 19 Law & Order: SVU NBC 13.76 20 Law & Order NBC 13.73

21 Boston Legal ABC 13.62 60 Minutes CBS 13.62 23 NCIS CBS 13.40 24 “SNL: First Five Years” NBC 12.19 25 Las Vegas NBC 12.06

26 24 FOX 11.42 27 Medical Investigation NBC 11.37 28 Judging Amy CBS 10.95 29 “Dr. Phil: Romance Rescue” CBS 10.94 30 Fear Factor NBC 10.90

31 Numb3rs CBS 10.49 32 America’s Funniest Home Videos ABC 10.40 33 The Simpsons FOX 10.39 34 Third Watch NBC 10.30 35 The West Wing NBC 10.17

36 Dateline NBC (Fri.) NBC 10.06 37 Will & Grace NBC 9.93 38 King of Queens CBS 9.92 39 Law & Order: SVU (Sat.) NBC 9.86 40 Joey NBC 9.84

41 NYPD Blue ABC 9.78 42 Still Standing CBS 9.68 43 According to Jim ABC 9.67 44 Alias ABC 9.60 45 JAG CBS 9.51

46 The Simpsons (8:30 p.m.) FOX 9.37 47 Supernanny ABC 9.34 48 Listen Up CBS 9.32 49 20/20 (Fri.) ABC 9.20 50 Law & Order: Criminal Intent (Sun.) NBC 9.04

51 Law & Order: Criminal Intent (Sat.) NBC 8.95 52 Rodney ABC 8.79 53 Yes, Dear CBS 8.77 54 Primetime Live ABC 8.75 55 Simple Life 3 FOX 8.73

Extreme Makeover: Family Reunion ABC 8.73 57 That ‘70s Show FOX 8.58 58 60 Minutes Wednesday CBS 8.41 59 “The Green Mile” ABC 8.39 60 Dateline: NBC (Sun.) NBC 8.28

61 Hope & Faith ABC 8.24 62 The Bachelorette ABC 8.21 63 Wife Swap ABC 8.07 64 8 Simple Rules ABC 8.04 65 Trading Spouses FOX 7.85

66 O.C. FOX 7.79 67 Cops FOX 7.75 68 8 Simple Rules (8:30 p.m.) ABC 7.44 69 Family Guy FOX 7.43 70 Joan of Arcadia CBS 7.31

71 Law & Order (Sat.) NBC 7.30 72 Extreme Makeover ABC 7.06 73 America’s Most Wanted FOX 6.93 74 King of the Hill FOX 6.72 75 Scrubs NBC 6.66

76 My Wife and Kids ABC 6.53 77 Malcolm in the Middle FOX 6.49 78 Medium (Wed.) NBC 6.43 79 George Lopez ABC 6.34 80 King of the Hill (9:30 p.m.) FOX 6.06

81 48 Hours Mystery CBS 5.94 82 Committed NBC 5.88 83 Gilmore Girls WB 5.32 84 WWE Smackdown! UPN 5.23 85 7th Heaven WB 5.10

86 Smallville WB 5.08 87 Bernie Mac (8:30 p.m.) FOX 4.91 88 Bernie Mac FOX 4.66 89 Reba WB 4.48 90 Law & Order: Criminal Intent (Tue.) NBC 4.29

91 One Tree Hill WB 4.28 Everwood WB 4.28 93 Survivor: Palau (Sat.) CBS 4.13 94 Wickedly Perfect CBS 4.10 95 One on One UPN 3.64

96 Blue Collar TV WB 3.59 97 Point Pleasant FOX 3.58 98 Girlfriends UPN 3.57 99 Reba (8:30 p.m.) WB 3.51 100 Cuts UPN 3.48

101 Half and Half UPN 3.38 102 Charmed WB 3.23 103 Jonny Zero FOX 3.17 104 Enterprise UPN 3.16 105 What I Like About You WB 3.00

106 Road to Stardom UPN 2.93 107 Veronica Mars UPN 2.70 108 Steve Harvey’s Big Time WB 2.59 109 Eve UPN 2.39 110 All of Us UPN 2.33

111 Jack & Bobby WB 2.29 112 “She’s All That” WB 2.24 113 Kevin Hill UPN 2.16 114 Summerland WB 1.66 115 Road to Stardom (Fri.) UPN 1.47

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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 13.41 12.97

NBC 10.67 10.10

ABC 10.44 10.37

FOX 10.19 9.87

WB 3.51 3.48

UPN 3.23 3.58

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