‘Survivor’ Gives CBS a Million-Dollar Week

“Survivor” gave CBS a summer to remember last week when the final installment of the game show/reality series ended its 13-week run in record-breaking fashion, according to figures released Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research Inc.

The “Survivor” finale, which was broadcast Wednesday night and awarded its winner $1 million, attracted 51.7 million viewers, making it the most-watched summer show since the advent of people meters in 1987, and second most-watched program of the television season, behind Super Bowl XXXIV.

CBS, which also had the No. 2-ranked program, “Survivor: The Reunion,” hosted by Bryant Gumbel, was first in all key demographics for the second consecutive week. The network also got finishes in the top 15 from “60 Minutes,” “Everybody Loves Raymond,” “Becker” and the Sunday night movie “Echo of Thunder.”

With 49 weeks of the season completed, ABC still remains the top-ranked network. It’s “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” Tuesday broadcast drew its largest audience for that night in 10 weeks, despite Fox’s “The Teen Choice Awards” winning the viewership among teenagers and women 18 to 34.

In cable, TNT’s “Witchblade” joined the network’s string of hit summer films by ranking first among all movies.

Cable Top 10

Here are Nielsen’s top 10 cable programs in prime time last week, also ranked by total viewers (in millions).

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Net- View- Program work ers 1. Wrestling (Mon., 10 p.m.) USA 8.54 2. Wrestling (Mon., 9 p.m.) USA 7.63 3. “Witchblade” TNT 5.24 4. Sex and the City HBO 4.16 5. Pro Football (Rams-Cowboys) ESPN 3.69 5. NEC Invitational Golf TNN 3.41 6. Wrestling (Mon., 8 p.m.) TNT 3.38 7. Wrestling (Sun., 7 p.m.) USA 3.00 8. Boxing After Dark HBO 2.96 10. Wrestling (Mon., 9 p.m.) TNT 2.92

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Network Averages

Here is the number of viewers that each network averaged per hour of prime time, for last week and for the season.

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Last Season week to date CBS 13.61 million 11.69 ABC 9.72 12.98 NBC 7.69 11.31 FOX 5.98 8.17 UPN 3.53 3.77 WB 2.31 3.30

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Southland Viewing

Here are Nielsen’s Top 10 prime-time programs in the Los Angeles area during the same week. The rankings are based on the number of households watching.

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Sta- House- Program tion holds 1. Survivor KCBS 1,606,650 2. “Survivor: Reunion” KCBS 1,253,187 3. Millionaire KABC 749,770 4. Millionaire KABC 733,704 5. Millionaire KABC 658,727 6. 60 Minutes KCBS 583,750 7. The Practice KABC 546,261 8. Friends KNBC 535,550 9. 20/20 Downtown KABC 519,484 10. 20/20 (Fri.) KABC 514,128

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