Grammys-’Survivor’ Duet Helps Keep CBS in Tune

Given all the hype about Eminem and Elton John, it was another duet--the Grammy Awards and “Survivor: The Australian Outback”--that paced CBS to victory last week, based on viewing estimates issued Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research.

Grammy viewing dipped slightly compared to a year ago but topped every other recent installment of the awards ceremony since 1993, siphoning viewers away from Fox’s “Temptation Island” and to a much lesser degree NBC’s “The West Wing.” “Law & Order,” meanwhile, continued to put up arresting numbers, as the 11-year-old drama delivered its biggest audience ever when televised opposite the Grammys.

ABC recorded over-the-rainbow ratings Sunday with the opening half of “Life with Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows,” thus far the most-watched TV movie this season; however, the project, which stars Judy Davis, lost about a third of that audience with Part II on Monday of this week when forced to square off opposite “Everybody Loves Raymond” and “Ally McBeal.” Disney’s “Lady and the Tramp” also ran off with the biggest audience for an animated film since “Pocahontas” in 1998.

NBC’s dismal XFL football ratings Saturday no doubt benefited “Kate Brasher,” a new CBS drama starring Mary Stuart Masterson that showed promise as it began a trial run in place of “Walker, Texas Ranger.”

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National Nielsen Viewership

Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (Feb. 19-25) 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 that there are 260 million potential U.S. viewers age 2 and older. Viewership is listed here in millions.

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Net- View- Program work ers 1. Survivor II CBS 28.78 2. ER NBC 27.13 3. Grammy Awards CBS 26.65 4. Friends NBC 21.22 5. CSI CBS 20.88 6. “Judy Garland” Pt. 1 ABC 20.31 7. Will & Grace NBC 18.51 8. Everybody Loves Ray. CBS 18.38 9. Law & Order NBC 18.24 10. The Simpsons FOX 18.12 11. 60 Minutes CBS 18.01 12. Millionaire (Wed.) ABC 17.57 13. Malcolm in the Middle FOX 17.55 14. The X-Files FOX 16.86 15. Just Shoot Me NBC 16.67 16. Frasier NBC 16.61 17. The West Wing NBC 16.43 18. Millionaire (Thur.) ABC 16.41 19. Becker CBS 15.66 20. JAG CBS 15.63 21. Law & Order: SVU NBC 15.59 22. Millionaire (Fri.) ABC 15.02 23. Touched by an Angel CBS 14.62 24. “Lady and the Tramp” ABC 14.31 25. Judging Amy CBS 13.95 26. The District CBS 13.77 27. Three Sisters NBC 13.21 28. Ally McBeal FOX 13.19 29. King of Queens CBS 13.04 30. Boston Public FOX 12.98 31. Temptation Island FOX 12.88 32. “Good Will Hunting” ABC 12.82 33. NYPD Blue ABC 12.68 34. Providence NBC 12.66 35. “The Mask of Zorro” CBS 12.56 36. The Mole ABC 12.55 37. Yes, Dear CBS 12.35 38. 20/20 (Fri.) ABC 12.28 39. That ‘70s Show FOX 12.15 40. Dateline NBC (Fri.) NBC 11.81 41. Family Law CBS 11.66 42. Kate Brasher CBS 11.57 43. King of the Hill FOX 11.55 44. Primetime Thursday ABC 11.54 45. Dharma & Greg ABC 11.09 46. Dark Angel FOX 10.66 47. Titus FOX 10.33 48. Cops (8:30 p.m.) FOX 10.16 49. Frasier (Mon.) NBC 10.12 50. Nash Bridges CBS 9.88 51. West Wing (Sun., 10 p.m.) NBC 9.87 52. The Drew Carey Show ABC 9.86 53. “Phenomenon” ABC 9.85 54. 60 Minutes II CBS 9.84 55. Ed (Tue.) NBC 9.77 56. The Geena Davis Show ABC 9.61 57. America’s Most Wanted FOX 9.41 58. Diagnosis Murder CBS 9.15 Frasier (Mon., 10:30 p.m.) NBC 9.15 60. The West Wing (Sun., 9 p.m.) NBC 9.10 48 Hours CBS 9.10 62. That’s Life CBS 8.88 63. Cops FOX 8.81 64. That ‘70s Show (Wed.) FOX 8.70 65. Whose Line Is It? (8:30) ABC 8.53 Friends (Mon, 8 p.m.) NBC 8.53 67. Will & Grace (Mon., 8:30) NBC 8.47 Ed NBC 8.47 69. Will & Grace (Mon., 9 p.m.) NBC 8.38 70. Futurama FOX 8.06 71. Dag NBC 8.02 72. 7th Heaven WB 7.95 Grounded for Life FOX 7.95 74. Spin City ABC 7.67 75. 3rd Rock From the Sun NBC 7.66 76. Just Shoot Me (Mon., 9:30) NBC 7.64 77. The Fugitive CBS 7.62 78. “Starship Troopers” FOX 7.55 79. Whose Line Is It Anyway? ABC 7.39 80. WWF Smackdown! UPN 7.08 81. “The Nutty Professor” FOX 6.95 82. Dateline NBC (Sun., 8 p.m.) NBC 6.79 83. Whose Line? (Wed., 10 p.m.) ABC 6.20 84. Norm ABC 6.01 85. Two Guys and a Girl ABC 5.94 86. Charmed WB 5.79 87. Buffy, the Vampire Slayer WB 5.11 88. Star Trek: Voyager UPN 4.53 89. Angel WB 4.45 90. The Parkers UPN 3.95 91. XFL Football NBC 3.94 Moesha UPN 3.94 93. The Hughleys UPN 3.69 94. Steve Harvey Show (Sun.) WB 3.61 95. Gilmore Girls WB 3.51 96. Sabrina, the Teenage Witch WB 3.37 97. Popstars WB 3.34 98. The Steve Harvey Show WB 3.29 99. Roswell WB 3.27 100. “Shocking Police Videos” UPN 3.25 101. Nikki (Sun.) WB 2.96 102. Nikki WB 2.95 103. Girlfriends UPN 2.94 104. “Epicenter” UPN 2.66 105. Getaway UPN 2.58 106. The Jamie Foxx Show WB 2.51 107. The PJs WB 2.45 108. 7 Days WB 2.40 109. Popular WB 2.36 110. “Dawson’s Creek” WB 2.11 111. XFL Football UPN 1.93

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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 15.37 million 12.68 ABC 12.48 13.03 NBC 11.31 12.15 FOX 10.78 10.02 WB 3.76 3.94 UPN 3.47 3.92

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