Ratings Slip During Sweeps Week

[wildwood]

For a sweeps week that saw numerous series and season finales, ratings for all the major networks appeared lackluster last week. The CBS comedy The King of Queens went out with its biggest audience in four years, but, although it was the highest-rated sitcom of the week, it ranked only No. 3 on Monday night. Survivor: Fiji also won its time slot, but its audience of 13.6 million was down 17 percent from the 16.4 million who tuned in to the finale of the previous Survivor series last December. In fact, it was the smallest audience ever to watch a Survivor finale. In the nightly news race, audience numbers for all three networks remained dull, with ABC remaining in the lead with 7.9 million viewers, while NBC stayed in second place with 7.2 million. The news remained bleak for CBS, which counted only 6.1 million -- just 80,000 viewers more than it reported last week, when its ratings fell to the lowest level since the modern ratings system was introduced.
The top ten shows of the week according to Nielsen Research: 1. American Idol (Wednesday), Fox, 16.9/26; 2. American Idol (Tuesday), Fox, 15.1/24; 3. Grey's Anatomy, ABC, 13.0/20; 4. Dancing With the Stars (Monday), ABC, 12.8/20; 5. House, Fox, 12.5/20; 6. CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, CBS, 12.1/19; 7. CSI: Miami, CBS, 11.5/19; 8. Dancing With the Stars (Tuesday), ABC, 11.0/17; 9. Desperate Housewives, ABC, 10.3/16; 10. Without a Trace, CBS, 9.8/17.