CBS’ ‘Survivor’ is thriving

CBS is starting the new fall season in winning form, with its new edition of “Survivor” attracting more than 21.5 million viewers to become the top-rated series last week, according to national Nielsen ratings released Tuesday.

The first installment of “Survivor: Pearl Islands” stomped on ABC’s new drama, “Threat Matrix,” which made an unimpressive debut with more than 7.5 million viewers.

Fox’s “The O.C.” wrapped up its successful run of episodes before leaving the air until the baseball playoffs conclude, and will return with new episodes in October. But the network had bad news with a dismal showing for its Friday night comedy lineup pairing the returning “Wanda at Large” with the new “Luis.”

NBC’s Tuesday night comedies “Whoopi” and “Happy Family” continued to show promise, although they were both beaten by ABC’s special tribute to John Ritter, the star of the network’s “8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter,” who died suddenly Sept. 11.

Meanwhile, Monday’s debut of NBC’s “Las Vegas” scored more than 12.6 million viewers, providing competition for CBS’ hit “CSI: Miami,” which pulled in 17.2 million viewers in its season opener.

The premiere of “All of Us,” the new comedy from Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith, did well for UPN, and the premiere of “Like Family” on the WB benefited from its strong “Reba” lead-in on Friday.

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Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (Sept. 15-21) 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.

*--* 1 Survivor: Pearl Islands CBS 21.50 2 Monday Night Football ABC 18.33 3 Emmy Awards FOX 17.94 4 NFL Monday Showcase ABC 14.46 5 Everybody Loves Raymond CBS 14.37

6 CSI CBS 14.08 7 “A Life of Laughter: John Ritter” ABC 13.95 8 Friends NBC 12.92 9 Law & Order NBC 12.25 10 CSI: Miami CBS 11.65

11 Will & Grace NBC 11.64 12 Whoopi NBC 11.30 13 20/20 (Fri.) ABC 11.04 14 Big Brother 4 (Wed.) CBS 10.99 15 60 Minutes CBS 10.98

16 NFL Football CBS 10.74 17 48 Hours Investigates (Wed.) CBS 10.55 18 “Miss America” ABC 10.27 19 60 Minutes II CBS 10.11 The West Wing NBC 10.11

21 Primetime Thursday ABC 10.08 22 CSI (10 p.m.) CBS 10.04 23 Happy Family NBC 9.97 Big Brother 4 (Tue.) CBS 9.97 25 Law & Order: SVU (Tue.) NBC 9.76

26 NFL Today CBS 9.69 27 Law & Order: Criminal Intent (10 p.m.) NBC 9.65 28 According to Jim ABC 9.61 29 Cupid CBS 9.53 30 My Wife and Kids ABC 9.46

31 “Countdown to Emmys” (7:50 p.m.) FOX 9.41 32 Law & Order: Criminal Intent NBC 9.36 33 George Lopez (9 p.m.) ABC 9.29 34 The O.C. FOX 8.77 35 Fear Factor NBC 8.71

36 Extreme Makeover (Thu.) ABC 8.50 37 Dateline: NBC (Fri.) NBC 8.49 Frasier NBC 8.49 39 America’s Funniest Home Videos ABC 8.44 40 George Lopez (9:30 p.m.) ABC 8.34

41 Still Standing CBS 8.25 42 7th Heaven WB 8.08 43 ER NBC 7.75 44 Primetime Monday ABC 7.71 45 Yes, Dear CBS 7.68

46 America’s Most Wanted FOX 7.66 47 Threat Matrix ABC 7.58 48 Judging Amy CBS 7.12 49 Big Brother (Fri.) CBS 7.05 50 Dateline: NBC (Sun.) NBC 6.94

51 Without a Trace (Sun.) CBS 6.85 52 Survivor: Pearl Islands Encore (9:30 p.m.) CBS 6.78 53 Paradise Hotel (Wed.) FOX 6.73 54 JAG CBS 6.62 55 NYPD Blue ABC 6.41

56 Paradise Hotel (Mon.) FOX 6.28 Cops (8:30 p.m.) FOX 6.28 58 Ed NBC 6.20 Law & Order (Sat.) NBC 6.20 60 “ABC Bloopers” ABC 6.13

61 America’s Funniest Home Videos (Sun.) ABC 6.12 62 Whoopi (Sat., 8:30 p.m.) NBC 6.00 63 The District CBS 5.97 64 Everwood WB 5.93 65 Good Morning Miami NBC 5.75

66 The Simpsons FOX 5.63 67 “Countdown to Emmys” (7:30 p.m.) FOX 5.54 68 That ‘70s Show FOX 5.50 69 Third Watch NBC 5.48 70 Cops FOX 5.46

71 Threat Matrix (Sun.) ABC 5.45 72 Happy Family NBC 5.43 73 Happy Family (9:30 p.m.) NBC 5.42 74 Boston Public FOX 5.34 75 Whoopi (Sat., 8 p.m.) NBC 5.28

76 “Save the Last Dance” WB 5.26 77 WWE Smackdown! UPN 5.19 78 Hack CBS 5.15 79 48 Hours Investigates (Sat.) CBS 5.13 80 Boomtown NBC 4.72

81 All of Us UPN 4.67 82 “Lethal Weapon” ABC 4.61 83 Third Watch NBC 4.60 84 American Dreams NBC 4.47 Temptation Island 3 FOX 4.47

86 Wanda at Large FOX 4.36 87 The O.C. (Mon.) FOX 4.32 88 Enterprise UPN 4.29 89 “Countdown to Emmys” (7 p.m.) FOX 4.21 90 Performing As FOX 4.19

91 Reba WB 4.18 92 Luis FOX 4.17 93 Girlfriends UPN 4.16 94 That ‘70s Show (Thu., 8:30 p.m.) FOX 4.11 95 Eve UPN 4.02

Half and Half UPN 4.02 97 That ‘70s Show (8 p.m.) FOX 3.84 98 Like Family WB 3.81 99 The Parkers UPN 3.69 100 One on One UPN 3.46

101 Grounded for Life WB 3.30 102 Smallville (9 p.m.) WB 3.22 Steve Harvey’s Big Time WB 3.22 104 All About Andersons WB 3.18 105 Jamie Kennedy WB 3.08

106 Jake 2.0 UPN 2.90 107 Smallville WB 2.88 108 Rock Me Baby UPN 2.81 109 Gilmore Girls WB 2.78 110 Run of the House WB 2.70

111 What I Like About You WB 2.56 112 Gilmore Girls (9 p.m.) WB 2.47

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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 10.00 11.13

ABC 9.38 8.79

NBC 8.03 10.38

FOX 7.91 8.67

WB 3.90 3.61

UPN 3.58 3.32

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