After disastrous runs on Fridays last season, both ABC and CBS decided to play it safe on the night this season. Although CBS was solid, if not spectacular, ABC actually gave NBC a run for its money.... on a few weeks.
     8pm has traditionally (at least for the past few seasons) saw CBS & ABC scrambling and NBC laughing all the way to the bank. The roles were reversed this season as ABC saw solid results with "Americas Funniest Videos" (61) and CBS tried out "48 Hours" (81) and got even better with "Star Search" (73). NBC, meanwhile, dropped "Providence" (44), drowned with "Mister Sterling" (64), and made things even worse with "The Search For America's Most Talented Kid" (67). Over on Fox, "Firefly" (135) couldn't find its way and was promptly replaced by the only slightly better "Fastlane" (123). The WB kept up with sitcoms, but got middling results from both "What I Like About You" (156) and "Sabrina" (155), but did pick up with Fox cast-off "Grounded For Life" (151). The UPN stuck with a movie for the night and got stuck with a piddly 162nd ranking.
      At 9pm, it was NBC's turn to laugh with the decidedly unfunny "Dateline" (49) and, albeit briefly, "Ed." CBS held steady with "Hack" (72), while ABC tired a myriad of series, including "That Was Then" (139), "Drew Carey" (125), "Whose Line" (124), then finally repeats of "8 Simple Rules" and the disastrous "Regular Joe" (127). Fox stuck with "John Doe" for the entire season, but only got a 122nd place finish out of the series, while the WB hit highs with "Reba" (136) and, subsequentially, lows, with "Greetings From Tucson" (154). 
     In the latter part of the night, NBC finally shone with "SVU" (18), ABC did merely okay with "20/20" (82), while CBS did poorly with everything it tried, from "Queens Supreme" (106) to "Robbery Homicide Division" (101). Not even negative press, such as series star Tom Sizemore getting arrested, could save that interesting series.