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"CSI" in record territory
  It's one of those shows that every network wants to have- a scripted series that grows in viewers with each passing week. CBS has found just that with "CSI," the drama that continues to defy every network, even its own, on Thursday night. The show rakes up 24.7mil this week, up almost two mil from last week, setting a series record. It killed the competition, NBC's "Will & Grace" (16.6mil), "Just Shoot Me" (14.4mil) and ABC's "Millionaire" (11.6mil). This despite the fact that "Survivor" got clunked once again in the 8pm hour, slipping to 18.0mil. Theory went that if "Survivor" slipped on Thursday, so would "CSI." But now that drama is within a hare's distance of top rated "ER" (26.6mil), and with it's current momentum, it could win up as tv's top show by the end of the season.
    But not if "Friends" has anything to do with it. The 8 year old sitcom showed no signs of slowing down last night, pulling in 25.4mil. It currently rates as tv's top show, averaging more than 28 million viewers. But as the season progresses, it's likely only gain momentum, especially when that "very special" birth episode comes up in February or May. NBC did get knocked down at 8:30pm, though, as "Inside Schwartz" slipped to 16.0mil. While that is better than last week, keep in mind that the show is going to disappear for the next 4 weeks, and viewers, the few who do watch it, are likely to forget it. ABC ranked a very distant third in the hour with "Whose Line Is It Anyway? (5.5mil at 8pm, 8.0mil at 8:30pm).
   Over on the mini-nets, there were a whole lot of tears. "WWF Smackdown" (5.8mil) toed the line as the UPN's third highest rated show, but it was all down from there. Fox premiere the movie "Varsity Blues" to only 4.7mil, while the WB watched its 8pm performance go up in flames as "Elimidate Deluxe" (2.1mil) and "Popstars 2" (2.4mil) will likely rank as the two lowest rated shows on the week. And with last years 8pm whipping girl "Gilmore Girls" flying on Tuesday (raking up 6.4mil this past week), there probably won't be any tolerance for these underperformers. (October 26)

7 shows picked up
    Despite the fact that so few new shows are making any dents in the ratings, a whole bunch of them were picked up on Tuesday. ABC gave a full season to "Alias" and the surprize "According To Jim," NBC "Crossing Jordan" and "Law & Order: Criminal Intent," the WB "Reba," "Maybe It's Me" and "Raising Dad." They join CBS's "The Guardian," NBC's "Scrubs," Fox's "Undeclared" and UPN's "One On One" in the renewed pile. Other non-surprizes to come: the WB's "Smallville" and.... and....that's about it.
    A few other new shows weren't so lucky on Tuesday though. "The Ellen Show" seems to be getting the ABC treatment once again. It's moving to 8:30pm, to be proceeded by repeats of "King of Queens." And if those two shows don't seem made for each other, I don't know what does. Oh, that's "King of Queens," not "Queen of Kings." My mistake.
    "Inside Schwartz," not surprizingly, is also getting the bums rush. During sweeps, it will be replaced by "Friends," "Will & Grace" and "Scrubs." Note to NBC: When it does return for good, it will be replaced in viewers home by voting on some game show... (October 24)

ABC rises on Tuesday
    Although hardly doing well, ABC climbed back up the ratings charts on Tuesday night, bringing in it's best results since the third week of the regular season. "Dharma & Greg" led off the night on a positive note, coming up with 9.5mil for a new episode at 8pm, and 9.4mil for an 8:30pm repeat. It also logged a 3.8 rating in adults, it best results in weeks. That was good enough for second in the slot in viewers, beating out Fox's repeats of "That 70s Show" (8.3mil) & "Undeclared" (5.3mil) and NBC's dead duo of  "Emeril" (6.9mil) and "Three Sisters" (6.7mil). There was even competition from the baby nets are "Buffy" (5.6mil) continued to shine on the UPN and "Gilmore Girls" (5.8mil) backed off slight from last week. All were crushed, however, by "JAG" (17.8mil), which brought in its second best numbers of the season and of the series.
    The 9pm race was somewhat dulled due to repeats, but ABC did bring in its best numbers in three weeks. Two "Spin City"s brought in 9.0mil & 9.5mil, third in the slot, but not by that much. A repeat "Frasier" (12.7mil) won in adults, followed by "Scrubs" at 9:30pm (10.8mil). CBS killed again in the slot as "The Guardian" welcomed 16.5mil viewers. The WB's "Smallville2 also had a good second outing, racking up 7.5mil, overcoming both Fox's repeat "Dark Angel" (4.2mil) and the UPN's slumping "Roswell" (3.2mil).
    At 10pm, "Judging Amy" (17.0mil) judged everybody into the corner, taking the heads of both "Dateline NBC" (10.3mil) and "Philly" (9.2mil). (October 24)

NBC Thursday bubble bursts
    NBC's Thursday bubble finally burst last night. But if its any consolation, so did "Survivor"s. The peacock started the 8pm hour off right with "Friends" (25.3mil), though the show did decline 4 million viewers from last week, posting by far its worst marks of the season. It was still about over last season though, even against "Survivor," showing just how strong this show is this season. But 8:30pm is where the trouble began. "Inside Schwartz" returned to the schedule with a thud, registering just 15.0mil, a full 40% off its lead-in. "Will & Grace" wobbled at 9pm (16.6mil), and "Just Shoot Me" (15.2mil) slipped at 9:30pm. The peacock finally got some traction at 10pm when "ER" brought in 26.3mil viewers, proving that last week's record low was just a blip on the radar.
    But it wasn't only NBC that fell. "Survivor III" managed only 18.9mil viewers, down 21% from last week and the series 3rd worst numbers ever. The series two worst airings ever were also it's two first. Like "Millionaire," this show seems to be falling hard, fast. But CBS did get some great news at 9pm when "CSI" clocked in with 22.7mil viewers, its best numbers of the season. It's also the first time "CSI" has grown from its "Survivor" lead-in. The show not only clunked NBC on the head in the hour, but it also threw out "Millionaire" (10.7mil) and Fox's baseball playoffs (9.7mil). But it was in the dumpster for CBS at 10pm where "The Agency" fell to 9.5mil for an episode that feature an anthrax plotline. Yikes.
    The only other network with any other good news was the WB: " Popstars 2" debuted to 3.5mil, while "Charmed" climbed to 5.9mil. Now that the WB has Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, & Thursdays rocking, is 4th place really out of reach? It'll have to fight ABC to get it.... (October 19)

L&O: 50.6mil viewers
    How's about one more "Law & Order" for your pleasure? More like for the pleasure of NBC's pocketbook. But nevertheless, NBC sticks a special "Law & Order: CI" in at 10pm on Wednesday, and people watch. 19.1mil of them, in fact. Though that was a decline from last week's regular "Law," it still will rank in the top 8 in the week. So let's do the counting. Of the three editions of "Law" that have aired since last Wednesday, they have drawn a combined 50.9 million viewers. And you call "Friends" your powerhouse?
    The rest of Wednesday night was a pretty much a text book case. ABC took 8pm in adults and viewers with "My Wife & Kids" (11.5mil) and a settling nicely "According To Jim" (11.0mil), while "Ed" (10.1mil) & "60 Minutes II" (10.5mil) lagged behind. Nine pm went to "The West Wing" again (20.6mil). "The Drew Carey Show" (11.3mil) was second, but closer in adults, while "The Amazing Race" lagged behind in 4th (8.4mil) Fox took third with baseball playoffs (9.3mil). And as said earlier, "Law & Order: CI" blew away the 10pm hour, beating out "20/20" (9.8mil) and a repeat of last weeks "Survivor" (7.8mil). "Survivor," in fact, barely drew more viewers than "Star Trek: Enterprise" (7.6mil) over on the UPN. Yikes. (October 18)

"Smallville:" perfect
    And things just seem to get better and better for the WB this season. On Tuesday it launched "Smallville." And while it expected good numbers, what it got was downright shocking. The netlet drew 8.4mil viewers in the hour, its best series premiere ever. Not only that, but it a solid, albeit distant, third in the hour, second in adults. While CBS's "The Guardian" continued to perform extremely well (15.1mil), "Frasier" (15.0mil) & "Scrubs" (12.7mil) won the hour in adults. "Smallville" did beat out Fox ("Love Cruise" 7.4mil) and ABC's dead-duo "Spin City" (7.7mil) & "Bob Patterson" (7.2mil). The UPN placed a very distant 6th with a sinking "Roswell" (3.0mil).
    Things weren't so bad for the WB in the 8pm hour two. Though "Gilmore Girls" won out over "Buffy The Vampire Slayer" last week, this week it had to settle for a tie. But when you each draw 6.0mil, a tie ain't so bad. Especially when the other networks aren't that far ahead of you. NBC continued to sink with "Emeril" (6.8mil),  and "Three Sisters" (7.0mil) wasn't much better. Fox won the hour in adults with "That 70s Show" (10.3mil), though "Undelcared" (8.6mil) backed off of that significantly.
ABC fell somewhere in the middle with back-to-back "Dharma & Greg"s (9.3mil & 9.2mil). The 8:30 installement did, however, jump more than 2 millioin viewers over last weeks "What About Joan?" But it's still not that impressive, considering last season the show was drawing 12 million plus in a much more competitive timeslot. CBS won the hour with another amazingly strong "JAG" (17.3mil).
    At 10pm, "Judging Amy" (16.1mil) came up with its best numbers of the season, while ABC's "Philly" (9.3mil) didn't do too badly, coming within shooting distance of "Dateline NBC" (10.5mil). (October 18)

 "Survivor" wins, but drops bigtime
    Thursday night, one both NBC & CBS were counting on, turned out to be a mess, with President Bush marring the premiere of "Survivor III." At least that's what the head honchos at the peacock and the eye were probably thinking. From what we can tell, and these ratings are by no means accurate in any way, "Survivor III" did come out on top, although it took a huge ratings dip from the second edition premiere. The show drew 23.2mil viewers from roughly 8:45 to 9:45 pm, beating out NBC by a comfortable margin. "Friends" drew 20.4mil at 8:45pm, while "Will & Grace" took 19.8mil at 9:15pm. But the real gold for CBS came at after 10pm, where a new "CSI" and a repeat combined to overcome an original "ER," or so as we can tell for now. The Las Vegas crime drama drew 21.0mil at 9:45pm and 17.1mil for a repeat that started roughly at 10:30pm. "ER," airing from 10:15pm on, drew only 17.2mil, by far its lowest marks ever.
    But elsewhere on Thursday night, things weren't so bad for anybody. The WB did get off to a slow start with two episodes of "Elimidate Deluxe" (2.6mil at 8pm, 3.1mil at 8:30pm), but rebounded with "Charmed" (5.7mil). Fox started off slow with the Presidential Address (5.1mil), slipping far behind similar coverage on ABC (11.5mil), CBS (13.1mil) & NBC (20.3mil). But the net came back with baseball playoffs at 8:30 (9.6mil). ABC did okay with "Millionaire" (11.8mil), which actually grew by almost a million viewers despite heightened competition. "PrimeTime Thursday" ended off the night with a comfortable 11.9mil.
    Final, more accurate ratings, will be released on Saturday. We'll keep you posted. (October 12)

"Joan" fairy tale over
  The "What About Joan?" fairy tale, which started in March of last season, is officially over. ABC cancelled the series yesterday in an effort to boost its sunken Tuesday night line-up, which averaged only 8 million viewers this week. More peculiar yet is what ABC is doing to it's line-up, as there's probably not enough chalking in the world to fill the holes in its line-up. For the next two weeks, "Dharma & Greg" will air at 8pm on Tuesday, with a repeat airing at 8:30pm. "Spin City" takes up residence at 9pm, while the huge flop "Bob Patterson" moves to Wednesdays following "The Drew Carey Show."
But it doesn't even get interesting until November. That's when ABC will debut "NYPD Blue" at 9pm on Tuesday, a day and an hour earlier than originally planned. "Philly" will stay at 10pm. But this is not entirely a bad thing. "20/20" has been pulling decent numbers on Wednesday night, in the 11 to 12 million viewer range, even as "Law & Order" averages over 22 million.
But "NYPD Blue" at 9pm? I guess we'll have to wait and see about that one...
    In other tv news, CBS cancelled "Danny" after just 2 airings. The show will be replaced by repeats of semi-Monday hit "Yes, Dear" until CBS gets up the balls to cancel "The Ellen Show." At that time, CBS will likely move the struggling "Touched By An Angel" to Friday nights, or maybe even "Survivor III," judging by last night's debut....
    ABC has ordered a full season of "My Wife & Kids," the only bright light on that net's sitcom sched. (October 12)

"Gilmore Girls" big on Tuesday
    Any doubts circulating about how "Gilmore Girls" might perform up against "Buffy The Vampire Slayer" can now be put to rest. The show debuted to 6.1mil viewers on Tuesday night, beating out "Buffy The Vampire Slayer" by a healthy margin. That show did drop from its stunning premiere last week, ut still came up with 5.4mil, pretty much what it was drawing on the WB last season. One show that did not perform so well was "Roswell," which debuted to 4.0mil. although that is about what the UPN was drawing last season in the slot with movies, its disappointing considering what "Buffy" drew last week
    Elsewhere on the night, the bottom fell out of ABC's line-up and CBS once again reigned supreme. ABC got off to an okay start with 10.8mil tuning into "Dharma & Greg, but it was all downhill from there. "What About Joan?" slippped to 8.8mil,  while 9pm entry "Bob Patterson" belly-flopped to just 7.7mil in its second week on the air. "Spin City" rebounded somewhat to 9.4mil, and "Philly" topped of the night with 9.6mil, but the damage was done. It went down as ABC's worst rated regularly-scheduled in-season Tuesday night ever, and lowered the net into a deep 3rd on the night. CBS ruled at 8pm with "JAG" (16.8mil), beating out ABC, Fox's "That 70s Show" (10.2mil) & "Undeclared" (8.0mil), letting NBC sink to the bottom with "Emeril" & "Three Sisters" (both 7.3mil). The 9pm hour was not CBS's however, as "The Guardian" slipped to 13.0mil, well behind NBC's "Frasier" (15.6mil), but ahead of "Scrubs" (12.0mil). Fox was stuck in 4th thanks to "Love Cruise" (7.0mil)
    At 10pm, "Judging Amy" (15.7mil) once again over came ABC & "Dateline NBC" (11.3mil). (October 10)

"Raymond" all that on Monday
    It may not catch "Friends" on the season this year, but "Everybody Loves Raymond" is tearing up the Monday ratings. It's averaging 22.0mil viewers so far this season, up from 20.7 after three weeks last year. Last night it brought in 21.1mil viewers, far and away the highest rated program of the night. "Becker" followed it with 17.7mil, down slightly from last week, while ABC's football coverage came up with 17.2mil viewers. The rest of the competition was in shambles in the hour, with "Dateline NBC" managing only 12.0mil in the hour, and Fox falling to 6.8mil thanks to "Love Cruise."
    But the 8pm hour was ABC's as "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?" started to really look at home on the night. 3 weeks after an embarassing loss to "The Weakest Link," the gentle Regis gammer drew almost 6 million more viewers than the
mean-fest. Regis won his slot with 14.3mil, far and above "WL"s 8.8mil. "King of Queens" did win at 8pm with 14.6mil, though "Yes, Dear" back off that at 8:30pm with 13.9mil. The WB climbed into 4th with "7th Heaven" (8.4mil), leaving Fox to sulk in fifth with two eps of "Malcolm In The Middle" (6.5mil & 7.0mil).
    At 10pm, "Crossing Jordan" (14.0mil) still won second by a comfortable margin, although "Family Law" (11.7mil) is creeping up on it. "Law," however, lost 6mil viewers from its lead-in, "Jordan" grew by two million. Case closed. (October 10)