There were only two real contenders on Thursday, NBC and CBS. Both traded off bragging rights for most of the season, and in the end, CBS took the night in viewers and NBC in adults, though the two were strong on both sides.
      NBC, which is soooo unlike them, stuck with the original Thursday line-up all season, although some in-house substitutions were made. "Friends" (3) had a very strong start at 8pm, though it faded at the end of the season, while "Scrubs" (15) was there in quality if not in numbers, though it did get progressively better. "Will & Grace" (11) was flat over last season, but still held strong, while "Good Morning Miami" (28) earned a solid fan base at 9:30pm, though it will go down as one of the lowest rated must-see Thursday series that lasted the entire season. "ER" (7) was still at the top at 10pm, though it set series lows on numerous weeks, even slipping below 20mil for new episodes, a wake-up call for NBC if there ever was one. 
       The eye, meanwhile, stuck tough with two editions of "Survivor" (5th and 8th), the top rated "CSI" (1), and the quietest surprise of the season, "Without A Trace" (17). Though "ER" trounced it in adults, the show came within a few million viewers of beating the drama most weeks. 
        And the rest, as they say, is history. Fox suffered through the night with various repeats, a movie (131), "The Pulse" (134) and "30 Seconds To Fame" (138), proving that Fox was all but given up on the night. ABC couldn't decide what it wanted to be. "PrimeTime" (88) was the main fixture at 10pm and picked up steam as the season progressed, and "Monk" (93), even in repeats, proved to be a solid alternative at 8pm. But the rest was a disaster. There was (let's count), "Are You Hot?" (78), which started out solid, then collapsed (4 episodes), "Stories From The Front Lines" (115- 3 episodes), "Dinotopia" (132- 4 episodes), "Push, Nevada" (144- 4 episodes) and even "Whose Line?" but that only lasted for two weeks. Oh yeah, and even "All American Girl," which was an unmitigated disaster.
        The WB, meanwhile, scrapped dramas on the night and opted for comedy, with horrid results.
"Family Affair" (159), "Do Over" (164), "Off Centre" (167) and "On The Spot" (161) all were consistant....ly at the bottom of the charts. the only standout was "The Jamie Kennedy Experiment," which didn't do too well at 157th, but it picked up in the spring and even ranked as the net's highest rated series for one week. "Sabrina" (155) dropped in for a visit in April, but was promptly canned. Oh, and I almost forgot "The Surreal Life" (152), which did do well at first, but ended its run barely breaking 2mil viewers.
        And finally, the UPN, which stuck with "Smackdown" for the entire season and came up with a 126th ranking. Not too shabby, considering the rest of the line-up was shattering around it.