CBS tops ratings

NEW YORK — CBS easily outdistanced its rivals in viewership last week and even beat NBC among viewers ages 18 to 49 to win that advertiser-friendly demographic for the first time during November sweeps since at least 1987, Nielsen Media Research said.

"CSI" was the week's most popular program by a huge margin of more than 8 million viewers over its closest rival.

Other good news abounded: CBS's Elizabeth Smart TV movie (No. 14) did better than NBC's competing Jessica Lynch flick (No. 16); "Survivor" outdistanced "Friends"; "60 Minutes" was the week's most popular newsmagazine, beating Barbara Walters' Martha Stewart interview; and the Country Music Association awards drew a healthy 20.7 million viewers, its best showing since 1993.

ABC's "8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter" had its biggest audience ever in the first episode without John Ritter.

For the week, CBS averaged 15.7 million viewers, NBC had 11.7 million, ABC 10.3 million, Fox 6.2 million, the WB 4.3 million, UPN 3.6 million and Pax TV 1.1 million.

A ratings point represents 1,084,000 households, or 1 percent of the nation's estimated 108.4 million TV homes. The share is the percentage of in-use TVs tuned to a given show.

For the week of Nov. 3-9, the top 10 shows were: 1. "CSI" CBS, 29.6 million; 2. "Survivor: Pearl Islands," CBS, 21.4 million; 3. "Country Music Association Awards," CBS, 20.7 million; 4. "8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter," ABC, 20.5 million; 5. "Friends," NBC, 20.4 million; 6. "ER," NBC, 20 million; 7. "CSI: Miami," CBS, 19.5 million; 8. "Everybody Loves Raymond," CBS, 18.6 million; 9. "Without a Trace," CBS, 18.5 million; 10. "Friends" repeat, NBC, 18.2 million.