CBS’s Everybody Loves Raymond was the only fully scripted TV show to make the Nielsen top 10 last week, as first-run game shows and news magazines once again proved to be the rerun season’s top attractions. ABC was the top-rated network for the first time in about four months as all four editions of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire landed in the top ten, along with the newsmagazines 20/20 and PrimeTime. The network averaged a 6.0 rating and an 11 share. CBS placed second with a 5.8/11, followed by NBC with a 5.4/10. (The network’s critically panned Fear Factor, in which contestants and host all seem to speak in the idiom of California surfers, shot up to fifth place with an 8.0/14; it leaped even further on Monday night this week, posting a 10.1/17 with a show that at one point challenged contestants to eat boiled bull testicles.) Fox finished fourth with a 3.6/7. Its top-rated program, a rerun of The Simpsons, placed 40th on the Nielsen list.
The top 10 shows of the week according to Nielsen Research:
1. Who Wants to Be a Millionaire (Thursday), ABC, 9.3/16; 2. Millionaire (Tuesday), ABC, 9.2/17; 3. 60 Minutes, CBS, 8.4/17; 4. Weakest Link, NBC, 8.3/13; 5. Fear Factor, NBC, 8.2/15; 6. Everybody Loves Raymond, CBS, 8.1/13; 6. (Tie) Millionaire (Friday), ABC, 8.1/16; 8. Millionaire (Sunday), ABC, 7.9/13; 8. (Tie) Primetime Thursday, ABC, 7.9/14; 10. 20/20 (Friday), ABC, 7.8/15.
