|
Wednesday, May 16 2007 @ 09:37 AM CDT
Eating bugs, stabbing fish with a makeshift spear and tropical island backstabbing appear to be losing their appeal for "Survivor" fans.
The long-running CBS game isn't immune to the general malaise affecting network TV this spring, as only 13.6 million people watched Sunday as California advertising executive Earl Cole unanimously won the Fiji edition, according to Nielsen Media Research.
That's off 17 percent from the 16.4 million people who watched the end of the previous edition in December. Last spring's finale had 17.1 million viewers, Nielsen said.
It illustrates how long it's been since the first "Survivor" in the summer of 2000 electrified fans and drew 51.6 million people to its conclusion. The latest game was the 14th "Survivor" edition.
CBS notes, however, that "Survivor" consistently wins its time slot against a hot new hit, ABC's "Ugly Betty," and NBC's "My Name is Earl."
Even television's May sweeps, usually a season's climax, can't seem to get viewers excited. Only the two "American Idol" editions and "House" on Fox brought in more than 20 million viewers last week, Nielsen said. ABC's "Desperate Housewives" slipped to 16.1 million viewers.
The veteran CBS comedy "King of Queens" went out with a small wave of nostalgia, however. It was the most-watched sitcom on the air last week, and the 13.5 million who watched this Monday's finale was its biggest audience since 2003.
CBS was the nation's most popular network last week, averaging 11.3 million viewers in prime time (7.3 rating, 13 share). Fox had 10.3 million (6.3, 11) and won among viewers aged 18-to-49. ABC had 9.6 million (6.4, 11), NBC had 6.9 million (4.5, 8), the CW had 3.1 million (2.0, 3), My Network TV had 810,000 (0.6, 1) and ION had 600,000 (0.4, 1).
Among the Spanish-language networks, Univision had 3.7 million viewers (2.0, 3), Telemundo had 1 million (0.6, 1), TeleFutura had 570,000 (0.3, 1) and Azteca had 210,000 (0.1, 0).
ABC's "World News" won the evening-news ratings race, averaging 7.9 million viewers (5.6, 12). NBC's "Nightly News" had 7.2 million viewers (5.1, 11) and the "CBS Evening News" had 6.1 million (4.4, 10).
A ratings point represents 1,114,000 households, or 1 percent of the nation's estimated 111.4 million TV homes. The share is the percentage of in-use televisions tuned to a given show.
For the week of May 7-13, the top 10 shows, their networks and viewerships: "American Idol" (Wednesday), Fox, 28.2 million; "American Idol" (Tuesday), Fox, 25.47 million; "House," Fox, 21.36 million; "Grey's Anatomy," ABC, 19.58 million; "Dancing With the Stars" (Monday), ABC, 19.44 million; "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," CBS, 18.75 million; "CSI: Miami," CBS, 17.18 million; "Dancing With the Stars Results" (Tuesday), ABC, 16.87 million; "Desperate Housewives," ABC, 16.13 million; "Without a Trace," CBS, 14.31 million.
|
|
