Gibson
Each of the major nets had something to crow about on the second Monday of the February sweep, which saw NBC prevail in most key demographics and CBS draw the largest aud overall, according to preliminary nationals from Nielsen.
At NBC, the finale of a couples edition sent "Fear Factor" to series-record ratings (8.4/21 in adults 18-49, 18.6 million viewers overall), while 10 o'clock reality hour "Average Joe: Hawaii" matched its best score to date (6.2/14 in adults 18-49, 12.1 million viewers overall). In between, "Las Vegas" delivered more solid numbers (5.5/13 in adults 18-49, 13.0 million viewers), ranking second in its tough hour among adults 18-34.
CBS, second on the night in 18-49 and tied with NBC for the 25-54 lead, was paced by "CSI: Miami" (6.7/16 in adults 18-49, 19.5 million viewers) and "Everybody Loves Raymond" (6.6/15 in adults 18-49, 19.8 million viewers), with the latter comedy hitting some season highs.
Fox didn't do much with part one of two-week dating spec "The Littlest Groom" (third-place 3.1/8 in adults 18-49, 7.5 million viewers overall), but surged to the hour's demo lead from 9 to 10 with the penultimate episode of "Mig Big Fat Obnoxious Fiance" (7.6/17 in adults 18-49, 16.1 million viewers).
ABC hit a homerun in the 10 o'clock hour with Diane Sawyer's special "Primetime" interview with Mel Gibson (5.8/14 in adults 18-49, 17.0 million viewers), which came within a tick of Sawyer's chat with Jessica Lynch in November as the top 18-49 score for any newsmag interview of the past year.
Preliminary 18-49 averages for the night: NBC, 6.7/16; CBS, 5.7/14; Fox, 5.4/13; ABC, 3.2/8; WB, 1.9/4; UPN, 1.6/4.
In total viewers: CBS, 16.7 million; NBC, 14.6 million; Fox, 11.7 million; ABC, 10.5 million; WB, 5.6 million; UPN, 3.8 million.
Contact Rick Kissell at
rick.kissell@variety.com