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On a night when each of the major networks devoted most of primetime to the first Bush-Kerry presidential debate, CBS reality adventure series "Survivor: Vanuatu" drew the best numbers for an entertainment program Thursday, according to preliminary nationals from Nielsen.

Ratings for the debate (9-10:30 p.m. ET) are being sustained by Nielsen and will not count in nightly or weekly averages.

From 8 to 9, "Survivor: Vanuatu" (7.0/20 in adults 18-49, 19.1 million viewers overall) was down slightly from last week but easily topped second-place NBC's comedies "Joey" (5.3/16 in adults 18-49, 13.7 million viewers overall) and "Will & Grace" (5.3/14 in adults 18-49, 13.0 million viewers overall). The 16 share marks quite a falloff for "Joey," which had logged 20 shares the previous two weeks.

ABC, with "Extreme Makeover" (1.7/5 in adults 18-49, 5.9 million viewers overall) was a distant third for the hour, not far ahead of Fox's repeats of "Totally Outrageous Behavior" (1.4/4 in adults 18-49, 3.3 million viewers overall) and "World's Craziest Videos" (1.5/4 in adults 18-49, 3.6 million viewers overall).

Nightly averages are flaky because of the debate, with CBS leading the night's hour of entertainment programming. NBC appeared to fare best for coverage of the debate.