An easy victory for "CSI: Miami" in primetime's final hour lifted CBS past its rivals on Monday night, while NBC's "Miss USA Pageant" suffered significant year-to-year ratings declines, according to preliminary nationals from Nielsen.
CBS struggled at 8:30 with one of the final episodes of "Listen Up" (2.4/7 in adults 18-49, 8.6 million viewers overall) but moved to the top of the class in the 9 o'clock hour with repeats of "Everybody Loves Raymond" (4.7/12 in adults 18-49, 15.7 million viewers overall) and "Two and a Half Men" (4.9/12 in adults 18-49, 16.1 million viewers overall). And an original "CSI: Miami" ruled at 10 (6.6/17 in adults 18-49, 20.1 million viewers overall), topping ABC and NBC combined.
The Peacock won the night's opening hour with an episode of "Fear Factor" featuring Miss USA contestants (3.8/11 in adults 18-49, 9.2 million viewers overall) but this was a drop of about 35% from a similar stunt one year ago. Also, the Miss USA Pageant itself from 9 to 11 (3.2/8 in adults 18-49, 8.1 million viewers overall) was down by roughly 35% year-to-year.
Fox was a solid second both at 8 with "Nanny 911" (3.2/9 in adults 18-49, 7.9 million viewers overall) and at 9 with "24" (4.5/11 in adults 18-49, 11.4 million viewers overall), while ABC was paced by a third-place showing at 9 for "The Bachelor" (3.3/8 in adults 18-49, 7.5 million viewers overall).
Preliminary adults 18-49 averages for the night: CBS, 4.6/12; Fox, 3.9/10; NBC, 3.4/9; ABC, 2.8/7; WB, 1.3/3; UPN, 1.2/3.
In total viewers: CBS, 14.9 million; Fox, 9.6 million; NBC, 8.4 million; ABC, 7 million; WB, 3 million; WB, 2.9 million.
Contact Rick Kissell at
rick.kissell@variety.com