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CBS Wins First Night of Sweeps

Feb 3, 2006  •  Post A Comment

For the first night of February sweeps, CBS outpaced the competition during every hour of prime time in the adults 18 to 49 demographic, starting at 8 p.m. (ET) with the premiere of the latest installment of “Survivor.”

“Survivor: Panama-Exile Island” scored a 7.0 preliminary national rating in the demo, according to Nielsen Media Research, a number that also included live-plus-same-day DVR viewing. “Survivor” outperformed its nearest time period competitor-ABC’s reality series “Dancing With the Stars” (4.9)-by 59 percent. While the latest installment of “Survivor” was up 6 percent in the demo from its September 2005 premiere, it was down 23 percent from its debut last February.

Despite the added competition, “Dancing” was down only 4 percent in adults 18 to 49 from the previous week, growing 46 percent from the 8 p.m. half-hour (3.9) to the 9:30 p.m. half hour (5.7). ABC saw its fortunes change at 9:30 p.m. when sitcom “Crumbs” continued its downward trend from its first three airings by declining 13 percent from the previous week to hit a series low of 2.7 in the demo.

CBS’s “CSI” at 9 p.m. was the top-rated show for the night with a 9.4 in adults 18 to 49, the procedural’s strongest performance in two months. That was almost double the second-place time period competition, NBC’s “My Name Is Earl” at 9 p.m. (5.0) and “The Office” at 9:30 p.m. (4.8).

CBS’s “Without a Trace” was the demo winner at 10 p.m., scoring a 6.7, compared to NBC’s “ER” (5.9) and ABC’s “Primetime” (2.1).