'Survivor's' ratings keep dropping

The long-running CBS reality show isn't immune to the networks' general malaise.

From Times wire reports

May 16, 2007

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 down 17% 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 has 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" episodes 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 13.4 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. Fox had 10.2 million and won among viewers ages 18 to 49, a coveted demographic.

The week's only premiere, the ABC drama "Traveler," was 38th for the week and third in its Thursday 10-11 p.m. time slot with 8.6 million viewers. Viewership dropped 19% from the first half-hour to the second.

For the sixth consecutive week, HBO's "The Sopranos" was cable's most-watched show of the week, with 6.49 million viewers for its first airing Sunday, which would have put it 56th among the programs on the five major broadcast networks.

ABC's "World News" won the evening news ratings race, averaging 7.9 million viewers. NBC's "Nightly News" had 7.2 million viewers and the "CBS Evening News" was third for the 33rd consecutive week, with 6.1 million viewers.

Prime-time TV rankings

Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (May 7-13) as compiled by Nielsen Media Research. They are based on the average number of people who watched a program from start to finish. Nielsen estimates there are 283.5 million potential viewers in the U.S. ages 2 and older. Viewership is listed in millions.

	Program	Network	Viewers
1	American Idol (Wed.)	FOX	28.20
2	American Idol (Tue.)	FOX	25.47
3	House (Tue.)	FOX	21.36
4	Grey's Anatomy (Thu.)	ABC	19.58
5	Dancing With the Stars (Mon.)	ABC	19.44
6	CSI	CBS	18.75
7	CSI: Miami	CBS	17.18
8	Dancing With the Stars (Tue.)	ABC	16.86
9	Desperate Housewives	ABC	16.13
10	Without a Trace (Thu.)	CBS	14.31
11	NCIS	CBS	13.88
12	Survivor: Fiji	CBS	13.76
13	Survivor: Fiji Finale	CBS	13.63
14	King of Queens	CBS	13.42
15	Two and a Half Men	CBS	13.27
16	Criminal Minds	CBS	12.92
17	CSI: NY	CBS	12.83
18	Lost	ABC	12.11
19	Brothers & Sisters	ABC	11.61
20	"Survivor: Fiji Reunion"	CBS	11.43
21	Heroes	NBC	11.14
22	Law & Order: SVU (Tue.)	NBC	10.94
23	24	FOX	10.92
24	The Unit	CBS	10.74
25	Deal or No Deal (Mon.)	NBC	10.43
26	The Bachelor: An Officer and a Gentleman	ABC	10.38
27	Extreme Makeover: Home Edition	ABC	10.35
28	Close to Home	CBS	10.27
29	Bones	FOX	10.23
30	Numb3rs	CBS	10.03
31	Boston Legal	ABC	9.98
32	Ugly Betty	ABC	9.63
33	60 Minutes	CBS	9.50
34	E.R.	NBC	9.39
35	Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? (8 p.m.)	FOX	9.32
36	Ghost Whisperer	CBS	9.15
37	Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? (9 p.m.)	FOX	8.70
38	"Traveler"	ABC	8.60
39	Law & Order (Fri.)	NBC	8.30
40	Without a Trace (Tue.)	CBS	8.15
41	Medium	NBC	7.91
42	New Adventures of Old Christine	CBS	7.82
43	Jericho	CBS	7.72
44	How I Met Your Mother	CBS	7.69
45	House (Mon.)	FOX	7.48
46	Law & Order (Sat.)	NBC	7.41
47	Family Guy	FOX	7.22
48	The Office	NBC	7.17
49	America's Funniest Home Videos	ABC	7.04
50	48 Hours Mystery	CBS	6.99
51	Law & Order: Criminal Intent	NBC	6.94
	My Name Is Earl	NBC	6.94
53	The Simpsons (8:30 p.m.)	FOX	6.86
54	Dateline: NBC (Fri.)	NBC	6.78
55	The Simpsons (8 p.m.)	FOX	6.54
56	Crimetime Saturday (9 p.m.)	CBS	6.42
	"Shrek"	NBC	6.42
58	According to Jim (8 p.m.)	ABC	6.35
59	20/20 (10 p.m.)	ABC	6.15
60	Law & Order: SVU (Sat.)	NBC	5.97
61	Crimetime Saturday (8 p.m.)	CBS	5.71
62	Notes From the Underbelly	ABC	5.70
63	American Dad	FOX	5.67
64	Crossing Jordan	NBC	5.34
65	Scrubs	NBC	5.31
66	Thank God You're Here (Wed.)	NBC	5.27
67	Destilando Amor (Mon.)	UNI	5.00
68	Dateline: NBC (Tue.)	NBC	4.98
69	Destilando Amor (Thu.)	UNI	4.96
70	America's Top Model 2 (Wed.)	CW	4.92
71	NBA Playoffs (8:12 p.m.)	ABC	4.91
72	La Fea Más Bella (Mon.)	UNI	4.89
73	Destilando Amor (Tue.)	UNI	4.88
	La Fea Más Bella (Wed.)	UNI	4.88
75	Destilando Amor (Wed.)	UNI	4.85
76	Dateline: NBC (Sat.)	NBC	4.82
77	Real Wedding Crashers	NBC	4.77
78	"Fox NASCAR Nextel Pre-Show" (Sat.)	FOX	4.67
79	Destilando Amor (Fri.)	UNI	4.63
80	George Lopez (Tue.)	ABC	4.60
81	Friday Night Smackdown	CW	4.56
82	According to Jim (9 p.m.)	ABC	4.55
83	La Fea Más Bella (Tue.)	UNI	4.42
84	George Lopez (Wed.)	ABC	4.41
85	Cristina	UNI	4.40
86	20/20 (9 p.m.)	ABC	4.34
87	Grey's Anatomy (Fri.)	ABC	4.30
88	La Fea Más Bella (Fri.)	UNI	4.15
	La Fea Más Bella (Thu.)	UNI	4.15
90	Gilmore Girls	CW	3.99
91	Cops (8:30 p.m.)	FOX	3.87
92	King of the Hill (7:30 p.m.)	FOX	3.68
93	Dateline: NBC (Sun.)	NBC	3.67
	Thank God You're Here (Sun.)	NBC	3.67
95	"Daddy Day Care"	FOX	3.64
96	Cops (9:30 p.m.)	FOX	3.57
97	Cops (9 p.m.)	FOX	3.47
98	Nuestra Belleza (Tue.)	UNI	3.44
99	Smallville	CW	3.43
100	Aqui y Ahora	UNI	3.35
101	Don Francisco Presenta	UNI	3.33
102	7th Heaven (8 p.m.)	CW	3.32
103	Bailando Boda Suenos	UNI	3.23
104	One Tree Hill	CW	2.95
105	King of the Hill (7 p.m.)	FOX	2.90
	Supernatural	CW	2.90
107	Girlfriends	CW	2.89
108	Duelo de Pasiones (Wed.)	UNI	2.87
109	Duelo de Pasiones (Thu.)	UNI	2.77
110	Casos Vida	UNI	2.67
111	Duelo de Pasiones (Mon.)	UNI	2.63
112	Duelo de Pasiones (Fri.)	UNI	2.60
113	Duelo de Pasiones (Tue.)	UNI	2.48
	Everybody Hates Chris	CW	2.48
115	"NBA Playoffs" (Sat., 8 p.m.)	ABC	2.47
116	All of Us	CW	2.29
117	Sabado Gigante	UNI	1.96
118	Veronica Mars	CW	1.85
119	Futbol Liga Mexicana	UNI	1.70
120	America's Top Model 2 (Sun.)	CW	1.67
121	7th Heaven (7 p.m.)	CW	1.44
122	Dame Chocolate (Mon.)	TEL	1.31
123	Dame Chocolate (Tue.)	TEL	1.29
	Dame Chocolate (Wed.)	TEL	1.29
125	Zorro (Tue.)	TEL	1.22
126	Dame Chocolate (Fri.)	TEL	1.18
127	Esclava Isaura (Mon.)	TEL	1.16
128	Zorro (Wed.)	TEL	1.15
129	Zorro (Mon.)	TEL	1.14
130	Esclava Isaura (Tue.)	TEL	1.12
131	Marina (Wed.)	TEL	1.12
132	Marina (Tue.)	TEL	1.10
133	Hora Pico	UNI	1.09
134	Marina (Mon.)	TEL	1.08
135	Zorro (Fri.)	TEL	1.07
136	Cinemundo del Sabado	TEL	1.06
137	Dame Chocolate (Thu.)	TEL	1.03
138	Zorro (Thu.)	TEL	1.01
139	Marina (Fri.)	TEL	1.00
140	Esclava Isaura (Thu.)	TEL	0.95
141	Esclava Isaura (Wed.)	TEL	0.92
142	Esclava Isaura (Fri.)	TEL	0.87
143	Marina (Thu.)	TEL	0.86
144	Cine Nuestro	TEL	0.78
145	Cine Millonario	TEL	0.76
146	Marav Mundo Disney	TEL	0.56

Network averages

Here is the number of viewers (in millions) that each network averaged per hour of prime time, for last week and for the season.

Network	Last week	Season to date
CBS	11.30	12.25
FOX	10.22	10.08
ABC	9.61	9.62
NBC	6.88	8.72
UNI	3.71	3.62
CW	3.14	3.14
TEL	1.00	0.86