Housewives beat Survivor

[*MIBabe03*]

Housewives" Outdoes "Survivor"

by Joal Ryan
Dec 14, 2004, 1:45 PM PT



Not that watching a pair of sweaty, sunburned highway workers hold archery poses wasn't scintillating television, but...

For the first time in its nine-season history, a Survivor finale was outplayed by the competition.






From the 9-10 p.m. hour on Sunday, while Survivor: Vanuatu players Chris Daugherty and Twila Tanner made like Robin Hood over on CBS, ABC's Desperate Housewives was stringing along viewers with the mystery of the toy chest (and the human remains therein).

The Wisteria Lane contingent won the head-to-head contest--21.6 million viewers (second place for the week ended Sunday) to Survivor's 20.4 million, per Nielsen Media Research.

Overall, the two-hour Survivor season closer averaged 19.7 million (fourth place). The cast reunion show, which aired from 10-11 p.m., kept 15.2 million (13th place) on the couch for a third straight hour of island antics. Thursday's penultimate episode fared best of all--third place, 20 million. Vanuatu closed out the season averaging 19.6 million.

In the show's finale, Daugherty, a road worker from Ohio, outlasted Tanner, a road worker from Iowa, in the archery game, en route to a tribal council rout and the show's $1 million top prize.

Desperate Housewives, which has yet to resolve the matter of the toy chest, claimed its prize on Monday--five Golden Globe nominations, tops in the TV division.

Elsewhere:

ABC's Lost found season-high numbers--18.9 million, sixth place.
Fox's The O.C. dropped to season-low numbers--6.4 million, 66th place.
Joey watch: Better scripts coming (producers say); Lucy Liu's guest stint here; ratings down (34th place, 10.2 million).
Dr. Chen (Ming-Na) walked out on County General--and a disappointing storyline--on NBC's ER before 18.2 million (seventh place).
NBC's The Apprentice 2 geared up for this week's Regis Philbin-graced finale with a top 10 performance (16 million viewers) for last week's firings of wedding planner Sandy Frederick and professional student Kevin Allen.
Barbara Walters' findings on the year's "most fascinating people," as revealed on ABC, were observed by 16.3 million (ninth place) still wondering how Paris Hilton qualified.
Nearly 13.6 million watched the little bald kid cope with the holiday season on the ABC rebroadcast of A Charlie Brown Christmas (18th place).
More than 8 million watched the tall red-headed kid cope with Barry Manilow on the NBC premiere of A Clay Aiken Christmas (52nd place).
The law firm of Crane, Poole & Schmidt has retention issues. Last week, nearly 10 million Desperate Housewives viewers fled when Boston Legal (27th place, 11.7 million) went into session at 10 p.m. on ABC.
The 2004 Billboard Music Awards were great for big winner Usher; so-so for Fox--61st place, 6.9 million.
The third edition of WB's High School Reunion made 3.3 million nostalgic (95th place) for socially oppressive cliques.
Overall, CBS, led by CSI (first place, 29.8 million), handily won the week, averaging 13.1 million viewers.

ABC firmed up its hold on second place, with 10.3 million; NBC fell below the 10 million mark, with 9.6 million. Fox held down fourth with 7 million.

UPN edged the WB, 3.3 million to 3.1 million.

Here's a rundown of the 10 most watched prime-time shows for the week ended Sunday, according to Nielsen Media Research:

1. CSI, CBS, 29.8 million viewers
2. Desperate Housewives, ABC, 21.6 million viewers
3. Survivor: Vanuatu (Thursday), CBS, 20 million viewers
4. Survivor: Vanuatu (Sunday), CBS, 19.7 million viewers
5. Without a Trace, CBS, 19.5 million viewers
6. Lost, ABC, 18.9 million viewers
7. ER, NBC, 18.2 million viewers
8. Monday Night Football, ABC, 16.6 million viewers
9. Barbara Walters Presents the 10 Most Fascinating People of 2004, ABC, 16.3 million viewers
10. The Apprentice 2, NBC, 16 million viewers

[spunkygirl]

Interesting, thanks

I seriously thought that Survivor might beat DH, but am glad I was wrong