`Survivor: The Australian Outback” was no friend to “Friends.”
CBS’ hit reality series narrowly beat an expanded version of NBC’s highest-rated comedy Thursday in their first matchup of the February sweeps, according to network figures released Friday.
NBC, however, won the night with a viewer average of 22.2 million, thanks to television’s highest-rated series, “ER.”
Although CBS won the battle with “Survivor,” and NBC won the war of taking the night overall, those relative victories didn’t translate to their Chicago affiliates.
Locally, “Friends” was watched by more people than “Survivor II” was, according to local figures. But ABC affiliate WLS-Ch. 7’s 10 o’clock newscast beat counterparts on NBC’s WMAQ-Ch. 5 affiliate and CBS’ affiliate WBBM-Ch. 2 Thursday night, demonstrating that neither “Friends” nor “Survivor” could deliver an edge in the lucrative Chicago local news market.
Nielsen Media Research said an average of 29.4 million people watched as Kel Gleason, the 33-year-old Army intelligence officer from Murphysboro in southern Illinois — the man Las Vegas oddsmakers pegged to win the $1 million “Survivor” prize — was voted out of the Outback 7-1 on Thursday, apparently because some in his food-deprived Ogakor tribe thought he was withholding beef jerky.
Thursday viewership was far short of the more than 43 million who watched Sunday’s “Survivor” premiere after Super Bowl XXXV, but it was slightly more than the average of roughly 27 million viewers who tuned in to the last several episodes of the first “Survivor” series.
NBC is trying to counter the “Survivor” attack with 40 minutes of “Friends” during the month of February, rather than the normal 30-minute edition, filling out the remaining 20 minutes with specialized programming.
Almost 22 million viewers sat though a “Friends” episode that felt longer than 40 minutes, while a live 20-minute edition of “Saturday Night Live” — bloated by commercials but nevertheless lively, in part by spoofing the “Survivor” opening (“Thirteen cast members, 20 minutes, one frightened network”) — was seen by 19.4 million viewers.
“I think the thing that surprises me the most is that after all of these years, all of this exposure and all of this hype, `Friends’ is as strong as it was against an undeniable phenomenon,” said Tim Brooks, co-writer of “The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows.”
NBC said the nearly 22 million viewer average is close to “Friends'” “normal” numbers this season, an indication that the six-year-old comedy didn’t lose any of its fans to “Survivor.”
But the reality show’s audience could grow, if its pattern of building on its viewership every week as the original version did holds true.
“If `Survivor’ develops its Rudy and its Richard Hatch and its compelling characters — which, as I say, it shows some sign of doing — this gap could widen somewhat,” Brooks said.
Thursday’s other ratings news was CBS’ “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” won the coveted 8 p.m. spot behind “Survivor” after spending the season on Fridays.
Television’s highest-rated new drama, “CSI” (which stars and is co-produced by Chicago actor Bill Petersen) was seen by almost 22 million people, beating NBC’s “Must-See” comedies “Will & Grace” and “Just Shoot Me.”
