Viewers love to say goodbye

Finales -- and near finales -- dominated the first full week of the May ratings sweeps, as the last episode of NBC’s “Friends” easily dominated with almost 52.5 million viewers. Coming in second was the show of highlights from the sitcom’s 10 years, which also aired Thursday.

Two other spots in the top 10 went to the conclusion of CBS’ “Survivor All-Stars” Sunday and the reunion special that followed it. The regularly scheduled “Survivor: All-Stars” episode Thursday just missed the top 10.

Scoring even better than those “Survivors” was Tuesday’s “American Idol,” on which the final five contestants competed.

And the penultimate episode of NBC’s other long-running comedy, “Frasier,” finished in 16th place, according to Nielsen Media Research.

The hoopla over the “Survivor” finale probably cut into the audience for ABC’s broadcast premiere Sunday of “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone,” which finished in 25th place.

Jonathan Taylor

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Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (May 3-9) 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 272.04 million potential viewers in the U.S. age 2 and older. Viewership is listed in millions.

*--* Program Net- work View- ers Program Net- work View- ers

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*--* 1 Friends NBC 52.46 2 “Friends Clips Special” NBC 36.89 3 ER NBC 28.37 4 “Survivor All-Stars Finale” CBS 24.76 5 “Survivor All-Stars Reunion” CBS 23.92

6 American Idol (Tue.) FOX 22.82 7 American Idol (Wed.) FOX 21.18 8 CSI CBS 20.39 9 “10.5,” Part 2 of 2 NBC 19.87 10 Survivor: All-Stars CBS 19.21

11 CSI: Miami CBS 17.62 12 Everybody Loves Raymond CBS 17.27 13 Two and a Half Men CBS 16.20 14 Without a Trace CBS 16.04 15 Dateline: NBC (Wed.) NBC 14.71

16 Frasier NBC 14.33 17 CSI (Wed.) CBS 13.33 18 Law & Order: SVU NBC 13.04 19 Fear Factor NBC 12.32 20 Judging Amy CBS 12.21

21 Crossing Jordan NBC 11.86 22 “American Idol: Final Five” FOX 11.73 23 Law & Order: Criminal Intent NBC 11.64 24 60 Minutes CBS 11.46 25 “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” ABC 11.14

26 Scrubs NBC 11.10 27 24 FOX 11.09 28 Still Standing CBS 10.95 29 O.C. FOX 10.72 30 The Bachelor ABC 10.32

31 JAG CBS 10.16 32 Navy NCIS CBS 10.13 The Swan FOX 10.13 34 Extreme Makeover (Wed.) ABC 10.08 35 Law & Order: SVU (Sat.) NBC 9.85

36 The Guardian CBS 9.64 37 NYPD Blue ABC 9.57 38 Third Watch NBC 9.39 39 60 Minutes II CBS 9.28 40 Friends (Wed., 8:30 p.m.) NBC 9.22

41 King of Queens CBS 9.18 42 Everybody Loves Raymond (Wed.) CBS 9.16 43 Cold Case CBS 9.11 44 That ‘70s Show FOX 9.04 45 Yes, Dear CBS 8.91

46 According to Jim ABC 8.56 47 Less Than Perfect ABC 8.31 48 Joan of Arcadia CBS 8.17 49 Friends (Wed., 8 p.m.) NBC 8.11 50 Dateline: NBC (Fri.) NBC 8.09

51 My Wife and Kids ABC 7.52 52 20/20 (Fri.) ABC 7.41 53 The Simpsons (8:30 p.m.) FOX 7.36 54 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (Thu., 10:50 p.m.) ABC 7.35 55 My Wife and Kids ABC 7.33

56 Frasier (8:30 p.m.) NBC 7.15 57 Hope & Faith ABC 6.86 58 “Most Outrageous Game Show Moments” NBC 6.81 59 George Lopez (8:30 p.m.) ABC 6.76 60 America’s Most Wanted FOX 6.72

61 8 Simple Rules ABC 6.64 The Simpsons FOX 6.64 63 8 Simple Rules (8:30 p.m.) ABC 6.51 64 George Lopez ABC 6.50 65 Dateline: NBC (Sun.) NBC 6.49

66 Hope & Faith (9:30 p.m.) ABC 6.45 67 Cops (8:30 p.m.) FOX 6.44 68 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (Sat., 9 p.m.) ABC 6.22 69 Primetime Thursday ABC 6.17 70 7th Heaven WB 6.07

71 Frasier NBC 5.84 72 Everwood WB 5.70 73 Malcolm in the Middle FOX 5.58 74 “Most Outrageous Game Show Moments 3” NBC 5.49 75 “Unbreakable” ABC 5.40

76 Cops FOX 5.33 77 Malcolm in the Middle (9:30 p.m.) FOX 4.91 78 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (Thu., 8 p.m.) ABC 4.89 79 “Hannibal” CBS 4.85 80 Smallville WB 4.72

81 Gilmore Girls WB 4.68 Angel WB 4.68 83 King of the Hill FOX 4.50 84 WWE Smackdown! UPN 4.35 85 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (Sat. 8 p.m.). ABC 4.12

86 One Tree Hill WB 4.09 87 “Cops: Crimes of Passion” FOX 3.86 88 “Spy Kids” FOX 3.80 89 Eve UPN 3.38 90 Girlfriends UPN 3.37

91 Reba WB 3.34 92 King of the Hill (7 p.m.) FOX 3.30 93 Enterprise UPN 3.25 94 The Parkers UPN 3.10 95 Half and Half UPN 2.92

96 One on One UPN 2.80 97 Charmed WB 2.77 98 All of Us UPN 2.73 99 Steve Harvey’s Big Time (9 p.m.) WB 2.67 100 What I Like About You WB 2.59

101 Steve Harvey’s Big Time (8:30 p.m.) WB 2.53 102 Steve Harvey’s Big Time (9:30 p.m.) WB 2.51 103 Grounded for Life WB 2.45 104 Steve Harvey’s Big Time (8 p.m.) WB 2.39 105 I’m Still Alive UPN 2.27

106 Rock Me Baby UPN 2.18 107 Girlfriends (Tue.) UPN 2.13 108 “Shaft” UPN 2.11 109 Run of the House WB 2.09 110 Charmed (9 p.m.) WB 2.01

111 High School Reunion WB 1.32

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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 NBC 14.86 11.08

CBS 13.22 13.16

FOX 8.38 9.62

ABC 7.57 9.04

WB 3.57 3.64

UPN 2.98 3.40

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