Welcome to the third year of Dan's Friends Ratings and The Friends vs. Survivor Ratings Battle! Every Friday, I will post an article about Friends based on the fast national ratings. If you would like to receive these updates, along with Friends episode previews from NBCMV, by e-mail every week, e-mail me at [email] and request to join the Dan's Friends Ratings e-mail list. Using the link below, you can view comprehensive charts of the ratings for the past three seasons of Friends by visiting Dan's Friends Ratings online. http://newmusicandmore.tripod.com/friendsratings.html
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DAN'S FRIENDS RATINGS
THE FRIENDS VS. SURVIVOR RATINGS BATTLE YEAR THREE, WEEK TWO
FRIENDS SUFFERS A LARGE DROP FROM LAST WEEK'S SEASON PREMIERE, BUT STILL DOMINATES SURVIVOR: THAILAND AND IS AGAIN THE NUMBER-ONE PROGRAM OF THE NIGHT!
Fast National Ratings for October 3, 2002
The news is mixed this week for Friends. After 34.0 million viewers, the most ever for a premiere and for a half-hour episode, tuned in last week, the show lost a substantial fourteen percent of its audience this week. However, it still dominated the night and came away as the top program once again. The number of viewers will rise when the final numbers are released, but for now, the preliminary numbers show the episode had 28.3 million viewers.
Friends pulled a 17.4 rating and a 28 share, down significantly from its 20.3/31 a week ago. The numbers were also below those for last year's second episode, which had an 18.9/31. The show continued to dominate Survivor: Thailand, which came away with a 12.2 rating and a 19 share, nearly identical to the 12.3/19 it pulled last week. Meanwhile, CSI was again the top drama, coming away with a very strong 17.1/26 (down from last week's 18.2/27) and placing second for the night ahead of ER, which was third with a 15.9/26 (down from last week's 16.9/27). Will & Grace again placed fourth with a 13.5/20 (down from last week's 13.9/20). Scrubs lost thirty percent of Friends' audience this week, losing to the second half of Survivor and tying it overall with a fifth-place 12.2/19 (down from last week's 13.8/21). New NBC comedy Good Morning Miami was seventh with a 10.9/17 (down from last week's 11.8/17), while new CBS drama Without a Trace was eighth with a 9.8/16 (down from last week's 10.7/17). Overall, NBC won the night again with a 14.3/22, but CBS narrowed the gap even more with a 13.0/21.
After last Thursday night's huge numbers for its season premiere, Friends, the Emmy Award winner for Outstanding Comedy Series, is once again the number-one show on television. The show climbed to number one on November 29, 2001, and has not relinquished its position since (other than the summer rerun period between seasons), finishing last season as the most-watched show on television for the first time. As of last week, Friends leads the current season with a 20.3/31 average, ahead of CSI's second-place 18.2/27 and ER's third-place 16.9/27. Airing its ninth and presumed final season this year, the numbers for Friends should continue to dominate.
For those who are not familiar with the numbers, the rating is the percentage of all television homes tuned to a given show, while the share is the percentage of in-use television homes tuned to the show. For charts of all the ratings data from the past three years and Friends episode previews, visit Dan's Friends Ratings. The link is provided at the top of this article. Be sure to check out the rest of Planet Dan, including Dan's Music Update, containing Friends episode previews, which you can choose to receive by e-mail every week. I will post the final numbers at my site on Tuesday afternoon...