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 FIVE
DESPITE AIRING ITS FIRST RERUN OF THE SEASON, FRIENDS APPEARS TO SLIP PAST THE FIRST HALF OF SURVIVOR: THAILAND, FALLING TO A REPEAT OF CSI
Fast National Ratings for October 24, 2002
Over the past year, Friends has increased its dominance to the point that its only real battles occur when it airs a rerun against an original episode of Survivor. That happened for the first time on Thursday, and according to the preliminary ratings, Friends still came away with a victory, squeezing past the first half of Survivor: Thailand by a 0.1 rating. As always, Survivor: Thailand's rating increased during its second half, slightly topping Friends overall in the preliminary ratings and defeating a new episode of Scrubs. Until the final numbers are released, the races between Friends and both the first half-hour and the entire hour of Survivor: Thailand are officially too close to call. Despite airing a repeat episode, CSI won the night with ease again, while a blowout World Series game struggled on Fox, placing the network third for the night behind CBS and NBC.
A rerun of a Friends episode that originally aired early last season came away with an 11.5 rating and an 18 share, up from a 10.9/19 for the last regular-season rerun, which aired in April, four weeks before last season's finale. The episode ranked third for the night in the preliminary ratings, beating Survivor: Thailand during the half-hour that both shows aired. Overall, Survivor: Thailand placed a preliminary second with an 11.7 rating and an 18 share, dropping over a full rating point from the 12.8/20 it pulled last week even though it had less competition this week. Despite airing a repeat episode, CSI easily won the night for the third week in a row with a 15.3/23. An original episode of new CBS drama Without a Trace benefited from the decreased competition, coming in fourth for the night with a 10.9/17 (up significantly from a 10.0/17 last week). A new Scrubs episode lost seventeen percent of Friends' audience, suffering because of its repeat lead-in and placing fifth with a 9.5/14 (down significantly from an 11.3/17 last week), while a rerun of Will & Grace came in sixth with a 9.2/14. The World Series continues to post lower ratings this year, as its blowout fifth game placed just seventh for the night in the preliminary ratings with a 9.0/14. A special Thursday repeat airing of Law & Order: Criminal Intent replaced ER, placing eighth with an 8.6/14, while an original episode of new NBC comedy Good Morning Miami ended up in ninth, hurt by its repeat lead-in with an 8.2/12 (down significantly from a 10.3/16 last week).
Airing its ninth and presumed final season this year, Friends, the Emmy Award winner for Outstanding Comedy Series, continues to be the number-one comedy on television. However, earlier this month, CSI overtook Friends as the number-one overall program, ending its run of over ten months on top, which included ranking as the most-watched program of the season for the first time last year. As of last week, CSI now leads the current season with an 18.4/28 average, ahead of Friends' second-place 17.7/28 and ER's third-place 16.3/27. Expect a two-program race all season long between Friends and CSI, as Friends should see its rating climb later in the season as it wraps up its amazingly successful run. With November sweeps beginning on Thursday, the networks will begin four weeks of all-new programming, but still expect ratings to be significantly lower than usual next week because of Halloween.
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.