Super Bowl, 'Survivor' produce big week for CBS

NEW YORK -- The Super Bowl made the week's television ratings race a runaway -- sort of like the game itself.

CBS was the easy victor, Nielsen Media Research said Tuesday. The Baltimore Ravens' 34-7 win over the New York Giants was one of the lowest-rated Super Bowls ever, but the game is still the most-watched TV event of the year.

The premiere of "Survivor II: The Australian Outback" after the game kept 45.3 million people tuned in to CBS. It was the most popular entertainment program so far this television season.

Less super for CBS was Ricky Martin's Saturday night Super Bowl special, which finished tied for 74th place in the ratings.

For the week, CBS averaged 21.3 million viewers (12.0 rating, 19 share), ABC had 11.3 million viewers (7.7, 12), NBC had 10.5 million viewers (7.2, 11) and Fox had 9.4 million (5.9, 9). UPN had 3.9 million viewers (2.5, 4), the WB had 3.8 million (2.4, 4) and Pax TV had 1.3 million (0.9, 1).

NBC's "Nightly News" won the evening news ratings race with an average of 11.1 million viewers (8.2 rating, 16 share). ABC's "World News Tonight" finished second with 10.2 million viewers (7.8, 15) and the "CBS Evening News" averaged 9.6 million viewers (7.1, 13).

A rating point represents 1,022,000 households.

For the week of Jan. 22-28, the top 10 shows, their networks and ratings: "Super Bowl XXXV: Baltimore vs. N.Y. Giants," CBS, 40.4; "Super Bowl Post Game," CBS, 28.8; "Survivor II," CBS, 24.5; "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" (Wednesday), ABC, 13.5; "Law and Order," NBC, 12.9; "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" (Thursday), ABC, 12.7; "The West Wing," NBC, 12.3; "Friends," NBC, 12.1; "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" (Friday), ABC, 11.5; "ER," NBC, 11.4.