IMMUNITY 'IDOL'
NCAA basketball forced CBS to pit Survivor (5th) against Fox's Wednesday-night wonder American Idol (4th), but it couldn't stop the music: AI won the battle by almost one million viewers. While the commercial-free coverage of President Bush's two prime-time addresses didn't factor into the Nielsens, NBC's news nets claimed ratings victory for Wednesday's announcement of war. With so much going on in the world, The WB should be happy that 3.2 million viewers sampled its new Tim Conway sketchcom, On the Spot (75th). Even Oscar had it tough, as the no-frills ceremony (1st) attracted its smallest audience in recorded history. In the ''Enough, already!'' department: Yet another Bachelor follow-up special on ABC (32nd) got clobbered by Fox's Bernie Mac (26th) and NBC's perennial winner Law & Order (27th).
TOP 30
VIEWERS* LAST WEEK
1 33.0 75TH ANNUAL ACADEMY AWARDS -- ABC, Sunday, 8:30 p.m. 2 21.1 AMERICAN IDOL 2 Fox, Tuesday, 8 p.m. 3 19.5 OSCAR COUNTDOWN 2003 -- ABC, Sunday, 8 p.m. 4 17.2 AMERICAN IDOL 8 Fox, Wednesday, 8 p.m. 5 16.4 SURVIVOR: THE AMAZON -- CBS, Wednesday, 8 p.m. 6 14.9 FRIENDS (R) 4 NBC, Thursday, 8 p.m. 7 14.7 FEAR FACTOR (R) 8 NBC, Monday, 8:19 p.m. 8 14.2 SCRUBS 12 NBC, Thursday, 8:32 p.m. 14.2 JUDGING AMY 35 CBS, Tuesday, 10 p.m. 10 14.0 JAG 26 CBS, Tuesday, 8 p.m. 11 13.5 EVERYBODY LOVES RAYMOND (R) 6 CBS, Monday, 9:20 p.m. 12 13.4 WILL & GRACE (R) 14 NBC, Thursday, 9 p.m. 13 13.2 YES, DEAR (R) 18 CBS, Monday, 8:50 p.m. 14 12.9 THIRD WATCH -- NBC, Monday, 9 p.m. 15 12.7 GOOD MORNING, MIAMI 21 NBC, Thursday, 9:31 p.m. 16 12.6 SPECIAL: ABC NEWS -- ABC, Monday, 8:27 p.m. 17 12.5 THE KING OF QUEENS (R) 16 CBS, Monday, 8:20 p.m. 18 11.9 CROSSING JORDAN -- NBC, Monday, 10 p.m. 11.9 STILL STANDING (R) 11 CBS, Monday, 9:51 p.m. 20 11.8 THE GUARDIAN 51 CBS, Tuesday, 9 p.m. 11.8 DATELINE NBC -- NBC, Wednesday, 8 p.m. 22 11.5 LAW & ORDER: SPECIAL VICTIMS UNIT (R) 43 NBC, Saturday, 10 p.m. 11.5 CSI: MIAMI (R) 7 CBS, Monday, 10:20 p.m. 24 11.4 STAR SEARCH -- CBS, Wednesday, 9 p.m. 11.4 SPECIAL: ABC NEWS -- ABC, Sunday, 7 p.m. 26 11.2 THE BERNIE MAC SHOW 32 Fox, Wednesday, 9:02 p.m. 27 10.8 LAW & ORDER (R) 23 NBC, Wednesday, 9 p.m. 28 10.7 DATELINE NBC -- NBC, Tuesday, 10 p.m. 29 10.5 LAW & ORDER: SPECIAL VICTIMS UNIT (R) 10 NBC, Friday, 10 p.m. 30 9.4 FRASIER 64 NBC, Tuesday, 9 p.m.
*IN MILLIONS WEEK OF MARCH 17-23, 2003 SOURCE: NIELSEN MEDIA RESEARCH
