'Law & Order' Rewrites Ratings Rules

By Stephen M. Silverman

05/30/2002 at 11:43 AM EDT

The season finales of such popular fare as "Law & Order," "Everybody Loves Raymond" and "The West Wing" became last week's ratings champs and the final entries in the May sweeps, according to the latest Nielsen ratings. Worth noting is that last week's No. 1 show, "Law & Order," defies all the rules, by finishing its most popular season ever in its 12th year. Most programs, which seldom last that long in the first place, rarely do that well so long after their debut. "ER," for example, ranked 38th last week with a rerun that drew 8.4 million viewers. Some 27.4 million people saw its season finale the previous week. Because of the announcement that Brian Williams will succeed Tom Brokaw as the NBC news anchor in 2004, it should also be noted that NBC's "Nightly News" won the evening news ratings race, averaging 9.7 million viewers, while ABC's "World News Tonight" averaged 8.9 million and the "CBS Evening News" had 7.6 million. The Top 10 shows for the week of May 20-26 were as follows:

1. "Law & Order," NBC, 13.6 million homes
2. "Everybody Loves Raymond," CBS, 13.5 million homes
3. "The West Wing," NBC, 11.9 million homes
4. "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," CBS, 11.7 million homes
5. "Becker," CBS, 11.6 million homes
6. "Frasier," NBC, 11.4 million homes
7. (tie) "JAG," CBS, 10.4 million homes
7. (tie) "Judging Amy," CBS, 10.4 million homes
9. "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," CBS, 9.3 million homes
10. (tie) "The 37th Annual Academy of Country Music Awards," CBS, 9.1 million homes
10. (tie) "The King of Queens," CBS, 9.0 million homes