'Survivor' Stays Golden

By Stephen M. Silverman

08/04/1998 at 12:00 AM EDT

Very few surprises emerged from the Nielsen ratings of last week. The top winner, not unexpectedly, was the finale of "Survivor," which drew some 51 million viewers in 28.78 million homes. As such, it was the highest rated summertime program in at least 13 years. (The rating is the percentage of the nation's estimated 100.8 million TV homes. Each ratings point represents 1,008,000 households.) The Top 10 list for Aug. 21-27:

1. "Survivor," CBS, 28.6, 28.78 million homes

2. "Survivor: The Reunion," CBS, 22.5, 22.67 million homes

3. "Who Wants to be a Millionaire - Tuesday," ABC, 15.1, 15.21 million homes

4. "Who Wants to be a Millionaire - Sunday," ABC, 14.9, 15.01 million homes

5. "Who Wants to be a Millionaire - Thursday," ABC, 13.6, 13.70 million homes

7. (tie) "20/20 Downtown," ABC, 9.0, 9.07 million homes

7. (tie) "Dateline NBC - Tuesday," NBC, 9.0, 9.05 million homes

7. (tie) "The Practice," ABC, 9.0, 9.11 million homes

10. "Law and Order - Monday," NBC, 8.3, 8.41 million homes