TV: 'Millionaire' Trounces 'Raymond'

By Stephen M. Silverman

08/22/2001 at 08:26 AM EDT

Four fresh episodes of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" beat out four repeat episodes (shown in succession) of "Everybody Loves Raymond" last week to give ABC a narrow edge over rival CBS in the Nielsen ratings race. ABC's variety show, "The Wayne Brady Show," and CBS's "Big Brother" continued to do modestly well among the new summer programming, as opposed to NBC's "The Downer Channel" and Fox's "Murder in Small Town X." For those counting, last week ABC averaged 7.8 million viewers; CBS, 7.7 million; NBC, 7.3 million; Fox, 5.4 million; UPN, 3.2 million; the WB, 2.8 million; and Pax TV, 1.3 million. The Top 10 shows for Aug. 13-19:

1. "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire," Tuesday, ABC, 9.5, 9.7 million homes
2. "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire," Sunday, ABC, 9.1, 9.3 million homes
3. "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire," Thursday, ABC, 8.7, 9.0 million homes
4. "Law & Order," NBC, 8.6, 8.8 million homes
5. "20/20 - Friday," ABC, 8.0, 8.2 million homes
6. "60 Minutes," CBS, 7.8, 8.0 million homes
7. (tie) "Everybody Loves Raymond," Episode 3, CBS, 7.7, 7.9 million homes
7. (tie) "Primetime Thursday," ABC, 7.7, 7.9 million homes
9. "Everybody Loves Raymond," Episode 1, CBS, 7.6, 7.7 million homes
10. "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," CBS, 7.4, 7.5 million homes