NBC's 'Law' Rides High, 'Fame' Doesn't

By Stephen M. Silverman

Wednesday July 30, 2003 04:02 PM EDT

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"Law & Order" continues to show its strength for NBC, with the franchise copping four of the Top 10 spots in last week's ratings, according Nielsen Media Research.

What worked less well for the network was the season finale of "Fame," in which Harlemm Lee, 36, was crowned winner. The audience was only 5.8 million, about half of what was there for the May debut.

NBC also wasn't that lucky with a pared-down episode of "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy," which had performed very well on the NBC-Bravo network. The rerun on NBC attracted fewer than 7 million viewers Thursday.

Twice as many people were watching "CSI" on CBS at the time. (Still, the "Queer" show's numbers are big for Bravo, attracting 1.6 million viewers for a network used to attracting numbers in the thousands.)

For the week of July 21-27, the Top 10 shows were as follows:

1."CSI," CBS, 13.3 million viewers
2. "Law & Order," NBC, 12.8 million
3. "Law & Order: Criminal Intent," NBC, 11.7 million
4. "Without a Trace," CBS, 11.4 million
5. "Law & Order," Wednesday, NBC, 11.1 million
6. "Everybody Loves Raymond," CBS, 10.4 million
7. "CSI: Miami," CBS, 10.1 million
8. "60 Minutes," CBS, 10 million
9. "King of Queens," CBS, 9.9 million
10. "Law & Order: SVU," NBC, 9.3 million