LOS ANGELES - A new edition of the CBS ``reality'' sensation ``Survivor'' won television's showdown of the season, beating NBC's hit sitcom ``Friends'' and a special weeknight block of ``Saturday Night Live,'' ratings figures showed on Friday.
The triumph of ``Survivor: The Australian Outback,'' on Thursday gives CBS a new foothold on what has become America's biggest TV night, long dominated by rival NBC's ``Must-See'' TV lineup of glossy comedies and its acclaimed hospital drama, ``ER.''
The battle kicked off the key February ``sweeps,'' one of three month-long periods when networks go all out to attract viewers while extensive ratings data is collected in more than 200 markets to help local TV stations set advertising rates.
While ``Survivor'' scored a comfortable victory over its direct competition in the 8-to-9 p.m. hour, ``Friends'' still improved on its season average, and with the clout of ``ER'' carried NBC to an overall ratings win for the night.
Officials for CBS and NBC said both networks benefited from higher-than-normal viewership generated by publicity surrounding the ``Survivor'' vs. ``Friends'' contest.
``Survivor,'' which grew into a ratings monster and runaway media phenomenon during its inaugural summer run, debuted in its new 8 o'clock Thursday time slot after a post-Super Bowl season premiere Sunday.
Rising to the challenge, NBC aired an expanded 40-minute episode of ``Friends'' followed by a special 20-minute, all new prime-time edition of ``Saturday Night Live.'' It will do the same next week.
This week, the lure of ``Survivor'' proved more potent than ''Friends.''
For the 8 p.m. hour, CBS' cast of castaways drew an average audience of 29 million viewers, nearly 8 million more than NBC's ''Friends''/''SNL'' block, according to final figures from Nielsen Media Research.
``Survivor'' also outscored NBC in ratings for households (17.3 vs. 13.5) and among viewers aged 18-49, the all-important demographic most prized by advertisers (11.9 vs. 10.5).
Still, the performance of ``Friends'' surpassed its ratings average for the season so far, meaning the hit comedy also drew more viewers than usual.
Dave Poltrack, CBS executive vice president for planning and research, said Thursday's ratings are a sign that heavy promotion for ``Survivor'' and ``Friends'' generated bigger TV audiences overall. That translated into gains for both shows, with ''Survivor'' the bigger winner.
``Clearly, the audience (for ``Survivor'') wasn't coming from NBC,'' Poltrack said.
``The story from our perspective is that it has taken a night which was one of our weakest nights and made it into a night that will be arguably one of our strongest, or second-strongest nights, and that has changed our competitive position in the advertising marketplace,'' he said.
NBC officials dismissed suggestions that the success of ''Survivor'' signaled a threat to NBC's mastery of Thursday night television.
``It just proves the point that if you put great programming on, it's possible for more than one network to do extremely well,'' NBC spokesman Mike Nelson said.
Nearly lost in the hubbub over ``Survivor'' was another new CBS show that gained a beachhead on Thursday night -- the freshman crime show ``CSI: Crime Scene Investigation,'' which CBS moved from Friday nights.
In its new 9 p.m. Thursday berth, ``CSI'' beat NBC comedies ''Will & Grace (news - Y! TV Coverage)'' and ``Just Shoot Me'' in total viewers and household ratings (though the sitcoms did better in the 18-49 demographic) and edged out ABC's No. 1 show, ``Who Wants to Be a Millionaire (news - web sites),'' in all three categories
