CBS has started May sweeps off with a bang, regardless of an interruption by President Bush. For those unaware, May sweeps is a brief period of time every year when networks bring out their best episodes in hopes of garnering the most viewers between ages 18 and 49 as they get ready to establish ad rates. Last night marked the first night of sweeps, with George Bush addressing the nation from 8-9PM, taking away one important hour. All networks but ABC promptly abandoned Bush at precisely 9PM, even though he was in mid-sentence at the time.
The 8PM hour was won by CBS’ coverage of the George Bush address with a 9.5 rating (15 million viewers), numbers boosted by West Coast viewers who were watching ‘Survivor: Palau’ during this regularly scheduled timeslot. NBC was second with 4.8/8, followed by ABC and Fox with their similar coverage. UPN came in fifth with ‘WWE SmackDown!’ (3.0/5) and the WB brought up the rear at 2.7/4. CBS won the 9PM hour with ‘Survivor: Palau’ scoring a 7.8 rating (21.2 million viewers), followed by NBC’s ‘The Apprentice’ (5.5/12.4), and Fox’s ‘The Simple Life: Interns’ (1.6/3.6). CBS continued their winning ways at 10PM with ‘CSI’ (8.3/23.7), followed by NBC’s ‘ER’ (6.6/14.5), and ABC’s ‘Primetime Live’ (2.0/6.5).