"CSI," "Lucy" Lucky for CBS

Maybe if Tim Allen were a redhead...

In a May sweeps nostalgia contest pitting Home Improvement against I Love Lucy, the show with the henna-haired one won.

Lucy, CBS' three-hour biopic about sitcom queen Lucille Ball and her pioneering, if philandering, hubby, Desi Arnaz, bested the Allen-hosted A User's Guide to Home Improvement in a Sunday night showdown. Lucy averaged 12.9 million viewers (21st place); Allen's possibly premature retrospective (his show just ended in 1999) racked up 11.3 million (34th place), per Nielsen Media Research.

Thanks to Lucy, but mostly because of top-rated CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (22.7 million), CBS was again the most-watched network, averaging 11.8 million viewers for the sweeps week ended Sunday.

NBC ran second in total viewers (11.4 million), but reigned among the demographically desirable, narrowly edging Fox, which averaged 9.7 million all-aged eyeballs.

Among frisky types with disposable incomes (aka 18- to 49-year-olds), CBS ran third, tying with lowly ABC, fourth for the week in total viewers (8.7 million).

Despite the usual sweeps stunts--teen queen Hilary Duff popping up on ABC's George Lopez (53rd place, 8.3 million); Dr. Phil stopping by NBC's Frasier (37th place, 11.1 million); Matt Lauer chatting up Madonna on Tuesday's Dateline NBC (50th place, 8.7 million)--it was the usual shows that clicked.

In short: American Idol, American Idol, Friends, Friends and, of course, CSI.

Fox's double dose of A.I. averaged 20.3 million viewers. Tuesday's Neil Sedaka-rocking performance show brought in 20.4 million (second place); Wednesday's elimination show in which Ruben Studdard came thisclose to being eliminated (but Trenyce actually was) shocked 20.2 million (third place).

NBC's double dose of Friends averaged 18.1 million. The sitcom's standard 8 p.m., Thursday outing drew 19 million (fifth place). Its non-standard 8:39 p.m., Thursday installment (in place of Scrubs) enticed another 17.2 million (10th place).

Elsewhere:

The second-season closer of ABC's Alias, going head-to-head with the second hour of Lucy, kicked butt with 10 million viewers (38th place). Fox's Mr. Personality pooped out in 61st place (7.7 million viewers). That's down from the 12.2 million the Monica Lewinsky-hosted show suckered in for its April 21 premiere in a golden time slot following an American Idol special. ABC, which has cooked up a number of reality TV turkeys (Are You Hot?, The Family, All American Girl), is getting a lift out of Extreme Makeover. Airing in the 10 p.m., Wednesday time slot after The Bachelor, the image-is-everything series looked good in 35th place with 11.3 million viewers. The Bachelor, meanwhile, piled it on The West Wing. In the same week NBC's presidential drama lost its behind-the-scenes chief executives (Aaron Sorkin and Thomas Schlamme), the series got bypassed by ABC's single guy, 13.2 million viewers (19th place) to 13.3 million viewers (18th place).

In the battle of the netlets, the WB, led by Smallville (74th place, 6.5 million), distanced itself from UPN, averaging 4.1 million viewers to 3.4 million.

UPN distinguished itself with the least-watched non-Pax network show of the week--a Friday night airing of the 2000 movie, Love and Basketball (108th place, 1.9 million viewers).

Here's a rundown of the 10 most-watched shows for the week ended Sunday, according to Nielsen Media Research:

1. CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, CBS, 22.7 million
2. American Idol (Tuesday), Fox, 20.4 million
3. American Idol (Wednesday), Fox, 20.2 million
4. ER, NBC, 19.5 million
5. Friends (8 p.m.), NBC, 19 million
6. Law & Order , NBC, 18.1 million
7. Everybody Loves Raymond, CBS, 17.9 million
8. Survivor: Amazon, CBS, 17.7 million
9. CSI: Miami, CBS, 17.182 million
10. Friends (8:39 p.m.), NBC, 17.179 million