Frosty Ices Justin

As a member of 'N Sync, Justin Timberlake vied with the Backstreet Boys for the youth nation's hearts and impressionable minds. As a solo artist, he faces even more formidable competition.

Perhaps none more formidable, or cooler, than Frosty the Snowman.

Put simply, the animated iceman cometh down hard on Timberlake in a head-to-head holiday-TV-ratings showdown, per Nielsen Media Research.

CBS' back-to-back airings of 1969's Frosty the Snowman (39th place, 10.1 million viewers) and its 1990s sequel, Frosty Returns (41st place, 9.9 million), froze out the former boybander's NBC special, Justin Timberlake: Down Home in Memphis (95th place, 3.7 million). The cartoons aired opposite Timberlake in the 8-9 p.m., Friday, time slot.

Timberlake didn't just take it on the pretty chin to the jolly, happy soul; he also lost a personal numbers battle with ex-girlfriend Britney Spears. Spears' own network special, airing November 17 on ABC, was watched by roughly 45 percent more viewers.

Aided by Frosty's pluck, CBS didn't break a sweat in the TV week ended Sunday. It had the most viewers (averaging 13.3 million), the most demographically desirable types (consumers aged 18-49) and the most shows in the Top 10 (eight). On Tuesday, CBS summed up its clean sweep with a spirited press release titled "Holy Crap!"

Elsewhere:

More than 20 million witnessed the final tribal council of pharmaceutical sales rep Tijuana Bradley on CBS' Survivor: Pearl Islands, the week's most-watched show.

Rob Lowe's The Lyons Den was welcomed back to prime time--barely. The freshman lawyer series, benched for the November sweeps, was watched by just 7 million (63rd place) and buried by Sunday-night rival The Practice on ABC (10.8 million, 33rd place).

Last week, NBC Entertainment president Jeff Zucker told reporters Lowe's series was retooled in its downtime because "clearly people weren't responding to the storytelling."

Mike Wallace's Barbara Walters-like extraction of tears from former pro-football great Lawrence Taylor helped 60 Minutes to a fourth-place finish, with 19.14 million viewers.

The stunt casting that was Denise Richards' appearance on real-life husband Charlie Sheen's Two and a Half Men produced the desired effect for CBS--fifth place, 17.1 million.

A 90-minute "family" edition of NBC's Fear Factor, proving that the family that eats bugs together stays and/or retches together, scared up 15 million viewers (10th place).

Trista and Ryan's Wedding, ABC's short-run reality series documenting Bachelorette Trista Rehn's nuptials to Ryan Sutter, debuted to solid numbers--21st place, 12.1 million.
The Justin Guarini-free An American Idol Christmas was a high note for the struggling Fox--32nd place, 10.9 million.

Country-crossover queen Shania Twain had better luck in the network-special business than Timberlake. Her Up Close, also airing on NBC, was watched by 9 million (50th place). The Harry Connick Jr. special, Harry for the Holidays, airing on Thanksgiving, was a bit of a turkey for NBC--68th place, 6.8 million.

Overall, NBC placed a distant second to CBS, averaging 9.8 million viewers, followed by ABC (9 million) and Fox (7.3 million).

UPN again topped the WB, 3.7 million to 3.5 million. UPN got a boost from The Stone Cold Truth (101st place, 2.9 million), an hourlong tribute to the WWE wrestler.

The week's least-watched show was a Thursday night repeat of the WB's Jamie Kennedy Experiment (116th place, 1.6 million), while the week's least-watched hyped show likely was Sunday's premiere of The Reagans on Showtime.

The pay-cable network reiterated Tuesday that it doesn't talk numbers, but as the Washington Post pointed out, perhaps that's because there's not much to talk about.

According to the paper, The Reagans, the controversial biopic about Ronald and Nancy Reagan bumped last month by CBS, boosted Showtime's prime-time Sunday performance by about 80 percent in the nation's 56 biggest TV markets. The previous weekend, the Post said, the network averaged 441,000 viewers. That means it's possible that, even after all the headlines and hand-wringing, The Reagans was watched by about as many people (roughly 790,000) as a rerun of the old CBS show Early Edition on Pax.

Well, not everyone can be Frosty.

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

1. Survivor: Pearl Islands, CBS, 20.1 million viewers
2. CSI: Miami, CBS, 19.7 million viewers
3. Everybody Loves Raymond, CBS, 19.15 million viewers
4. 60 Minutes, CBS, 19.14 million viewers
5. Two and a Half Men, CBS, 17.1 million viewers
6. CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (9 p.m., Thursday), CBS, 16.6 million viewers
7. Cold Case, CBS, 16.5 million viewers
8. CBS Sunday Movie: Finding John Christmas, CBS, 16.2 million viewers
9. NFL Monday Night Football, ABC, 15.9 million viewers
10. Fear Factor, NBC, 15 million viewers
10. King of Queens, CBS, 15 million viewers