"Sex" Sells One Last Time

Nothing like a little goodbye Sex.

Sunday's 45-minute Sex and the City series finale was seen off by a record 10.6 million Carrie & Co. devotees, Nielsen Media Research said Tuesday.

The episode was the most watched in the HBO comedy's six-year run. Typical episodes in Sex's final season averaged about 6 million.

Airing on pay cable (with a much smaller audience pool), Carrie Bradshaw's return to Manhattan--and Mr. Big--outdrew all broadcast network fare, save for two shows: ABC's Super Millionaire (14th place, 17.5 million viewers) and NBC's Law & Order: Criminal Intent (20th place, 14.1 million).

Super Millionaire, marking host Regis Philbin's return to prime time (but, alas, not to Mr. Big), was Sunday's most watched show, bringing about 10 million more to the time slot than Alias usually does.

The Philbin comeback continued Monday, where Super Millionaire, airing in the 10 p.m. hour, bested the penultimate episode of NBC's Average Joe: Hawaii, 12.3 million viewers to 10.5 million, ABC said. But the night's biggest, fattest winner was Fox's My Big Fat Obnoxious Fiancé, with 21.3 million checking out the reality-show's final punchline. (Results from Monday's contest will be reflected in next week's standings.)

Elsewhere in the TV week ended Sunday:

An evening of fairly awful singing dropped Fox's American Idol to its worst showing in the semi-final rounds. Still, bad is relative for the lofty Idol. More than 25 million suffered Tuesday's tone-deaf competition (second place); 22.1 million (sixth place) braved Wednesday's results episode.
Nearly 20 million watched aspiring mogul Tammy Lee finally pay for taking lunch on NBC's The Apprentice (eighth place).
Mel Gibson's Primetime interview (16th place, 17.1 million) was ABC's most watched newsmag since it showed Michael Jackson A documentary about Gibson's new film, The Passion of the Christ, lifted the lowly PAX above several first-run WB comedies, drawing 3.1 million (107th place).
A Simon Cowell-graced Simpsons on Fox did okay--nothing special--as the hard-to-please Idol judge might say (25th place, 12.6 million).
Meredith Phillips narrowed the rose-worthy field to two on ABC's The Bachelorette, and 11.3 million yawned (40th place).
Supermodel Angie Everhart--of course!--was revealed as the mole on the season closer of ABC's Celebrity Mole: Yucatan (57th place, 9 million). Professional train-wreck Dennis Rodman righted himself long enough to be declared the game's winner.
Another special guest star (Jonathan Taylor Thomas) dropped by ABC's 8 Simple Rules; more viewers dropped the show (down to 61st place, 8.3 million).
Absolutely no puns will be used to note that Fox's two-part Littlest Groom special was nothing special. Last week's opener drew just 7.5 million (73rd place). Monday's conclusion did a little better, up to 9.9 million viewers.
Fox's Great American Celebrity Spelling Bee entranced 4 million literacy-minded and/or couch-bound viewers, bad for 98th place.

Overall, CBS and NBC were sweeps victors again. CBS was the most watched network, averaging 13.6 million viewers. NBC was king among the demographically desirable. (It averaged 12.8 million viewers.)

Fox, with Idol but little else, ran third in viewers (9.7 million), and second in 18-to-49-year-olds. ABC, with Regis but nothing else, placed fourth in total viewers (9.2 million) and selected cool ones.

The catwalkers of America's Next Top Model (84th place, 6.4 million) helped lead UPN past the WB, 4.2 million viewers to 4 million.

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, 30.9 million viewers
2. American Idol (Tuesday), Fox, 25.2 million
3. Friends, NBC, 24.3 million
4. ER, NBC, 22.8 million
5. Survivor: All-Stars, CBS, 22.797 million
6. American Idol (Wednesday), Fox, 22.1 million
7. Without a Trace, CBS, 20.1 million
8. The Apprentice, NBC, 19.82 million
9. Everybody Loves Raymond, CBS, 19.8 million
10. CSI: Miami, CBS, 19.6 million