Turns out CBS didn't need The Reagans. It had the Taylors.

In a week in which the Eyeball was to launch the November sweeps' most controversial program, its hastily canceled miniseries about Ronald and Nancy Reagan, CBS found comfort, absolutely no controversy and big ratings in The Andy Griffith Show.

Subtitled Back to Mayberry, the homespun, hourlong reunion featuring Ron "Opie" Howard, Don "Barney" Knotts, Jim "Gomer" Nabors and namesake star Andy Griffith was the most-watched, non-award-show special on broadcast network television in nearly two years, with 21.6 million viewers, including a surprising number of non-old ones (read: 18- to 49-year-olds), per Nielsen Media Research. Overall, the nostalgia trip ranked third among all shows for the TV week ended Sunday.

CBS handily won the week, averaging 14.1 million viewers, placing five shows in the Top 10 and brazenly declaring "our programs don't suck" (a swipe at NBC honcho Jeff Zucker's crack about viewers tuning out the fall shows because many "just sucked").

The network's "ratings rhapsody" (another CBS-ism) was recorded despite, or because of, its decision to pull The Reagans from its schedule and hand off the miniseries to Showtime, its pay-cable sister network. Opting to air repeats of top-ranked CSI's two-part season opener in the Sunday time slot earmarked for the first half of The Reagans, CBS was rewarded with 14 million viewers, nearly two million more eyeballs than it typically nets with its CBS Sunday Movie franchise. (On Tuesday, the network will go with repeats of Without a Trace and CSI: Miami to fill in for what would have been the concluding two hours of The Reagans. The miniseries will air on Showtime, in one, commercial-free block, on November 30.)

While just about everything CBS tried last week worked (with the exception of its 48 Hours Investigates interview with Little Rascal turned accused killer Robert Blake--60th place, 8.8 million viewers), everything that ABC tried didn't work quite as well.

A week after 8 Simple Rules' farewell to John Ritter's character drew 20.5 viewers, the retitled and rejiggered sitcom, up against the all-powerful Opie, et al., reverted to middling form: 38th place, 11.6 million viewers.

ABC would have taken middling from the 31st annual American Music Awards. Instead, it got the worst-ever ratings from the Grammys wannabe. While the network says 32 million viewers watched some or all of the three-hour, Jimmy Kimmel-ed telecast, the program's overall average of 12.8 million viewers was slightly off from last January's 12.9 million, the previous all-time low.

To be fair, the AMAs, airing for the first time in November instead of January, boosted, rather than brought down, the network. With a 24th place finish, it was ABC's most-watched entertainment program.

Elsewhere:

Diane Sawyer's 90-minute Primetime interview with Iraq war vet Jessica Lynch was watched by 15.7 million (13th place), nearly a million more viewers than sampled NBC's docudrama version of the Lynch saga the previous week. Tears or no, Britney Spears' own sitdown with Sawyer on Primetime Thursday couldn't climb higher than 40th place (11.4 million). A Matthew Perry visit to NBC's The West Wing (31st place, 12.42 million) helped the Oval Office drama close ground on ABC's The Bachelor (30th place, 12.45 million). ABC's Karen Sisco finished in 82nd place (6.7 million), prior to being finished off by the network for the calendar year. (The cop show will return in March in a new time period.) Apparently the Olsen Twins aren't so powerful, after all. The titans' TV-movie, The Challenge, landed ABC's vaunted Wonderful World of Disney franchise in the tragic kingdom--97th place, 4.8 million viewers.

NBC, led by ER (fourth place, 20.7 million), ran second in total viewers (averaging 11.2 million), and first among those sweeps-coveted 18- to 49-year-olds.

ABC held steady in third, averaging 10.4 million, and perked up to a second-place tie with CBS among car-buying desirables. Fox flailed in fourth in both categories, averaging 7.5 million.

Among the netlets, the WB outdrew UPN, 4.3 million to 3.8 million.

Freshman UPN comedy Rock Me Baby earned a full-season pickup on account of it's not doing as lousy on Tuesday nights as last season's Haunted, and presumably not so much on account of it finished in 111th place last week with a less-than-rocking 3.1 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, 29.3 million viewers
2. Survivor: Pearl Islands, CBS, 22.1 million viewers
3. The Andy Griffith Show Reunion: Back to Mayberry, CBS, 21.6 million viewers
4. ER, NBC, 20.7 million viewers
5. Friends (8 p.m., Thursday), NBC, 20.2 million viewers
6. Everybody Loves Raymond, CBS, 19.3 million viewers
7. Law & Order, NBC, 18.9 million viewers
8. Monday Night Football, CBS, 18.9 million viewers
9. CSI: Miami, CBS, 18.4 million viewers
10. Friends, NBC (8:33 p.m., Thursday), 18 million viewers