CBS and Fox fight for No. 1 spot

NEW YORK -- With a week to go in the February ratings "sweeps" period, Fox is poised for its first-ever victory among television viewers ages 18 to 49.\nCBS is leading among all viewers during this period, where ratings are watched closely to set advertising rates, with Fox and NBC neck-and-neck for second. The "sweeps" period ends Feb. 26.\nBut youth-obsessed television executives take a keen interest in the 18- to 49-year-old rankings, since it's the demographic most craved by advertisers. And Fox has never won a ratings "sweep" before in this category, or among total viewers.\n"Just a few months ago, they were dead in the water," Marc Berman, a television analyst for Media Week Online, said Wednesday. "This is a big victory for them. Big, huge, phenomenal."\nLast week's ratings show how Fox has done it: "Joe Millionaire," with 24 million viewers, was second only to CBS' "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation." Two "American Idol" episodes were in the ratings Top 20, along with a special episode of "The Simpsons" and a "Married With Children" reunion.\nFox still has another "Joe Millionaire" left for next week, and is airing ratings-king Michael Jackson's response to the highly rated British documentary that aired on ABC.\nAmong total viewers, CBS won last week behind "CSI" and the return of "Survivor," which proved its potency by drawing more than 23 million viewers.\nABC's "Are You Hot?" reality series debuted to a middling 10 million viewers last Thursday. But in a sign of how TV times have changed, it was still watched by more people than NBC's new showcase drama "Kingpin."\nFor the week, CBS averaged 13.6 million viewers (8.9 rating, 14 share), NBC had 12.3 million (8.0, 13), Fox had 11.9 million (7.0, 11), ABC had 9.9 million (6.2, 10), the WB had 4.5 million (2.8, 4), UPN had 3.5 million (2.3, 4) and Pax TV had 1.2 million (0.8, 1).\nNBC's "Nightly News" won the evening news ratings race, averaging 11.7 million viewers (8.3 rating, 16 share). ABC's "World News Tonight" was second, averaging 11.2 million viewers (7.9, 15) and the "CBS Evening News" had 9.3 million (6.5, 12).\nA ratings point represents 1,067,000 households, or 1 percent of the nation's estimated 106.7 million TV homes. The share is the percentage of in-use televisions tuned to a given show.\nFor the week of Feb. 10-16, the top 10 shows, their networks and ratings: "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," CBS, 16.7; "Joe Millionaire," Fox, 14.2; "ER," NBC, 13.8; "Friends," NBC, 13.5; "Survivor: Amazon," CBS, 13.3; "Friends" special, NBC, 12.4; "Law & Order," NBC, 12.3; "Will & Grace," NBC, 12.1; "CSI: Miami," CBS, 11.5; "American Idol-Tuesday," Fox, 11.4.