'CSI' Smacked Down By 'Friends'

See Also: 'Inside The Box' Episode Guide

CSI: Crime Scene Investigation lost its top ranking to Friends on Thursday as NBC won the night with its slate of season finales.

According to Zap2It, "Inside the Box", the CSI season finale, earned a 15.1 rating/24 share in the 9 p.m. hour. Those numbers mean that this week, approximately 15.1% of American households with television sets were tuned to "Inside the Box", and 24% of households watching television at the time had CSI on the screen.

These ratings are down very slightly from the overnights for "Play With Fire". CSI won its time slot, staving off competition from the end of Friends and Will & Grace, which averaged 14.0/22 for NBC. But the season finale of Friends ran past its usual timeslot for a total of 70 minutes, averaging 15.4/26 at 8 p.m. against a repeat of CSI's "The Hunger Artist" which scored 8.3/13.

Once the 9 p.m. CSI episode began airing, however, NBC could not hold its lead against CBS through the hour. ABC's basketball coverage trailed far behind at 5.5/9, with WWE Smackdown! in fourth.

ER returned the lead to NBC at 10 p.m. against Without a Trace, which brought in a 10.6/17 versus ER's 14.3/24.

The full overnight ratings are available at Zap2It. The numbers will change slightly when the total ratings are calculated next week.

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