• by Ken Liebeskind , August 29, 2001

A major sex scandal involving a Washington politician knocked Millionaire off the top of the Nielsen list last week. ABC's Primetime Thursday, featuring an interview with Gary Condit, who discussed his relationship with Chandra Ann Levy, the Washington intern who has been missing since April, was the big winner. The program earned a 29 share, with 17.2 percent of U.S. households tuned in, numbers that dwarf any other show last week, and any episode of Milllionaire in its history, for that matter.

For the week of Aug. 20-26 CBS's 60 Minutes placed second, followed by three episodes of ABC's Millionaire. The rest of the top 10 featured Everybody Loves Raymond (CBS), Will & Grace (NBC), Law and Order (NBC), Millionaire again and Friends (NBC).

The week's cable leaders were WWF Entertainment (TNN), which earned the top two slots, followed by NFL Preseason football (ESPN), Pepsi 400 (TNT), Prime movie Vows of Deception (Lif), Movie UPO (USA), Prime movie Before He Wakes (Lif), Wild Thornberry's movie (Nick), Sunday movie Burden of Proof (Lif) and Nascar Preview (TNT).

The top syndicated shows were Wheel of Fortune, Jeopardy, Oprah Winfrey Show, Entertainment Tonight, Judge Judy, Seinfeld weekend, Friends, Frasier, Seinfeld and Wheel of Fortune weekend.

Thanks to Primetime Thursday, ABC led the way with a 12 share and 6.9 household rating for the week, followed by ABC (10, 5.4), NBC (9, 5.1) and Fox (7, 4.0).

Complete Top 10:

1. "Primetime Thursday," ABC, 17.2, 17.5 million homes.

2. "60 Minutes," CBS, 9.8, 10.0 million homes.

2. "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire-Thursday," ABC, 9.8, 10.0 million homes.

4. "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire-Sunday," ABC, 9.7, 10.0 million homes.

5. "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire-Tuesday," ABC, 9.5, 9.7 million homes.

6. "Everybody Loves Raymond," CBS, 9.0, 9.2 million homes.

7. "Will & Grace," NBC, 8.5, 8.6 million homes.

8. "Law and Order," NBC, 8.4, 8.6 million homes.

9. "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire-Friday," ABC, 8.2, 8.4 million homes.

10. "Friends," NBC, 8.0, 8.2 million homes.