• by Wayne Friedman , May 17, 2010

The final Sunday in the May sweeps ended up giving CBS two top results: Best-rated show of the night and most-watched network overall.

Nielsen preliminary results show that CBS won among 18-49 viewers on Sunday with a 3.4 rating/10 share. CBS' "Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains" finale took in a 4.2/12 for a special two-hour edition.

Because of the extended "Survivor," the show ran head-to head against ABC's "Desperate Housewives," which had been winning Sunday nights. In the 9 p.m. to 10 p.m. time slot, "Housewives" earned a 4.0/10 against "Survivor"'s 4.3/11.

The bad news: both shows' finales were down versus 2009. "Survivor," however, was down just 2%, while "Housewives" sank 17%.

Better news for ABC came with other shows. At 8 p.m., "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" was up 32% week-to-week with a 2.9/9; and at 10 p.m., "Brothers & Sisters" also earned a 2.9/9 -- up 16% from the week before, but down 3% versus last year's finale.

Even against this, Fox seemed to be holding its own -- perhaps because its mostly young-skewing, male-animated comedies don't compete against older female viewer-type shows, which the other networks target. Fox was half a rating point behind ABC with a 2.4/7 among 18-49 viewers.

With all the finales, NBC's "Celebrity Apprentice" at 10 p.m. got clipped, down 21% to a 2.4/7. Combined with a two-hour "2010 Miss USA Pageant," which earned a slim 1.4/4 (about the same versus a year ago), NBC got to a 1.9/5.

After NBC, Univision was at a 0.9/3, a bit lower than against other Sundays.