• by November 2, 2000

By Anya Khait

CBS has sold 80% of its ad inventory for its Super Bowl Sunday at record rates, and expects to approach Fox's $150 million windfall for the big game in 1999. Spots for the 2001 Super Bowl on Jan. 28 are going for $2.3 million to $2.4 million per 30-second ad, according to Joe Abruzzese, president of CBS Network Sales, who says the network expects to be 90% sold by Thanksgiving. And it's giving thanks for its "Survivor II" ad inventory, which is also 80% sold. The Super Bowl is the lead-in for the initial episode. Annheiser-Busch, Reebok, General Motors, Target, Pepsi, Frito Lay and Visa are all corporate sponsors for the second round of the reality series, set in the Australian outback this time around.

CBS's big January sales payday will be fueled, in part, by a long lead-in for the big game, beginning its pre-game telecast at noon. ABC reaped about $130 million for last year's Super Bowl, starting its pre-game at 2 p.m. The other difference from last year will be the diminished profile of dot-com advertisers. There are only six in CBS's Super Bowl package thus far. Abruzesse expects the final count to be 10 dot-coms, a considerable drop from the 19 Web companies waving their flags last year at rates of $2.2 million per spot.

CBS has given full-season orders on five of its seven new series, including Bette Midler's new sitcom "Bette." The network has also ordered the back-nine episodes of comedy "Yes, Dear" and dramas "The District," "CSI" and "The Fugitive." All five had 13 episode commitments from CBS to start the season and now will reach 22 by the end of the season. The only two shows now given additional commitments were comedy "Welcome to New York" and drama "That's Life."

CBS execs say they are going to wait a few more weeks before deciding to bring both of those series back for the second half of the season. All five shows given the green-light for more production have improved their time periods in adults 18-49, including "Bette" which has averaged a 4.7/14 in the demo since its debut (up 96% vs. the Wednesday 8 p.m. ET/PT time period average a year ago), according to Nielsen Media Research.

Fox's "Dark Angel" didn't look quite so bright in its post-World Series return, pulling a 4.9 rating, 12 share among adults 18-49 in Nielsen fast national numbers. In total viewers, the sci-fi entry lost nearly six million viewers from its previous episode two weeks earlier. NBC's much maligned "Michael Richards Show" lost nearly three million viewers off last week, hitting a 4.5/14. "Third Rock" didn't rock either, following with a 4.2/12. But NBC won the night, with "Frasier" drawing 18.8 million viewers and an 8.6/21 among the 18-49ers, with "Just Shoot Me" hitting a 7.1/17 with 14.5 million viewers.

Among other new entries, Fox's "Titus" tilted down with a 4.0/11, while CBS's "Geena Davis Show" showed signs of life with a 4.9/12. ABC's "Once & Again" hit a 4.6/12. Meanwhile, ABC mainstay "Who Wants To Be a Millio