• by Ken Liebeskind , July 11, 2001

As the summer drags on, the Nielsen ratings do, too, with ABC's Millionaire remaining at the top of the heap for the third consecutive week. For the week of July 2 to 8, Millionaire Sunday and Thursady ranked one and two with household shares of 9.4 and 8.1.

It took the NBA Finals to displace Millionaire three weeks ago, but with no other special programming since, Millionaire has regained top billing.

ABC's 20/20 and NBC's Weakest Link tied for third, followed by Millionaire Tue, CBS's CSI, CBS's 60 Minutes, CBS's Everybody Loves Raymond and NBC's Friends.

The three major networks all scored a ten share to tie for the week, followed by Fox with seven.

Rush Hour led the way among cable shows, scoring one and three. WWF Entertainment scored two and four. The rest of the top 10 was all movies, including TBS Prime Movie Lethal Weapon, TBS Movie Sunday Above the Law and four other Sunday movies.

Wheel of Fortune was the top syndicated show, followed by Jeopardy, Oprah Winfrey Show, Entertainment Tonight, Judge Judy and Friends. Seinfeld, Frasier and Wheel of Fortune followed.

Prime-time ratings compiled by Nielsen Media Research for July 2-8 are as follows. Top 20 listings include the week's ranking, with rating for the week and season-to-date rankings in parentheses.

An "X" in parentheses denotes a one-time-only presentation. The rating is the percentage of the nation's estimated 102.2 million TV homes. Each ratings point represents 1,022,000 households.

1. (9) "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire-Sunday," ABC, 9.4, 9.6 million homes.

2. (10) "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire-Thursday," ABC, 8.1, 8.2 million homes.

3. (35) "20/20-Friday," ABC, 7.9, 8.0 million homes.

3. (32) "Weakest Link," NBC, 7.9, 8.0 million homes.

5. (5) "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire-Tuesday," ABC, 7.8, 8.0 million homes.

6. (12) "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," CBS, 7.6, 7.7 million homes.

7. (17) "60 Minutes," CBS, 7.4, 7.5 million homes.

7. (6) "Everybody Loves Raymond," CBS, 7.4, 7.6 million homes.

9. (6) "Friends," NBC, 7.1, 7.3 million homes.

10. (60) "48 Hours," CBS, 6.8, 7.0 million homes.

11. (38) "48 Hours-Monday," CBS, 6.6, 6.8 million homes.

12. (63) "Fear Factor," NBC, 6.4, 6.6 million homes.

13. (25) "Law and Order: Special Victim's Unit," NBC, 6.3, 6.5 million homes.

14. (18) "Becker," CBS, 6.2, 6.4 million homes.

14. (32) "CBS Sunday Movie: A Father for Brittany," CBS, 6.2, 6.3 million homes.

16. (X) "Daytona 400: Nascar: Winston Cup," NBC, 6.1, 6.2 million homes.

16. (21) "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire-Friday," ABC, 6.1, 6.2 million homes.

18. (36) "60 Minutes II," CBS, 6.0, 6.1 million homes.

18. (60) "Spy TV," NBC, 6.0, 6.1 million homes.

18. (16) "Will & Grace," NBC, 6.0, 6.2 million homes.