• by October 10, 2001

NBC routed other networks for the second straight week with its Wednesday dramas, "The West Wing" and "Law and Order," drawing the biggest audiences in their history.

"The West Wing" opened its third season with a special episode written after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Nielsen Media Research said that an estimated 25.2 million people tuned in.

The legal drama "Law and Order" has been flourishing in the ratings even though it just opened its 12th year on the air. Helped last week by its "The West Wing" lead-in, "Law and Order" had 22.5 million viewers.

For the second week in a row, NBC's "Friends" was the most popular prime-time show. It also had 30 million viewers two consecutive weeks for the first time since 1996.

This week, however, CBS premieres the third edition of "Survivor" in the same time slot. Viewers didn't buy the "Survivor" preview special last week; it drew one-third the "Friends" audience.

Second-place CBS was hurt by the cancellation of Sunday night's Emmy Awards ceremony. CBS also had the dubious distinction of the new season's first series cancellation - the Friday night comedy, "Danny," which lasted only two episodes.

For the week, NBC averaged 13.2 million viewers in prime-time (8.9 rating, 14 share), CBS had 11 million viewers (7.5, 12), ABC had 9.8 million viewers (6.6, 11), Fox had 6.9 million (4.5, 7), UPN had 5.7 million (3.5, 6), the WB had 2.8 million (2.6, 4) and Pax TV had 1.4 million (0.9, 2).

NBC's "Nightly News" won the evening news ratings race with 10.5 million viewers (7.5 rating, 16 share). ABC's "World News Tonight" had 10 million viewers (7.3, 15) and the "CBS Evening News" had 9.1 million (6.6, 14).

A ratings point represents 1,055,000 households, or 1 percent of the nation's estimated 105.5 million TV homes. The share is the percentage of in-use televisions tuned to a given show.

For the week of Oct. 1-7, the top 10 shows, their networks and ratings: "Friends," NBC, 18.9; "ER," NBC, 17.4; "The West Wing," NBC, 16.3; "Law and Order," NBC, 15.0; "Everybody Loves Raymond," CBS, 14.6; "Inside Schwartz," NBC, 13.0; "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," CBS, 12.6; "Will & Grace," NBC, 12.6; "Becker," CBS, 12.0; "Judging Amy," CBS, 11.2; "Monday Night Football: San Francisco vs. N.Y. Jets," ABC, 11.2.

- The Associated Press