• by Wayne Friedman , December 15, 2006

Reality shows airing finales out of the November sweeps period have scored. Early in the week, CBS did well with "Amazing Race." Now, it's NBC's turn with "The Biggest Loser."

The third season of the program, "The Biggest Loser 3" won its two-hour time period as well as giving NBC a win for Wednesday night. In fact, it was the second-best-rated show on the night. "Loser" won with a Nielsen preliminary 4.8 rating/13 share in adults 18-49. For the night, NBC earned a leading 4.4/12.

The only other network contender for the night was CBS. "King of Queens" pulled down a 3.2/9; "Criminal Minds" improved on that to a 4.7/12; and "CSI: NY" went higher with a 4.9/14. All this had CBS just missing out on beating NBC, coming in with a 4.3/12.

Other networks were well behind the leaders. Fox aired an original and a repeat of "Bones, which gave it a 2.6/7 number for the night.

ABC sank lower--none of its shows topped a 2.0 rating. "Show Me The Money" and "Day Break" continue to trend down, with a 1.6/5 and a 1.4/4, respectively. The network's 10 p.m. hour "Primetime: Basic Instinct" didn't do much better at a 1.8/5.

Univision, with 1.4/4, and the CW, with a 1.0/3, brought up the rear.