• by Wayne Friedman , July 2, 2007

It was too little, too late for NBC and "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip."

NBC's highly touted "Studio 60" finally showed some uptick in its ratings -- all for its series finale. The 2.0 ratings among 18-49 viewers was the show's best numbers since February, when the drama mysteriously took a dive and earned a place on NBC's renewal list of question-mark shows.

"Studio 60" was up 11% over the week before. Still, critics now say while the writing was good, creator Aaron Sorkin still leaned heavily on the political and the preachy -- too familiar terrain to his lauded "West Wing" series.

Even then, NBC could only muster an average preliminary 2.1 rating/7 share for Thursday night, good enough to grab second-place.

Fox still reigned as No. 1, thanks to its two continuing sturdy reality shows: "So You Think You Can Dance?" with its 3.4 rating, and "Are You Smarter than a Fifth Grader?" with a 2.9. For the night, Fox grabbed a 3.1 rating/10 share.

CBS was just behind NBC for the night with a 2.0/7. CBS' highlight was a 2.5 rating for a repeat of "CSI." Its reality show "Pirate Master" is still picking up low-value booty, only a 1.6 number.

Univison outpaced ABC with a 1.4/4 for fourth place. Its "Destilando Amor" grabbed a 1.6, and its "Aqui y Ahora" took a 1.4.

ABC's repeats of "Grey's Anatomy," "Ugly Betty" and "Men in Trees" could barely get register, with a 1.2, 1.0 and 1.1 ratings, respectively. ABC average for the night was a 1.1/3 ahead of CW's 0.7/3.