• by Ken Liebeskind , May 8, 2002

Get out the broom. NBC took the early lead during May sweeps, thanks in part to its special 75th anniversary show on Sunday, which was the fourth highest ranked show for the week, watched by 20 million with a 19 share and a 7.6 household rating.

NBC had four of the top five shows for the week, with E.R., two episodes of Friends and the anniversary special following CBS's CSI, which was the top show, with a 23 share, 9.7 household and 26.1 million viewers.

Survivor (CBS), Law and Order (NBC), Everybody Loves Raymond (CBS), West Wing (NBC) and Third Watch (NBC) rounded out the top 10. Simpsons (Fox) was the only non-NBC/CBS show that made it into the top 25. It was 24th.

NBC lead the way, with a 16 share/9.7 household, followed by CBS, 13/8, ABC, 9/5.6 and Fox, 8/4.7.

The top cable shows for the most recent week were Osbournes (MTV), WWF RAM (TNN), Real World (MTV) and Spongebob (Nick). Osbournes had a 4.7 household wiht 4.9 million viewers.

Syndicated winners were Wheel of Fortune, Jeopardy, Friends, Seinfeld and Everybody Loves Raymond, with Wheel scoring an 8.5 household with 8.9 million viewers.

Turning to sports, it's almost all basketball with the NBA playoffs winning four of the top five spots for NBC, with Fox's Nascar Winston Cup taking the fifth spot. The basketball games scored 11 to 12 shares with households of 4 to 6.1. Nascar was 13/5.9.

In other TV news, WWF Entertainment, the wrestling show that has been a long time cable leader, is changing its name to World Wrestling Entertainment, dropping the F from the moniker because the World Wildlife Fund has it. The Wildlife fund registered WWF as a trademark in 1961 while WWF Entertainment began using it in 1998. It challenged a ruling in favor of the Wildlife fund in a London court recently, but lost.