See Also: 'Fur And Loathing' Episode Guide

CBS was crowned the winner on the first night of November sweeps.

CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, aided by its Thursday night partners, Survivor and Without a Trace, squashed the eye network's chief competitor, NBC, by eight percent, Mediaweek reported. CBS was also up nine percent overall from the same night last year.

"Fur and Loathing" was the most popular programme of the evening, with the CSI episode scoring a 19.8 rating / 29 share. This means approximately 19.8 percent of American households with television sets were tuned into CSI, while the episode was viewed by 29 percent of households watching television at the time. These figures are up from last week's "Feeling the Heat", which scored an overnight rating of 19.4/27 (story).

NBC made use of a common sweeps technique to lure more viewers: "super-sized" editions of its popular comedies Will & Grace and Scrubs. But with ratings of 12.6/18 and 9.2/13, they couldn't overcome CSI's stranglehold on the 9:00 p.m. time period. ABC's Extreme Makeover was third in the timeslot with a 6.3/9.

At 10:00 p.m., the medics and FBI agents were back for another round in the ring. ER once again prevailed with a 15.5/23 compared to Without a Trace's second-place 12.9/20. But ER was only 20 percent ahead out Without a Trace on Thursday, compared to a whopping 54 percent last year, with media analyst Marc Berman crediting the CSI lead-in for the gains.

CBS finished in first place overall with a 15.0/22, followed by NBC on 13.9/20. The other networks are mere spectators to the Thursday night battle royale, with third-place ABC scoring a 6.0/9. UPN (4.1/6) finished in fourth on the strength of WWE Smackdown, while FOX and the WB brought up the rear.

The original ratings report can be found here at Mediaweek.

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