‘CSI’ Leads CBS to Fifth Consecutive Weekly Win

The holiday season kicked off with its usual mix of reruns and specials, while solid ratings for a college football game and the continued strength of “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” and “Everybody Loves Raymond” paced CBS to its fifth consecutive weekly victory, based on viewing estimates issued Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research.

Tune-in for the SEC championship game, which helped determine who will play for college football’s national title, was the highest since 1998, scoring a significant improvement over CBS’ Saturday night average.

With “ER” a rerun, meanwhile, “CSI” topped the charts for the first time, while a “Raymond” repeat trounced an original “Ally McBeal,” which slipped to its lowest rating this season and, in another first, trailed a “Becker” repeat in its second half-hour. “Ally’s” audience fell more than 20% below lead-in “Boston Public,” another David E. Kelley production.

Despite ABC’s woes elsewhere, “NYPD Blue” booked its second-highest rating this season, which--with “Judging Amy” preempted by the miniseries “Jack and the Beanstalk”--helped struggling new drama “Philly” attract its biggest audience since premiering in September. Fox also received a boost on Dec. 4 from the Billboard Music Awards, the network’s most watched special in more than a year.

--Brian Lowry