Friends beats up Big Brother

Another Friends rerun outrated Big Brother again among the 18-49 crowd, in a continuing trend.

Repeats of the popular sitcom have consistently topped the second summer run of CBS's reality show, which seems to have found a modest core audience. Friends hit a 4.3 rating, 15 share with 9.8 million viewers in Nielsen fast national numbers to Big Brother's 3.5/12 with 8.7 million viewers in its first half-hour. Big Brother averaged a 3.7/13 with 9.1 million viewers - its typical audience thus far - rising to a 3.9/13 with 9.5 million takers for its second half-hour. That tied it with NBC's Candid Camera-like reality entry, Spy TV, which scored a 3.9/13 with 8.4 million viewers in that same slot.

A C.S.I. rerun drew 10.8 million viewers in Big Brother's wake. ABC's Who Wants To Be a Millionaire? drew 12.7 million viewers as the night's single biggest draw. - Richard Tedesco