Survivor: All-Stars triumphantly returned to CBS' Thursday night lineup following two weeks of pre-emptions for coverage of the NCAA Men's Basketball Championship, blowing away another "viewer's choice" repeat episode of NBC's Friends and handily winning its time period in all key ratings measurements.
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According to final Nielsen ratings for April 1, Survivor: All-Stars finished first in households (12.6/20), total viewers (21.69 million), and both the Adults 25-54 (9.9/25) and Adults 18-49 (8.3/23) demographics.
Survivor won both half-hours in households, total viewers, Adults 18-49 and Adults 25-54. In a possible preview of just how weakly NBC's Will & Grace might perform next fall when it has to air without the benefit of new Friends episodes as a lead-in, Survivor grew even stronger against a first-run Will & Grace at 8:30PM, posting strong growth in all categories -- 9% in households (13.2/20 from 12.1/19), 13% in adults 25-54 (10.5/25 from 9.3/24), 13% in adults 18-49 (8.8/23 from 7.8/22) and adding 2.55 million viewers (22.96m from 20.41m).
For the night, CBS was first in households (13.5/21), total viewers (22.09 million), Adults 25-54 (9.7/23) and second in Adults 18-49 (7.9/21, -0.3 behind NBC).