TV: 'Dinotopia' Becomes Extinct

It was a bad week for fake dinosaurs but a great one for liposuction on ABC.

The network's Thursday night series "Dinotopia" is now extinct after four weeks. In its final showing last week, the elaborate fantasy show with recreations of dinosaurs attracted only 4.1 million viewers.

Yet ABC may have found a winner in "Extreme Makeover," a show that took three people and drastically changed their appearances with plastic surgery, dental work, tummy tucks and stylist makeovers.

Placed in the same Wednesday time slot previously occupied by "The Bachelor," the show finished in the Nielsen Media Research top 20 with 13.2 million viewers. ABC scheduled an immediate rerun for this Wednesday.

ABC is considering bringing more editions of the show back, either as specials or a regular series.

In the holiday special category, "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" proved last week's champ with 12.3 million viewers on CBS. Another perennial, "A Charlie Brown Christmas," was seen by just under 8 million people on ABC.

Meanwhile, CBS and NBC continued their usual tight competition for the week's top spot. CBS had 12.07 million viewers (7.8 rating, 13 share), and NBC had 12.04 million viewers for the week (7.9 rating, 13 share). NBC's rating was slightly higher because more people were watching alone in their homes.

CBS' "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" was the week's most popular show, with just under 26 million viewers. NBC's "ER" was second.

ABC averaged 9.1 million viewers for the week (6.0 rating, 10 share), Fox had 8.4 million (5.1, 8), the WB 3.7 million (2.3, 4), UPN 3.2 million (2.1, 3) and Pax TV 1.3 million (0.9, 1).

"NBC Nightly News" won the evening news race, averaging 10.9 million viewers (7.7 rating, 15 share). ABC's "World News Tonight" had 10.5 million viewers (7.4, 14) and "The CBS Evening News" had 8.4 million (6, 11).

A ratings point represents 1,067,000 households, or 1 percent of the nation's estimated 106.7 million TV homes. The share is the percentage of in-use televisions tuned to a given show.

For the week of Dec. 9-15, the top 10 shows, their networks and household ratings: "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," CBS, 16.1; "ER," NBC, 14.7; "Friends," NBC, 14.5; "Law & Order," NBC, 13.0; "Everybody Loves Raymond," CBS, 12.2; "Survivor: Thailand," CBS, 11.1; "Monday Night Football: Chicago at Miami," ABC, 10.7; "Scrubs," NBC, 10.7; "Will & Grace," NBC, 10.7; "The West Wing," NBC, 10.2.