Cincinnati loves Friends' Joey and Rachel more than Lillian Morris and Survivor? Is it possible?

Strong ratings for the Friends final season premiere Thursday here dropped Channel 12's Survivor: Pearl Islands ratings by 26 percent, and knocked Cincinnati out of first place in the national overnight ranking.

Survivor, with contestant Morris from Deerfield Township, averaged a 20.3 rating here 8-9 p.m. Thursday, down from 27.6 for last week's premiere. One ratings point equals 8,542 TV homes here.

NBC's 45-minute Friends premiere, which continued the Joey-Rachel (Matt LeBlanc, Jennifer Aniston) romance, averaged an 18.6 rating on Channel 5, matching the national average. However, from 8-8:30 p.m., the sitcom averaged more viewers (18.6 rating) here than Survivor (18.15 rating).

Cincinnati finished third in the overnight Survivor ratings behind Portland, Ore. (20.6) and Seattle (20.4). All three were far above CBS' national Survivor average (11.9).Cincinnati has been No. 1 for most episodes since January 2001.

John Kiesewetter