Don't go nuts just yet.

Yes, Jericho returned for its summer rerun run on CBS last week. And, yes, the back-from-the-dead series won its time slot. But the jury's still out on whether the show can add to its ranks of peanut-packing faithful.

Airing in the 9 p.m. Friday hour, Jericho averaged 4.6 million viewers, settling for a 51st-place finish in the holiday-weakened week, per the latest Nielsen Media Research rankings.

On the upside for Jericho fans, their beloved did in the summer what it couldn't do in the regular season: Beat the competition.

With the show's powerhouse nemeses, Dancing with the Stars and American Idol, on vacation, Jericho took care of business against a Las Vegas rerun on NBC (72nd place, 3.6 million), a leftover episode of the Fox castoff, Standoff (89th place, 3 million) and a slightly used Kyle XY (94th place, 2.6 million), ABC's recycled ABC Family Channel summer series.

And while a win is a win is a win, Jericho was CBS' weakest link on the night. Ghost Whisperer (40th place, 5.1 million) aired before Jericho; Numb3rs (25th place, 5.9 million) aired after it—both scored more viewers.

When CBS announced last month it was resurrecting the previously canceled doomsday series, and bowing to a save-our-show campaign that saw fans, inspired by a single line of nut-ty dialogue, reportedly bury the network in more than 20 tons of peanuts, network entertainment president Nina Tassler cautioned that a rabid fan base, not too mention pounds and pounds of elephant snacks, could only get the series so far.

The "community," Tassler wrote in an open letter, "needs to grow. It needs to grow on the CBS Television Network, as well as on the many digital platforms where we make the show available."

On iTunes, where the Jericho pilot was available for free download, the show hasn't yet asserted itself against the Hannah Montanas of the world. As of Tuesday, only one Jericho episode, "Fallout," was among the service's Top 100 downloads (it stood at number 97), compared to eight Hannah Montanas, 12 Dexters—and 23 Offices.

On Amazon.com, Jericho's forthcoming season-one DVD set ranked as the site's 143rd-biggest video seller; a similar package from fellow freshman series Heroes ranked 11th.

In the upcoming TV year, Jericho is pencilled in as a midseason replacement. CBS has committed to seven new episodes, which is better than being canceled, but dicier than receiving a 22-episode order.

No one said life after a nuclear holocaust was going to be easy.

Elsewhere, in other ratings highlights for the prime-time week ended Sunday:

• Don't ever try to save the world on a Saturday. NBC's prime-time offering of the green-friendly Live Earth concerts couldn't overcome viewers' general disinterest in TV viewing on a Blockbuster night. The network's three-hour special averaged just 2.7 million (92nd place), and took a backseat to the likes of a Cops rerun on Fox (64th place, 3.9 million). 
• Live Earth played better on cable. So says Bravo, which bragged that its 18 hours of live coverage brought the network its best-ever Saturday ratings. Overall, the concerts were watched by some 19 million on NBC, Bravo, Telemundo and CNBC.     
• CBS' 60 Minutes (fourth place, 8.2 million) was the most watched all-new thing; the CW's Hidden Palms (149th place, 978,000) wasn't.
• NBC's Macy's 4th of July Fireworks Spectacular (eighth place, 7.6 million) had more pop than CBS' similarly titled Boston Pops Fireworks Spectacular (16th place, 6.7 million).
• CBS' Big Brother remains a desired summer getaway, scoring a Top 10 finish (7.4 million) with Thursday's eighth-season opener.
• ABC's Shaq's Big Challenge (45th place, 4.8 million) packed on viewers in its second week, up 7 percent from its premiere.
• It was close, but the bomb of the summer isn't Evan Almighty; it's Fox's On the Lot (100th place, 2.1 million).
• In cable, TNT's The Closer (7.2 million) continued to dominate. 
• In a stat that could bode well for Matt Damon's upcoming The Bourne Ultimatum, a Sunday night TNT broadcast of 2004's The Bourne Supremacy attracted cable's biggest movie audience: 4.4 million viewers.
• Hey, Paula, the less said about your Bravo show's ratings (523,000), the nicer.

In the battle of the networks, CBS' alphabet soup, consisting of CSI, CSI: Miami and NCIS, had the winning recipe. The network was the most watched of the little-watched, averaging 6.3 million vacation-starved shut-ins to NBC's 4.9 million, Fox's 4.8 million, ABC's 4.2 million and the CW's 1.8 million.

Here's a look at the 10 most watched prime-time shows for the week ended Sunday, according to Nielsen Media Research:

1. CSI, CBS, 9.4 million viewers
2. Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? (9 p.m., Thursday), Fox, 8.5 million viewers
3. CSI: Miami, CBS, 8.4 million viewers
4. 60 Minutes, CBS, 8.2 million viewers
5. Two and a Half Men, CBS, 8.18 million viewers
6. Hell's Kitchen, Fox, 8.12 million viewers
7. Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? (8 p.m., Thursday), Fox, 7.9 million viewers
8. Macy's 4th of July Fireworks Spectacular, NBC, 7.6 million viewers
9. NCIS, CBS, 7.57 million viewers
10. Big Brother (Thursday), CBS, 7.4 million viewers

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