Big sweeps bump for Fox Monday with '24' finale
   After inching within 0.2 rating points of CBS for the May sweeps lead among adults 18-49, Fox probably didn’t even need a great performance Monday night to secure its second sweeps victory of the year.
   But it got some insurance padding from “24,” which averaged a 5.1 rating for its two-hour finale. That's close to its season average, but more importantly, the show gave Fox a rare Monday win. Its 5.1 average rating and 13 share was just ahead of usual Monday winner CBS, which averaged a 4.8/12.
   Through Sunday night, CBS leads the May sweeps with a 4.2 average rating to Fox's 4.0. Fox should get a big enough boost from the two-part "American Idol" finale tonight and tomorrow to take first.
   Monday night’s highest-rated show among 18-49s was CBS’s season finale of “CSI: Miami,” which averaged a 7.1 rating, down 12.3 percent versus an 8.1 last season. NBC was third for the night at 3.9/10, ABC fourth at 2.3/6, the WB fifth at 1.8/5 and UPN sixth at 1.6/4.
   Fox started in the lead with a 4.6 average during the 8 p.m. hour for the first hour of the “24” finale. NBC was second with a 3.4 for “Fear Factor” and CBS third with a 2.7 average for an hour of “Still Standing.”
   At 9 p.m. Fox led with a 5.5 average for the second half of “24.” CBS was second with a 4.6 for back-to-back episodes of “Two and a Half Men,” while NBC came in third with a 3.9 for “Las Vegas.”
   CBS has to be disappointed with the “Men” performance. In its post-“Raymond” debut in the 9 p.m. slot, the first episode of “Men” averaged only a 4.4.
   With Fox out at 10 p.m., CBS led with its 7.1 average for the “CSI: Miami” finale. NBC was second with a 4.5 average for “Medium” and ABC third with a 2.3 average for the second hour of “Tour of Duty,” a concert special hosted by Nick Lachey and Jessica Simpson.
   CBS finished first for the night among households with a 9.4 average rating and a 15 share. Fox was second at 7.2/11, NBC third at 6.8/11, ABC fourth at 4.4/7, the WB fifth at 3.3/5 and UPN sixth at 2.6/4.

'Sopranos' creator's big twist: We may return
Tony Soprano may not get whacked after all. During a public interview with New Yorker media critic Ken Auletta yesterday for the S.I. Newhouse School of Communications, “Sopranos” creator David Chase said that he’d consider extending the high-rated HBO series for a seventh season if the right offer came. Chase has played coy before, saying before seasons five and six that he wasn’t sure he’d continue. And even if Chase were game, there’s no guaranteeing the actors would be. Tony Soprano himself, James Gandolfini, filed a lawsuit against HBO two years ago over his contract, and may be more interested in his burgeoning movie career. Chase said his sixth-season storyline would allow for the series to return without any major tweaks. HBO says it has spoken with Chase about a seventh season but reached no agreement. The network would love for “The Sopranos” to return. Its recent attempts at drama, including the canceled “Carnivale” and critically praised but low-rated “Deadwood,” have nowhere near “Sopranos’” ratings heft, and the more “Sopranos” episodes, the more it stands to make in syndication.

Nielsen promises VOD measuring by 2Q of 2006
Measurement of video on demand viewing, asked for by media people and promised to be prioritized by Nielsen several months ago, will launch in second quarter 2006. Nielsen said yesterday that it will begin by monitoring recently aired TV shows, those watched within a week of their first appearance on regular TV. During the initial period, VOD will be measured along with digital video recorder and other playback devices. Assuming cable operators, TV networks and individual stations agree to flag VOD events as such, their measurements will be separated in fourth quarter. That’s also when Nielsen hopes to start measuring what it terms library product VOD, such as movies, pay-per-view events and TV shows older than a week. Nielsen had promised a VOD plan in February, when president Susan Whiting pledged a long list of R&D measures.

'Nightline' will read names of the fallen once more
Ted Koppel will again read the names of the year’s fallen soldiers, this year on the Memorial Day edition of “Nightline,” but the segment probably won’t cause nearly the racket it did last year, when the reading came during sweeps and in an election year. In April 2004, Koppel read the names of 721 soldiers who died during the war in Iraq, and the next month he read 121 names of military personnel killed in Afghanistan. Sinclair Broadcasting dubbed the first episode, called “The Fallen,” a political statement and didn’t air the episode on its eight ABC affiliates. At the same time, talking heads Rush Limbaugh and Bill O’Reilly dismissed the idea as a ratings stunt. Indeed, ratings jumped 22 percent week-to-week for last year’s first “Fallen” episode, but some of that could also be attributed to the extra publicity the show received. This year Koppel will read 960 names (as of yesterday) from both Iraq and Afghanistan. Sinclair hasn’t said whether it will air the show.

Study: Most think news orgs cover up mistakes
Did Newsweek try to cover up its Quran-in-the-toilet blunder? Most Americans probably think so. A new study from the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg Public Policy Center finds that two-thirds of Americans believe news organizations try to cover up or ignore serious blunders made by their journalists in order to save face. Forty percent think a cover-up is attempted while 24 percent say the mistakes are ignored. In a separate poll, 75 percent of journalists said they tell their bosses about mistakes. Only half of the general public thinks news organizations usually get the facts straight while 90 percent of journalists think so. And while more than 90 percent of journalists say it’s never okay for the government to limit reporting on a story, more than 50 percent of the general public thinks it is. The poll was taken before the Newsweek scandal broke but after such public embarrassments as the “60 Minutes II” errant report on President Bush last fall.

NBC Crüe cut after Neil naughtiness prompts suit
This may be the most absurd twist in the ongoing indecency drama yet: Mötley Crüe, which swore on the air during a New Year’s edition of “The Tonight Show” a few months back, has filed a lawsuit against NBC. NBC banned Crüe from future appearances on the network after front man Vince Neil wished drummer Tommy Lee a “happy fucking New Year” on the air. Now, according to the New York Times, the band has filed a discrimination lawsuit asking to lift the ban and award monetary damages from its decreased media presence. NBC hasn’t been fined for the incident by the Federal Communications Commission, but it’s easy to see why it wouldn’t risk an FCC beatdown after the major fines CBS- and Fox-owned stations have gotten post-Janet Jackson. Mötley Crüe, which will presumably recoup most of that lost publicity through this lawsuit, argues the incident happened during a time, late-night, when indecency standards are traditionally relaxed and that NBC didn’t ban Bono after a similar incident at the 2003 Golden Globe Awards.