In an era of declining ratings for beauty pageants, simply holding onto the previous year’s audience is an accomplishment. If that happens to give the network carrying the pageant a big boost over the previous week in this very slow summer, all the better.

Last night NBC got a big week-to-week bump for its Sunday night lineup thanks to the “Miss Universe” pageant, which averaged a 3.2 adults 18-49 overnight rating from 9 to 11 p.m.

While that was even to last year, when the pageant aired in early June, NBC did see a 4 percent bump in total viewers, from 9.2 million in 2005 to 9.6 million last night. Its household rating was down slightly, from 6.1 to a 6.0.

But in a summer when almost no shows have produced big ratings, and Sunday evenings have been particularly dismal, NBC got a very nice bump in its 18-49 average the previous week, going from a 2.0 to a 2.5 to win the evening.

“Miss Universe” was the highest-rated show of the night among 18-49s, with only Fox’s “Family Guy” at a 2.9 even coming close. The pageant peaked with a 3.4 in the final hour, including a 3.6 at 10:30 p.m.

Rather than saying much about the pageant, “Miss Universe’s” decent ratings may say more about the lack of selection on TV than anything else. Broadcast had mostly repeats last night, and HBO’s Sunday night lineup has been fairly weak this summer.

Sadly, the pageant was not without its problems. After she’d been crowned the winner, Puerto Rico’s Zuleyka Rivera collapsed during a post-pageant press conference, fainting because her dress was too tight and the room too hot. She was said to be fine shortly thereafter.

“Universe” led NBC to victory for the night at a 2.5 rating and 7 share among 18-49s, ahead of Fox at 2.1/7, CBS at 2.1/6, ABC at 1.8/6, Univision at 0.9/3 and WB at 0.6/2.

At 7 p.m., ABC and CBS shared the No. 1 spot at 1.8 for an "America's Funniest Home Videos" rerun and "60 Minutes," ahead of a 1.3 each for NBC's "Tom Brokaw Reports" and Fox's repeats of "Malcolm in the Middle" and "King of the Hill." Univision's "Hora Pico" followed at 0.7, ahead of WB's pair of "Reba" reruns at 0.6.

At 8 p.m., Fox's reruns of "The Simpsons" and "American Dad" led at 2.6, ahead of CBS's "Big Brother 7: All-Stars" at 2.4, NBC's "Dateline" at 2.3, ABC's repeat of "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" at 2.0, Univision's 0.8 for the first hour of "Cantando por un Sueño" and the WB's "Charmed" rerun at 0.5.

At 9 p.m., NBC led at 2.9 for “Universe,” followed by Fox's reruns of "Family Guy" and "War at Home" at 2.5, CBS's "Cold Case" repeat at 2.1, ABC's "Desperate Housewives" rerun at 1.4, Univision's "Cantando" at 1.0 and WB's "Charmed" rerun at 0.6.

At 10 p.m., NBC was No. 1 again at 3.4 for Miss Universe, followed by a 2.1 each for ABC's "Grey's Anatomy" rerun and CBS's "Without a Trace." Univision's "Cantando" averaged a 1.0 in its final hour.

Among households, NBC edged to No. 1 for the night with a 5.3 rating and 10 share, followed by CBS at 5.3/9, ABC at 3.5/6, Fox at 2.9/5, and Univision and WB both at 1.1/2.