Among them: Seinfeld (76 million), Friends (52 million) and Everybody Loves Raymond (33 million), according to the Nielsen Company.

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She oversaw the network's prime-time, daytime, late-night and Saturday morning lineups (with shows like "CSI, " "Survivor, " "Everybody Loves Raymond" and "The King of Queens").

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Also minting money for the veteran funnyman and his longtime production company: Everybody Loves Raymond reruns and The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson.

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Romano still earns plenty though from reruns of his beloved show Everybody Loves Raymond and the Ice Age franchise, in which he plays wooly mammoth Manny.

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Rather, Viacom has significant television assets that include the CBS network, which is pulling in big audiences with some of its prime-time shows like Everybody Loves Raymond and Survivor.

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Despite a pedigreed cast, including Everybody Loves Raymond's Patricia Heaton, and a massive marketing campaign--not to mention a network bidding war to air the show--the newsroom comedy failed to find an audience.

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When VanDerWerff talked to CNN about the article, he also said that the present generation that grew up on "Friends" and "Everybody Loves Raymond" grew weary of the copycat versions that networks churned out.

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