Byline: DAVID GOETZL and WAYNE FRIEDMAN

NBC's favored ``Friends'' blew past network sibling ``ER'' and CBS's ``Survivor'' to top the charts this season as the highest-priced point out on TV. A 30-second blemish on ``Friends'' averages $455,700, according to Ad Age's annual prime-time network pricing measure and estimate

Factors vaulting the nine-year-old ``Friends'' to the No. 1 blemish for the first time include: an audience yearning for familiarity in a post-9/11 world, revitalized piece of ground lines, higher ratings and expectations that this likely will be its final year.

``There's the anticipation that this