ABC takes the top spot for the first time in over a year

The “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Desperate Housewives” season finales, along with two “Dancing With the Stars” broadcasts, made ABC the week’s most-watched network for the first time in more than 15 months, according to figures released Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research.

With four of the eight most-watched programs, ABC averaged 10.76 million viewers for its prime-time programming between May 14 and Sunday. It was the network’s first weekly victory during the official television season since the week of Jan. 30-Feb. 5, 2006, when it aired Super Bowl XL, traditionally the most-watched program of the year.

The Wednesday “American Idol” results show, in which the final two contestants were announced, was the week’s most-watched show with 28.05 million viewers, 1% less than the equivalent episode last season.

Overall television viewership was down 3% from the similar week last year, which network executives have attributed to growing use of digital video recorders and the earlier start of daylight saving time.

Programs recorded on digital video recorders are counted on the weekly Nielsen list only if they are watched by 3 the following morning.

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Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (May 14-20) as compiled by Nielsen Media Research. They are based on the average number of people who watched a program from start to finish. Nielsen estimates there are 283.5 million potential viewers in the U.S. ages 2 and older. Viewership is listed in millions.

*--* 1 American Idol (Wed.) FOX 28.05 2 American Idol (Tue.) FOX 24.23 3 Grey’s Anatomy (Thu.) ABC 22.57 4 House (Tue.) FOX 21.19 5 CSI (9 p.m.) CBS 20.45

6 Dancing With the Stars (Mon.) ABC 19.58 7 Desperate Housewives ABC 18.82 8 Dancing With the Stars Results (Tue., 9 p.m.) ABC 18.44 9 CSI: Miami CBS 16.63 10 “Bob Barker: A Celebration of 50 Years on Television” CBS 14.33

11 The Price Is Right CBS 13.99 12 King of Queens CBS 13.61 13 CSI (10 p.m.) CBS 13.33 14 Criminal Minds CBS 13.21 15 CSI: NY CBS 13.07

16 Law & Order: SVU (Tue.) NBC 12.75 17 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (8 p.m.) ABC 12.57 18 Lost ABC 12.32 19 Brothers & Sisters ABC 12.31 20 Heroes NBC 11.54

21 Bones (Wed.) FOX 10.88 22 60 Minutes CBS 10.85 23 The Bachelor: An Officer and a Gentleman ABC 10.64 24 24 FOX 10.57 25 Ugly Betty ABC 10.50

26 Boston Legal ABC 10.28 27 Numb3rs CBS 10.18 28 Two and a Half Men CBS 10.16 29 The Simpsons FOX 9.94 30 E.R. NBC 9.51

31 “Academy of Country Music Awards” CBS 9.27 32 Law & Order (Fri.) NBC 9.23 33 Family Guy FOX 9.15 34 “Lost: The Answers” ABC 9.12 35 Dancing With the Stars (Tue., 8 p.m.) ABC 9.07

36 Deal or No Deal (Mon.) NBC 8.84 37 The Office NBC 7.88 38 “A Dr. Phil Primetime Special: Caged?” CBS 7.83 39 Medium NBC 7.75 40 How I Met Your Mother CBS 7.70

41 American Dad FOX 7.62 42 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (7 p.m.) ABC 7.39 43 House (Mon.) FOX 7.22 44 Law & Order: Criminal Intent (Mon.) NBC 7.20 45 Law & Order: Criminal Intent (Tue.) NBC 6.93

46 “Million Dollar Baby” CBS 6.89 47 Dateline: NBC (Fri.) NBC 6.56 48 America’s Funniest Home Videos (Fri.) ABC 6.55 49 Crossing Jordan NBC 6.44 50 America’s Top Model (Wed.) CW 6.42

51 “National Treasure” NBC 6.37 52 20/20 ABC 6.34 53 48 Hours Mystery CBS 6.21 54 National Bingo Night ABC 6.16 55 “The Pacifier” ABC 6.13

56 Law & Order (Sat.) NBC 5.84 57 Crimetime Saturday (8 p.m.) CBS 5.80 58 “Celebrating Cronkite at 90” CBS 5.72 59 Dateline: NBC (Tue.) NBC 5.51 60 According to Jim (8 p.m.) ABC 5.40

61 Destilando Amor (Wed.) UNI 5.35 62 Scrubs NBC 5.28 63 Crimetime Saturday (9 p.m.) CBS 5.25 64 Bones (Fri.) FOX 5.24 65 King of the Hill (7:30 p.m.) FOX 5.22

America’s Most Wanted FOX 5.22 67 Destilando Amor (Tue.) UNI 5.15 68 La Fea Mas Bella (Wed.) UNI 5.01 69 Destilando Amor (Thu.) UNI 4.98 70 Destilando Amor (Mon.) UNI 4.91

La Fea Mas Bella (Tue.) UNI 4.91 72 House (Fri.) FOX 4.86 Gilmore Girls CW 4.86 74 La Fea Mas Bella (Mon.) UNI 4.85 75 Cops (8:30 p.m.) FOX 4.72

76 Law & Order: SVU (Sat.) NBC 4.66 77 La Fea Mas Bella (Thu.) UNI 4.64 78 Thank God You’re Here NBC 4.58 79 Notes From the Underbelly (8:30 p.m.) ABC 4.56 80 Destilando Amor (Fri.) UNI 4.53

81 Dateline: NBC (Sun.) NBC 4.46 82 La Fea Mas Bella (Fri.) UNI 4.29 83 “The Day After Tomorrow” FOX 4.20 84 According to Jim (9 p.m.) ABC 4.18 85 Smallville CW 4.14

86 Friday Night Smackdown CW 4.11 87 King of the Hill (7 p.m.) FOX 4.05 Cops (8 p.m.) FOX 4.05 89 Bailando Boda Suenos UNI 3.92 90 Dateline: NBC (Sat.) NBC 3.89

91 Notes From the Underbelly (9:30 p.m.) ABC 3.87 92 America’s Funniest Home Videos (Sat.) ABC 3.86 93 Nuestra Belleza UNI 3.62 94 Cristina UNI 3.50 95 Futbol Liga Mexicana UNI 3.42

96 Don Francisco Presenta UNI 3.40 97 Duelo de Pasiones (Wed.) UNI 3.20 98 Duelo de Pasiones (Tue.) UNI 3.05 99 Duelo de Pasiones (Fri.) UNI 2.96 100 Duelo de Pasiones (Thu.) UNI 2.91

101 Aqui y Ahora UNI 2.90 102 Duelo de Pasiones (Mon.) UNI 2.82 Casos Vida UNI 2.82 104 Supernatural CW 2.72 105 One Tree Hill CW 2.68

106 The Game CW 2.51 107 All of Us CW 2.50 108 Everybody Hates Chris CW 2.34 109 Sabado Gigante UNI 2.32 110 Veronica Mars CW 2.10

111 Cine Millonario TEL 1.59 112 Dame Chocolate (Wed.) TEL 1.49 113 Dame Chocolate (Mon.) TEL 1.46 114 Marina (Wed.) TEL 1.45 115 Gilmore Girls CW 1.44

116 America’s Top Model (Sun.) CW 1.43 117 Hora Pico UNI 1.37 118 Dame Chocolate (Thu.) TEL 1.34 119 Dame Chocolate (Tue.) TEL 1.26 120 Zorro (Fri.) TEL 1.24

121 Zorro (Tue.) TEL 1.23 Marina (Thu.) TEL 1.23 Zorro (Wed.) TEL 1.23 124 Dame Chocolate (Fri.) TEL 1.22 125 Marina (Mon.) TEL 1.19

126 7th Heaven CW 1.18 Zorro (Thu.) TEL 1.18

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Network averages

Here is the number of viewers (in millions) that each network averaged per hour of prime time, for last week and for the season.

*--* Network Last week Season to date ABC 10.76 9.65

CBS 10.36 12.20

FOX 10.08 10.08

NBC 7.02 8.67

UNI 3.92 3.62

CW 3.09 3.14

TEL 1.09 0.86

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