CBS scores with Final Four

Fox Broadcasting had three of last week’s four most-watched programs, but CBS combined its customarily strong Thursday and Friday night lineups with increased viewership for the NCAA basketball championship game to be the most-watched network in prime time for the third consecutive week.

According to figures released Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research, CBS averaged 11.51 million viewers from April 2 through Sunday -- a week when reruns were mixed with first-run programming as networks saved original episodes for the May sweeps and TV watching was off slightly because of Easter week vacations.

Viewership for CBS’ coverage of the NCAA men’s basketball championship game was up 12% from last year, with 19.56 million people tuning in to see Florida’s 84-75 victory over Ohio State.

Sunday’s season premiere of HBO’s “The Sopranos” was cable’s most-watched show for the week, with 7.66 million viewers, which would have placed it 43rd among the week’s programs on the five major broadcast networks.

That was down 19% from last year’s season premiere and 37% from the 12.14 million who tuned in for the 2004 “Sopranos” premiere. But HBO officials said they expected the audience to climb when viewing of repeat broadcasts were included.

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Prime-Time TV Rankings

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Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (April 4-11) 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.

*--* Program Net- work View- ers Program Net- work View- ers

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*--* 1 American Idol (Tue.) FOX 26.67 2 American Idol (Wed.) FOX 26.10 3 CSI CBS 21.69 4 House FOX 20.35 5 NCAA Basketball Championship CBS 19.56

6 Dancing With the Stars (Mon.) ABC 18.24 7 Desperate Housewives ABC 15.93 8 Shark CBS 15.10 9 Dancing With the Stars Results (Tue.) ABC 14.99 10 Without a Trace CBS 14.12

11 ‘Til Death FOX 13.95 12 NCIS CBS 13.79 13 Survivor: Fiji CBS 13.58 14 60 Minutes CBS 13.17 15 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition ABC 12.10

16 Prelude to a Championship CBS 11.94 17 Lost ABC 11.66 18 Deal or No Deal (Mon.) NBC 11.45 19 Cold Case CBS 11.33 20 Law & Order: SVU NBC 11.16

21 24 FOX 10.95 22 Numb3rs CBS 10.93 Deal or No Deal (Mon.) NBC 10.93 24 Close to Home CBS 10.82 25 Brothers & Sisters ABC 10.80

26 Bones FOX 10.53 27 Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? FOX 10.33 28 Criminal Minds CBS 10.29 29 CSI: NY CBS 10.27 30 Deal or No Deal (Sun.) NBC 10.16

31 Boston Legal ABC 9.97 32 The Bachelor: An Officer and a Gentleman ABC 9.86 33 The Unit CBS 9.83 34 Ghost Whisperer CBS 9.65 35 Amazing Race 11 CBS 9.29

36 Grey’s Anatomy (Thu.) 9 p.m. ABC 8.66 37 Medium NBC 8.42 38 Law & Order NBC 8.22 39 Prison Break FOX 8.12 40 Jericho CBS 8.00

41 CSI: Miami (Tue.) CBS 7.93 42 October Road ABC 7.68 43 America’s Funniest Home Videos ABC 7.61 44 Crossing Jordan NBC 7.57 45 ABC Special Presentation ABC 7.56

46 20/20 (Fri.) ABC 7.26 47 Law & Order: Criminal Intent NBC 7.14 48 Crimetime Saturday 9 p.m. CBS 7.09 49 48 Hours Mystery CBS 7.07 50 Crimetime Saturday 8 p.m. CBS 6.86

Two and a Half Men 8:30 p.m. CBS 6.86 52 The Office NBC 6.74 53 Raines NBC 6.67 54 Apprentice 6 NBC 6.61 55 George Lopez (Wed.) 8:30 p.m. ABC 6.53

56 Dateline NBC (Sun.) NBC 6.42 57 Ugly Betty ABC 6.24 58 Law & Order: Criminal Intent (Sat.) NBC 6.18 59 America’s Most Wanted: America Fights Back FOX 6.09 60 Identity NBC 6.04

61 George Lopez ABC 5.99 62 Cops 2 FOX 5.90 63 Dateline NBC (Tue.) NBC 5.80 House (Fri.) 8 p.m. FOX 5.60 65 How I Met Your Mother CBS 5.58

66 Family Guy FOX 5.47 67 According to Jim (9 p.m.) ABC 5.43 68 30 Rock NBC 5.37 69 Dateline NBC (Sat.) NBC 5.35 70 Friday Night Lights NBC 5.33

71 The Black Donnellys NBC 5.30 72 America’s Top Model CW 5.22 73 Law & Order (Sat.) NBC 5.11 74 La Fea Mas Bella (Wed.) UNI 5.04 75 Cops FOX 4.98

American Dad FOX 4.98 77 The Simpsons FOX 4.95 78 Scrubs NBC 4.89 79 In Case of Emergency ABC 4.81 80 King of the Hill FOX 4.69

81 La Fea Mas Bella (Mon.) UNI 4.67 82 Wife Swap (Fri.) ABC 4.60 83 La Fea Mas Bella (Thu.) UNI 4.56 84 La Fea Mas Bella (Tue.) UNI 4.41 85 Friday Night Smackdown CW 4.33

86 Destilando Amor (Wed.) UNI 4.30 George Lopez (Tue.) 8 p.m. ABC 4.30 88 Family Guy (Thu.) 9:30 p.m. FOX 4.26 89 Destilando Amor (Tue.) UNI 4.25 90 La Fea Mas Bella (Fri.) UNI 4.23

91 Destilando Amor (Mon.) UNI 4.22 92 According to Jim (Tue.) 8:30 p.m. ABC 4.18 93 Family Guy (Thu.) 9 p.m. FOX 4.16 94 Destilando Amor (Fri.) UNI 4.10 95 Andy Barker P.I. NBC 4.07

96 Destilando Amor (Thu.) UNI 3.99 97 Grey’s Anatomy (Fri.) 8 p.m. ABC 3.83 98 The Wedding Bells FOX 3.80 99 My Name Is Earl NBC 3.76 100 Don Francisco Presenta (Wed.) UNI 3.38

101 Nuestra Belleza (Tue.) UNI 3.34 102 Duelo de Pasiones (Thu.) UNI 3.08 103 The Pussycat Dolls Present (Wed.) CW 3.07 104 Casos Vida (Fri.) UNI 3.06 105 Cristina (Mon.) UNI 3.03

106 Bailando Boda Suenos (Sun.) UNI 3.00 107 Aqui y Ahora (Thu.) UNI 2.99 108 Duelo de Pasiones (Wed.) UNI 2.98 109 Duelo de Pasiones (Tue.) UNI 2.94 110 Duelo de Pasiones (Mon.) UNI 2.75

111 The War at Home (Mon.) 7:30 p.m. FOX 2.67 112 Duelo de Pasiones (Fri.) UNI 2.62 113 Smallville CW 2.53 114 Sabado Gigante (Sat.) UNI 2.32 115 The Pussycat Dolls Present CW 2.29

116 7th Heaven CW 2.15 117 The War at Home (7 p.m.) FOX 2.06 118 Supernatural CW 1.96 119 Hora Pico (Sun.) UNI 1.91

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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 CBS 11.35 12.78

ABC 8.65 9.81

FOX 10.4 10.22

NBC 7.3 9.34

UNI 3.67 3.61

CW 2.83 3.25

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