Prime-Time TV Rankings

A strong performance by its Sunday movie and the holiday perennial “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” helped lift CBS to its first ratings victory in nine weeks, based on viewing estimates issued Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research.

NBC struggled for the second consecutive week with a music-themed TV movie, as its Natalie Cole biography fared only slightly better than a John Lennon tribute broadcast the Sunday before. CBS, by contrast, delivered its highest Sunday movie rating of the season weeks with its latest Hallmark Hall of Fame production, “The Runaway,” featuring Dean Cain.

Despite that competition, ABC’s “The Practice” delivered its biggest audience of the season. Fox’s “The Simpsons” and “Malcolm in the Middle” also attracted their highest ratings in 10 months.

With “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” beginning an hour earlier at 8 p.m., NBC’s new comedy “Cursed” looked especially shaky, losing nearly a third of the audience that watched “Friends” before it. Another new NBC show, “Ed,” did exhibit some promise in its new Wednesday time slot, preceding “The West Wing” and “Law & Order.”

ABC, meanwhile, discovered it can limbo lower than its canceled sitcom “The Trouble With Normal” thanks to “Dot Comedy,” a new Internet-inspired reality series whose premiere yielded the network’s lowest Friday night rating on record.

Network Averages

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

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Last Season week to date CBS 12.29 million 12.33 ABC 12.13 13.33 NBC 11.70 12.70 FOX 9.58 10.10 UPN 3.93 4.26 WB 3.46 4.27

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Southland Viewing

Here are Nielsen’s Top 10 prime-time programs in the Los Angeles area during the same week. The rankings are based on the number of households watching.

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Sta- House- Program tion holds 1. Friends KNBC 953,048 2. ER KNBC 797,776 3. Will & Grace KNBC 722,817 4. Practice KABC 621,087 5. Ally McBeal KTTV 615,733 6. The West Wing KNBC 610,379 7. Cursed KNBC 572,899 Just Shoot Me KNBC 572,899 60 Minutes KCBS 572,899 10. Millionaire (Wed.) KABC 567,545

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