NBC Squeaks Past CBS

NBC and CBS posted another neck-and-neck finish in prime time last week, while Fox’s “American Idol” climbed the charts to its biggest audience yet and ABC continued to weather an arid summer, based on viewing estimates issued Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research.

Prime-time standings have been dominated this summer by a mix of more easily repeatable scripted series (“CSI,” the various editions of “Law & Order”), newsmagazines (“48 Hours,” in particular, has thrived on Mondays) and cheap, unscripted series. Of those, NBC’s “Dog Eat Dog” actually out-rates “Idol” in overall viewing, and NBC also posted respectable tune-in last week with its premiere of “The Rerun Show.”

Viewers are clearly sampling such programs at the expense of reruns, with both “Idol” and ABC’s “The Mole II” exceeding NBC’s combo of “Frasier” and “Scrubs” last Tuesday. “Scrubs” did fare better Thursday--the time slot the comedy will regularly occupy in the fall--losing a mere 14% of the “Friends” audience preceding it.

Fox’s “The Pulse,” meanwhile, is barely exhibiting one, as viewing of the news program has inched downward with each of its four telecasts. ABC’s latest made-for-prime-time golf event featuring Tiger Woods also pitched in subpar ratings--down 12% compared with the prior year, with steeper losses among younger male demographic groups. Still, the match delivered the network’s second-highest Monday rating this summer.

Brian Lowry

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National Nielsen Viewership

Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (July 29-Aug. 4) 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 269 million potential viewers in the U.S. age 2 and older. Viewership is listed in millions.

*--* Program Network Viewers 1 CSI CBS 15.63 2 Everybody Loves Raymond CBS 12.32 3 48 Hours (Mon.) CBS 12.29 4 American Idol (Tue.) FOX 12.20 5 Law & Order NBC 12.15 6 Dog Eat Dog NBC 11.73 7 Becker CBS 11.23 8 60 Minutes CBS 10.91 9 Dateline: NBC (Tue.) NBC 10.84 10 American Idol (Wed.) FOX 10.20 11 Friends NBC 10.07 12 Big Brother 3 (Wed.) CBS 9.99 13 Law & Order: Criminal Intent NBC 9.69 14 Primetime Thursday ABC 9.55 15 King of Queens CBS 9.48 16 Fear Factor NBC 9.47 17 Rerun Show NBC 9.41 18 Will & Grace NBC 9.30 19 Yes, Dear CBS 9.25 20 Law & Order: SVU NBC 8.96 21 20/20 (Fri.) ABC 8.68 22 Big Brother 3 (Thu.) CBS 8.62 23 Scrubs (8:30 p.m.) NBC 8.61 24 60 Minutes II CBS 8.33 25 Mole II: the Next Betrayal ABC 8.19 26 The West Wing NBC 8.13 27 Crossing Jordan NBC 8.08 28 Dateline: NBC (Sun.) NBC 8.07 29 The Agency CBS 8.03 30 My Wife & Kids (Wed., 8:30 p.m.) ABC 7.78 31 Crime and Punishment NBC 7.70 32 Meet My Folks NBC 7.69 33 The Simpsons FOX 7.65 34 “Lincoln Financial Battle” ABC 7.57 35 Frasier NBC 7.56 36 America’s Funniest Home Videos ABC 7.50 37 Malcolm in the Middle (9:30 p.m.) FOX 7.38 38 America’s Most Wanted FOX 7.36 39 The Bernie Mac Show FOX 7.35 40 48 Hours (Wed.) CBS 7.28 41 Malcolm in the Middle FOX 7.27 42 According to Jim (8:30 p.m.) ABC 7.26 43 JAG CBS 7.24 44 ER NBC 7.19 45 “Missing Pieces” CBS 7.03 46 The Guardian CBS 7.01 47 Spy TV (8:30 p.m.) NBC 6.95 48 The Simpsons (Tue.) FOX 6.88 49 King of the Hill FOX 6.86 50 “The Brain Game” ABC 6.77 51 Spy TV NBC 6.75 52 Dateline: NBC (Fri.) NBC 6.70 My Wife and Kids ABC 6.70 54 30 Seconds to Fame FOX 6.68 55 Scrubs NBC 6.65 Judging Amy CBS 6.65 57 “John Stossel Special” ABC 6.62 58 The Guardian (Sun.) CBS 6.45 59 Big Brother 3 (Sat.) CBS 6.34 60 That ‘70s Show FOX 6.30 61 According to Jim ABC 6.23 62 Cops (8:30 p.m.) FOX 5.82 63 Wonderful World of Disney ABC 5.64 64 Beyond Belief: Fact/Fiction FOX 5.60 65 The Drew Carey Show ABC 5.45 66 48 Hours CBS 5.44 67 WWE Smackdown! UPN 5.40 68 Whose Line Is It, Anyway? (Fri., 9 p.m.) ABC 5.38 69 Dateline: NBC (Fri.) NBC 5.35 70 The Drew Carey Show (9:30 p.m.) ABC 5.25 71 Whose Line Is it Anyway, (Fri., 9:30 p.m.) ABC 5.24 72 The District CBS 5.20 73 Cops FOX 5.19 74 “ ... Escape From L.A.” ABC 5.15 75 “Funny Flubs & Screw Ups” (9:30 p.m.) CBS 5.06 76 The Practice ABC 5.03 77 “Funny Flubs & Screw Ups” (9 p.m.) CBS 4.99 78 The Agency (Sat.) CBS 4.68 79 Pulse FOX 4.49 80 Meet the Marks FOX 4.36 81 “The Man With the Golden Gun” ABC 4.25 82 “Double Team” NBC 4.17 83 Boston Public FOX 3.67 84 One on One UPN 3.64 85 Greg the Bunny FOX 3.60 86 The Hughleys UPN 3.95 87 Alias ABC 3.59 88 Reba WB 3.54 89 Futurama FOX 3.53 90 She Spies NBC 3.40 91 The District (Fri.) CBS 3.38 92 “Invasion: Hidden Cameras” (8:30 p.m.) FOX 3.35 93 Girlfriends UPN 3.32 94 The Parkers UPN 3.31 95 Invasion: Hidden Cameras” FOX 3.27 96 Smallville WB 3.21 97 Raising Dad WB 2.89 98 “Portrait of Murder” WB 2.88 99 Titus FOX 2.86 Sabrina, Teenage Witch (8:30 p.m.) WB 2.86 101 Sabrina, Teenage Witch WB 2.77 102 Gilmore Girls WB 2.75 103 Titus (9 p.m.) FOX 2.65 104 The X-Files FOX 2.61 105 Enterprise UPN 2.58 106 7th Heaven WB 2.54 Smallville (Mon.) WB 2.54 108 Buffy, the Vampire Slayer UPN 2.01 109 Charmed WB 2.00 110 Reba (Thu.) WB 1.85 111 “WWE Divas” UPN 1.80 112 Jamie Kennedy (9 p.m.) WB 1.75 113 “Hot Boys” UPN 1.70 114 One on One (Tue.) UPN 1.66 115 For Your Love (7:30) WB 1.62 116 For Your Love WB 1.52 117 The Hughleys UPN 1.46 118 Angel WB 1.35

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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 NBC 7.92 12.26 CBS 7.91 11.33 ABC 6.26 8.82 FOX 5.77 8.43 UPN 2.91 3.95 WB 2.36 3.46

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