Top 10 Has Newsy Look for Summer

The newsmagazines are mounting their usual summer ascent as an alternative to network reruns--with four ranking among last week’s Top 10--while unscripted programs continue to offer a mixed bag ratings-wise, based on viewing estimates issued Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research.

Programmers are also seeing the value of self-contained (as opposed to serialized) dramas, as the procedural crime shows “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” and NBC’s three versions of “Law & Order” continue to repeat better than series such as “ER” and “The Practice.”

The fourth edition of the “Law & Order” franchise, the unscripted “Crime & Punishment,” is also performing reasonably well, as is NBC’s “Dog Eat Dog.”

Fox’s talent search, “American Idol,” meanwhile, cooled for the second straight week, and ratings have been so-so for ABC’s “State v.” and “Houston Medical.”

NBC’s lineup included a seven-episode “Scrubs” marathon, with the first-year comedy not surprisingly faring best in the Thursday slot it will occupy this fall, dropping a respectable 16% off its “Friends” lead-in audience. Although CBS was first overall, NBC has maintained the lead in attracting adults under 50--the key figure to youth-happy advertisers--for 14 consecutive weeks.

Brian Lowry

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

National Nielsen Viewership

Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (June 24-30) 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 15.43 2 60 Minutes CBS 11.98 3 Everybody Loves Raymond CBS 11.71 4 20/20 (Fri.) ABC 11.23 5 Becker CBS 10.22 6 Dog Eat Dog NBC 10.16 7 “Price Is Right Police/Fire” CBS 9.69 8 Law & Order NBC 9.54 9 Primetime Thursday ABC 9.14 10 Law & Order: Criminal Intent NBC 9.08 11 American Idol (Tue.) FOX 9.07 12 48 Hours (Mon.) CBS 9.06 13 Friends NBC 8.90 14 “Mama Flora’s Family” Pt. 1 CBS 8.86 15 Yes, Dear CBS 8.68 16 King of Queens CBS 8.60 17 American Idol (Wed.) FOX 8.53 18 Crime & Punishment NBC 8.49 “Black and Blue” CBS 8.49 20 60 Minutes II CBS 8.38 21 Touched by an Angel (Sun.) CBS 8.22 22 Crossing Jordan NBC 8.09 Fear Factor NBC 8.09 24 The Agency CBS 7.81 25 Law & Order: SVU NBC 7.70 26 Judging Amy CBS 7.62 27 Funniest Home Videos ABC 7.53 28 Scrubs (Thu., 8:30 p.m.) NBC 7.50 JAG CBS 7.50 30 Millionaire (Thu.) ABC 7.49 31 The Simpsons FOX 7.42 32 The Guardian CBS 7.25 33 Will & Grace NBC 7.11 34 The West Wing NBC 6.99 35 America’s Most Wanted FOX 6.87 36 Dateline NBC (Fri.) NBC 6.79 37 “Diagnosis Murder” CBS 6.78 38 ER NBC 6.74 39 Scrubs (Tue., 9:30 p.m.) NBC 6.64 “Meet Joe Black” ABC 6.64 Houston Medical ABC 6.64 42 That ‘70s Show (8:30 p.m.) FOX 6.62 43 My Wife & Kids ABC 6.59 44 According to Jim ABC 6.46 Malcolm in the Middle FOX 6.46 Scrubs (Tue., 10:30 p.m.) NBC 6.46 47 The District CBS 6.39 Frasier NBC 6.39 49 The Practice ABC 6.38 50 Scrubs (Tue., 9 p.m.) NBC 6.35 51 Fun. Home Videos (8 p.m.) ABC 6.33 52 Scrubs (Tue., 10 p.m.) NBC 6.31 53 State V ABC 6.25 54 The Bernie Mac Show FOX 6.15 55 Cops (8:30 p.m.) FOX 6.08 56 Mole II: The Next Betrayal ABC 6.02 57 48 Hours CBS 5.90 58 Beyond Belief: Fact/Fiction? FOX 5.85 59 That ‘70s Show FOX 5.82 60 Beyond Belief: Fact/Fiction? (9 p.m.) FOX 5.79 61 Dateline NBC (Sat.) NBC 5.70 Scrubs (Thu., 8:30 p.m.) NBC 5.70 63 Scrubs (Tue., 8:30 p.m.) NBC 5.60 63 Drew Carey (9:30 p.m.) ABC 5.50 65 Spin City ABC 5.33 66 The Drew Carey Show ABC 5.26 67 “Music of the Heart” NBC 5.25 68 Cops FOX 5.18 69 WWE Smackdown! UPN 5.05 70 Weakest Link (Sun.) NBC 4.99 71 The Bernie Mac Show FOX 4.98 72 “Home Alone 3” FOX 4.97 73 Looking: Bachelorette FOX 4.89 Grounded for Life FOX 4.89 75 “The Sixth Man” ABC 4.79 76 Touched by an Angel CBS 4.78 77 Spin City (8 p.m.) ABC 4.67 78 The District (9 p.m.) CBS 4.64 79 Alias ABC 4.62 80 Ed NBC 4.44 81 Whose Line Is It Anyway? ABC 4.38 82 King of the Hill FOX 4.28 83 Dateline NBC (Sun.) NBC 4.26 84 “For Your Eyes Only” ABC 4.21 85 Futurama FOX 3.77 86 Smallville WB 3.08 The Parkers (Mon.) UPN 3.08 88 One on One UPN 3.05 89 Girlfriends UPN 2.96 90 Gilmore Girls WB 2.91 91 7th Heaven WB 2.86 92 The Hughleys UPN 2.73 93 Reba WB 2.45 94 Gilmore Girls (Mon.) WB 2.39 95 Enterprise UPN 2.35 96 Buffy the Vampire Slayer UPN 2.22 97 Dark Angel FOX 2.09 98 Sabrina, the Teenage Witch WB 1.97 99 Raising Dad WB 1.95 100 Jamie Kennedy Experiment WB 1.87 101 Dawson’s Creek WB 1.84 102 The X-Files FOX 1.73 Charmed (Sun.) WB 1.73 Charmed (Thu.) WB 1.73 105 Maybe It’s Me WB 1.66 106 Angel WB 1.64 107 Dawson’s Creek (Wed.) WB 1.58 108 Wolf Lake UPN 1.53 109 The Hughleys (Tue.) UPN 1.48 110 “Skateboard Show” WB 1.45

*--*

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 8.30 11.76 NBC 6.91 12.83 ABC 6.21 9.18 FOX 5.42 8.70 UPN 2.60 4.11 WB 2.06 3.60

*--*