With ‘The O.C.,’ Fox gets an early taste of autumn

The lazy, hazy days of summer reruns and so-called reality shows are still ruling prime time, but Fox got an early jump on the fall with its new series, “The O.C.,” which earned respectable ratings in its debut, according to national Nielsen ratings released Tuesday.

“The O.C.,” about a group of young people living and loving in Orange County, attracted about 7.6 million viewers in its premiere last Tuesday.

Meanwhile, CBS’ “Big Brother 4” and NBC’s “Who Wants to Marry My Dad” are proving to be two of the summer’s most popular unscripted series. NBC was also pleased with the showing of the two-hour finale of “Last Comic Standing,” which triumphed over “The O.C.” and CBS’ struggling “Cupid.”

Another unscripted series, “The Real Roseanne,” did not have much to celebrate. The ABC unscripted reality show, featuring the return of Roseanne Barr, landed at a disappointing 59th among total viewers in its premiere last Wednesday.

With the exception of the strong showing of ABC’s “AFC-NFC Hall of Fame Game,” the top 10 shows of the week remained largely the same as the previous week, dominated by CBS’ “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” and NBC’s Law & Order” franchise.

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Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (Aug. 4-10) 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 272.04 million potential viewers in the U.S. age 2 and older. Viewership is listed in millions.

*--* 1 CSI CBS 13.96 2 Without a Trace CBS 11.22 3 Everybody Loves Raymond CBS 11.17 4 “AFC-NFC Hall of Fame Game” ABC 11.05 5 CSI: Miami CBS 10.86

6 King of Queens CBS 10.61 Law & Order: SVU (Tue.) NBC 10.61 8 60 Minutes CBS 10.40 9 Law & Order NBC 10.36 10 Big Brother 4 (Wed.) CBS 10.21

11 Law & Order: Criminal Intent NBC 9.45 12 Who Wants to Marry My Dad? NBC 9.24 13 60 Minutes II CBS 8.94 14 Big Brother 4 (Tue.) CBS 8.88 15 “AFC-NFC Hall of Fame Showcase” ABC 8.73

16 For Love or Money 2 NBC 8.68 17 Friends NBC 8.49 18 Fear Factor NBC 8.40 19 Amazing Race: 4 CBS 8.35 20 Last Comic Standing NBC 8.20

21 48 Hours Investigates (Wed.) CBS 8.04 22 20/20 (Fri.) ABC 7.92 23 The Simpsons FOX 7.75 24 America’s Funniest Home Videos ABC 7.67 25 Without a Trace (Sun.) CBS 7.65

26 Restaurant NBC 7.52 27 The O.C FOX 7.46 28 Still Standing CBS 7.44 CSI (Fri.) CBS 7.44 30 “ABC 50th Anniversary Bloopers” ABC 7.32

31 Big Brother 4 (Fri.) CBS 7.29 32 King of the Hill (8:30 p.m.) FOX 7.15 33 Primetime Thursday ABC 7.11 34 George Lopez ABC 7.10 35 Law & Order: SVU (Fri.) NBC 7.03

36 American Juniors (Tue.) FOX 7.02 37 According to Jim ABC 6.97 38 Whose Line Is It Anyway? (9:30 p.m.) ABC 6.91 39 My Wife and Kids ABC 6.89 40 Malcolm in the Middle (9:30 p.m.) FOX 6.88

41 “2003 Teen Choice Awards” FOX 6.83 42 Malcolm in the Middle FOX 6.73 43 Yes, Dear CBS 6.68 44 Scrubs NBC 6.67 8 Simple Rules ABC 6.67

46 Whose Line Is It Anyway? ABC 6.65 47 Dateline: NBC (Sun.) NBC 6.60 48 “Storm of the Century,” Part 1 ABC 6.58 49 “Best Commercials Never Seen” ABC 6.54 50 Extreme Makeover (Thu.) ABC 6.53

51 Will & Grace NBC 6.39 52 Less Than Perfect ABC 6.17 53 “For Love of Olivia” CBS 6.09 54 ER NBC 6.04 55 Wonderful World of Disney ABC 5.92

56 Life With Bonnie ABC 5.77 57 Cupid CBS 5.70 58 Paradise Hotel (Mon.) FOX 5.62 59 The Real Roseanne Show ABC 5.50 60 America’s Most Wanted FOX 5.45

61 JAG CBS 5.44 62 The District CBS 5.40 63 Cops (8:30 p.m.) FOX 5.33 64 Scrubs (9:30 p.m.) NBC 5.26 65 NYPD Blue ABC 5.25

66 The West Wing NBC 5.24 67 Dateline: NBC (Fri.) NBC 5.09 Boomtown NBC 5.09 69 Race to Altar NBC 4.99 70 American Dreams NBC 4.93

71 “Stupid Behavior” FOX 4.84 72 Cops FOX 4.76 73 The Family ABC 4.72 74 WWE Smackdown! UPN 4.67 75 Judging Amy CBS 4.63

76 Hack CBS 4.48 77 Dragnet ABC 4.37 78 Futurama FOX 4.31 79 Anything for Love FOX 4.28 80 Dog Eat Dog (10 p.m.) NBC 4.24

The O.C. (Thu.) FOX 4.24 82 48 Hours Investigates (Sat.) CBS 4.20 83 Banzai FOX 3.90 84 Dog Eat Dog (9 p.m.) NBC 3.75 85 Wanda at Large FOX 3.53

86 Bernie Mac FOX 3.51 87 “90210 Ten Year High School Reunion” FOX 3.25 88 Reba (9 p.m.) WB 3.10 89 Grounded For Life WB 3.06 90 “Boys and Girls” ABC 3.05

91 Girlfriends UPN 2.91 92 Half and Half UPN 2.81 93 Boston Public FOX 2.79 94 The Parkers UPN 2.74 95 “House on Haunted Hill” WB 2.72

96 Reba WB 2.71 97 7th Heaven WB 2.62 98 Charmed (9 p.m.) WB 2.60 99 7th Heaven (9 p.m.) WB 2.54 100 The Parkers UPN 2.53

101 Charmed WB 2.41 102 What I Like About You WB 2.39 103 Smallville WB 2.34 104 Just Shoot Me (8:30 p.m.) NBC 2.20 105 “Gilmore Girls Special” WB 2.19

106 Just Shoot Me NBC 2.18 107 Gilmore Girls: Beginnings WB 2.04 108 The Twilight Zone UPN 1.94 109 Enterprise UPN 1.91 110 One On One UPN 1.80

111 “Diamonds Are Forever” UPN 1.80 112 Pepsi Smash WB 1.51 113 Buffy the Vampire Slayer UPN 1.31 114 Abby UPN 1.14

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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 7.88 11.42

NBC 6.78 10.68

ABC 6.55 8.97

FOX 5.40 8.97

UPN 2.47 3.38

WB 2.42 3.70

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