Father does best versus ‘CSI: Miami’

TV viewers are getting a reality check this summer, as unscripted shows accounted for five of the top 20 series last week, according to national Nielsen figures.

The Aug. 11 finale of NBC’s “Who Wants to Marry My Dad?” landed as the top-ranked show among total audiences, beating out the popular “CSI: Miami” on CBS. Two installments of “Big Brother 4” ranked 6th and 8th, respectively; “Fear Factor” was 15th; and “The Restaurant” was 16th.

Meanwhile, Fox continued to be pleased with the performance of its youth drama, “The O.C.,” which is building on its premiere three weeks ago.

On the cable front, the return of “The Man Show” on Comedy Central last Sunday registered its strongest premiere numbers in four years, with more than 1.7 million viewers tuning in to see new hosts Joe Rogan and Doug Stanhope. The series was previously hosted by Adam Corrola and Jimmy Kimmel.

(Ratings for last week were delayed to the blackout in several major cities, and do not include results for Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights.)

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Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (Aug. 11-17) 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. 2 and older. Viewership is listed in millions.

*--* Program Net- work View- ers Program Net- work View- ers 1 Who Wants to Marry NBC 11.11 My Dad? 2 Everybody Loves CBS 11.09 Raymond 3 60 Minutes CBS 10.73 4 King of Queens CBS 10.02 5 CSI: Miami CBS 9.95

6 Big Brother 4 CBS 9.92 (Wed.) 7 For Love or Money 2 NBC 9.87 8 Big Brother 4 CBS 9.68 9 Law and Order: NBC 9.22 Criminal Intent 10 60 Minutes II CBS 9.19

11 Law and Order NBC 8.99 12 Law and Order: SVU NBC 8.93 (Tue.) 13 48 Hours CBS 8.61 Investigates (Wed.) 14 Without a Trace CBS 8.41 (Sun.) 15 Fear Factor NBC 8.23

16 Restaurant NBC 8.10 17 O.C FOX 7.86 18 According to Jim ABC 7.53 (9 p.m.) 19 George Lopez ABC 7.41 20 The Simpsons FOX 7.25

21 Dateline: NBC NBC 7.19 (Sun.) 22 “True Crime” CBS 7.18 23 8 Simple Rules ABC 7.13 Malcolm in the FOX 7.13 Middle (9:30 p.m.) King of the Hill FOX 7.13 (8:30 p.m.)

26 Still Standing CBS 7.10 27 “Miss Teen USA” NBC 7.09 28 Yes, Dear CBS 6.95 29 American Juniors FOX 6.77 (Tue.) 30 Malcolm in the FOX 6.66 Middle

31 Paradise Hotel FOX 6.57 (Wed.) 32 That ‘70s Show FOX 6.50 33 My Wife and Kids ABC 6.42 34 Less Than Perfect ABC 6.33 35 The Simpsons (Wed.) FOX 6.28

36 Life With Bonnie ABC 6.19 37 Cupid CBS 5.98 38 “That’s ABC 5.64 Incredible: Reunion” 39 Paradise Hotel FOX 5.55 (Mon.) “Storm of the ABC 5.55 Century,” Part 3

41 NYPD Blue ABC 5.43 42 The West Wing NBC 5.32 43 “Storm of the ABC 5.06 Century,” Part 2 44 Judging Amy CBS 4.99 45 O.C. (Mon.) FOX 4.90

46 American Dreams NBC 4.81 47 Race to Altar NBC 4.40 Futurama FOX 4.40 49 The Real Roseanne ABC 4.29 Show 50 The Family ABC 3.95

51 Banzai FOX 3.49 52 “X-Games IX” ABC 3.40 53 Half and Half UPN 3.21 54 7th Heaven WB 3.10 55 Girlfriends UPN 3.07

56 The Parkers (8:30 UPN 3.04 p.m.) 57 7th Heaven (9 p.m.) WB 2.76 58 The Parkers UPN 2.60 59 Smallville WB 2.55 60 Charmed (9 p.m.) WB 2.26

61 Charmed WB 2.24 62 “Gilmore Girls: WB 2.23 The Movie” 63 Gilmore Girls: WB 2.05 Beginnings 64 Pepsi Smash WB 1.96 One On One UPN 1.96

66 Abby UPN 1.94 Enterprise UPN 1.94 68 Enterprise (9 p.m.) UPN 1.92 69 Buffy the Vampire UPN 1.45 Slayer

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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 8.42 11.38

NBC 7.71 10.65

FOX 6.23 8.93

ABC 5.22 8.92

WB 2.38 3.68

UPN 2.20 3.36

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