Jackson puts ’60 Minutes’ back at No. 1

With Ed Bradley’s Michael Jackson interview on Sunday, “60 Minutes” returned to a place it once found familiar -- first place in the prime-time TV rankings.

Some 18.8 million people watched Jackson defend himself against molestation charges, according to figures released Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research.

But it wasn’t the blockbuster that Jackson’s interview with British journalist Martin Bashir was last February on ABC, drawing 27 million viewers. TV viewership overall was down during the holiday week and viewers may be suffering from Jackson fatigue.

But it was enough to make it the most-watched show. Only Green Bay’s touchdown throwing spree by Brett Favre against the Oakland Raiders on “Monday Night Football” was close.

The venerable newsmagazine has spent whole seasons as TV’s most popular show. But it hadn’t been the most-watched show during any week of a TV season since November 1998.

“60 Minutes” has one of the oldest audiences on television, and the Jackson interview drew the newsmagazine’s best ratings among viewers aged 18-to-49 in nearly four years.

The show has been undergoing a renaissance in founding executive producer Don Hewitt’s final year at the show’s helm. Its viewership is up 14% over last year and the show has spent five of the past six weeks in Nielsen’s top 10.

It enabled CBS to continue its dominance of the current TV season, averaging 9.7 million viewers. ABC finished second with 8.1 million and won for the first time this season among the 18-to-49 demographic that advertisers covet.

From Associated Press

Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (Dec. 22-28) 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.

*--* Program Network Viewers 1 60 Minutes CBS 18.78 2 NFL Today Post-Game CBS 18.52 3 Monday Night Football ABC 17.16 4 CSI: Miami CBS 13.64 5 NFL Monday Showcase ABC 13.60

6 Everybody Loves Raymond CBS 13.39 7 Two and a Half Men CBS 12.63 8 CSI CBS 12.37 9 Without a Trace CBS 12.15 10 Law & Order: SVU NBC 11.90

11 “Kennedy Center Honors” CBS 11.19 12 Law & Order: Criminal Intent NBC 10.69 13 “One True Thing” CBS 10.67 14 Dateline NBC (Sun.) NBC 10.49 15 Yes, Dear CBS 10.11

16 Still Standing CBS 9.96 17 Fox NFL Post-Game FOX 9.90 18 “Dreamkeeper” Part 1 ABC 9.84 19 8 Simple Rules ABC 9.43 20 Fear Factor NBC 9.40

According to Jim ABC 9.40 22 Cold Case CBS 8.96 23 Boomtown (Sun.) NBC 8.89 24 Joan of Arcadia CBS 8.74 25 Less Than Perfect ABC 8.54

26 Dateline NBC (Sun.) NBC 8.52 27 Las Vegas NBC 8.21 28 Dateline NBC (Fri.) NBC 8.08 29 America’s Most Wanted FOX 8.03 30 20/20 (Fri.) ABC 7.98

31 Cops (8:30 p.m.) FOX 7.95 32 The Simple Life FOX 7.90 33 “The Sound of Music” ABC 7.85 34 I’m With Her ABC 7.58 35 Frasier NBC 7.57

36 Happy Family NBC 7.48 37 Whoopi NBC 7.45 38 48 Hours Investigates CBS 7.37 39 “TV Guide: Greatest Moments” ABC 7.36 40 “American Idol Christmas” FOX 7.25

41 “Holiday Hoops” ABC 7.19 42 The Tracy Morgan Show NBC 7.04 43 Friends NBC 6.87 44 “It’s a Wonderful Life” NBC 6.76 60 Minutes II CBS 6.76

46 Becker CBS 6.63 47 Judging Amy CBS 6.60 48 Las Vegas (10 p.m.) NBC 6.56 49 That ‘70s Show (Tue., 8 p.m.) FOX 6.52 50 “World Idol” Part 1 FOX 6.47

51 “Funniest Holiday Moments” FOX 6.42 52 The Guardian CBS 6.35 53 Hope & Faith ABC 6.22 “Home for the Holidays” CBS 6.22 55 ER NBC 6.15

56 Life With Bonnie ABC 6.07 57 Line of Fire ABC 6.04 58 “Wild Wild West” CBS 5.95 59 George Lopez (Fri.) ABC 5.94 60 Boomtown (Sat., 9 p.m.) NBC 5.77

61 King of Queens CBS 5.62 62 America’s Funniest Home Videos ABC 5.58 63 “Ace Ventura: Private Detective” NBC 5.50 64 “Die Hard” FOX 5.45 65 The District CBS 5.37

66 Boomtown (Sat., 8 p.m.) NBC 5.28 67 The Simpsons (7:30 p.m.) FOX 5.24 68 Will & Grace NBC 5.22 69 Threat Matrix ABC 5.10 70 My Wife & Kids ABC 5.09

71 Married to the Kellys (Fri.) ABC 5.07 72 George Lopez (Wed.) ABC 4.96 73 Tracy Morgan Show (Thu.) NBC 4.95 74 WWE Smackdown! UPN 4.94 75 The Simpsons (Mon.) FOX 4.88

76 Scrubs NBC 4.81 77 King of the Hill FOX 4.65 78 Boomtown (Sat., 8 p.m.) NBC 4.49 79 “Greatest Christmas Moments” FOX 4.33 80 It’s All Relative ABC 4.29

81 Married to the Kellys (Wed.) ABC 4.24 82 Malcolm in the Middle FOX 4.23 83 Charmed WB 3.56 84 The Simpsons (7 p.m.) FOX 3.40 85 Reba WB 3.31

86 Charmed WB 3.29 Eve UPN 3.29 88 “Anastasia” FOX 3.20 89 Arrested Development FOX 3.17 90 Girlfriends UPN 3.11

91 All of Us UPN 3.06 92 Grounded for Life WB 3.03 93 One on One UPN 2.98 94 The Parkers UPN 2.93 95 Gilmore Girls WB 2.88

96 Half and Half UPN 2.86 97 Steve Harvey’s Big Time WB 2.76 98 Steve Harvey’s Big Time (8:30 p.m.) WB 2.73 Like Family WB 2.73 100 7th Heaven WB 2.69

101 What I Like About You WB 2.63 102 Smallville WB 2.61 103 Smallville (9 p.m.) WB 2.56 104 One Tree Hill WB 2.55 105 Everwood WB 2.32

106 Jamie Kennedy WB 2.29 107 Rock Me Baby UPN 2.20 108 Jamie Kennedy (9:30 p.m.) WB 2.09 109 Smallville: Beginnings WB 1.99 110 Girlfriends (Tue.) UPN 1.86

111 Enterprise UPN 1.53

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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 9.73 13.12

ABC 8.10 9.57

NBC 7.34 10.67

FOX 6.01 9.44

WB 2.71 3.86

UPN 2.62 3.48

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