Carrie and the gals still heating up viewers

The heat around HBO’s “Sex and the City” is still simmering among HBO viewers, while the battle between the unscripted talent shows is being won handily by Fox’s “American Juniors,” according to local Nielsen ratings released Tuesday.

The highly publicized sixth season premiere of the romantic misadventures of Carrie Bradshaw and her single gal pals in the Big Apple was off just a bit from last year’s season premiere, but still managed to rank as the most-watched show of the week among HBO subscribers. The season premiere was the second-highest-rated premiere in the show’s history, drew a larger audience than any network show on Sunday among HBO viewers, and was the fourth-highest-rated episode ever for the comedy, which is in its final season.

Although Fox’s “American Juniors” is nowhere near the phenomenon level of its parent “American Idol,” the series, in which young performers -- and their parents -- face off against each other, continues to do well for Fox in terms of total viewers. Faring less well is NBC’s “Fame,” featuring young adults competing in a talent competition. The series is quickly dropping even though it is in the finals phase.

CBS’ “48 Hours Investigates” and its examination of the arrest of convicted felon Andrew Luster was the highest-rated program locally of the week, though it fared less well nationally.

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Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (June 16-22) 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 14.32 2 CSI: Miami CBS 13.69 3 Everybody Loves Raymond CBS 12.95 4 Without a Trace CBS 12.62 5 King of Queens CBS 12.35

6 60 Minutes CBS 11.57 7 Law & Order: Criminal Intent NBC 10.69 8 Law & Order: SVU NBC 10.34 9 Law & Order NBC 10.09 10 American Juniors (Tue.) FOX 9.75

11 Friends NBC 9.61 12 48 Hours Investigates CBS 9.07 13 America’s Funniest Home Videos ABC 8.99 The Simpsons FOX 8.99 15 King of the Hill (8:30 p.m.) FOX 8.97

16 According to Jim ABC 8.90 17 Dateline: NBC (Tue.) NBC 8.76 18 Crime and Punishment NBC 8.65 19 Last Comic Standing NBC 8.62 20 Still Standing CBS 8.49

21 Yes, Dear CBS 8.30 22 Malcolm in the Middle FOX 8.04 23 60 Minutes II CBS 7.83 24 8 Simple Rules ... (8:30 p.m.) ABC 7.80 25 Scrubs NBC 7.77

26 Fear Factor NBC 7.76 27 For Love Or Money NBC 7.75 28 American Juniors (Wed.) FOX 7.74 29 Will & Grace NBC 7.73 30 “28 Days” ABC 7.69

31 My Wife & Kids (Wed., 9 p.m.) ABC 7.68 32 “Funny Flubs and Screw-Ups 10” CBS 7.65 33 George Lopez (9:30 p.m.) ABC 7.62 34 Amazing Race: 4 CBS 7.59 35 8 Simple Rules ABC 7.57

36 Dateline: NBC (Fri.) NBC 7.56 37 Less Than Perfect ABC 7.46 38 Meet My Folks NBC 7.40 39 Dateline: NBC (Sun.) NBC 7.39 40 Primetime Thursday ABC 7.30

41 Paradise Hotel (Wed.) FOX 7.28 42 Becker CBS 6.99 43 “World’s Greatest Bloopers” ABC 6.93 44 ER NBC 6.91 Frasier NBC 6.91

46 JAG CBS 6.86 47 George Lopez ABC 6.85 48 “Cosby Show: A Look Back” NBC 6.74 49 NYPD Blue ABC 6.73 50 Dog Eat Dog NBC 6.71

51 Fame NBC 6.68 52 “Price Is Right: Million 5” CBS 6.67 53 My Wife & Kids (Wed., 8 p.m.) ABC 6.56 54 America’s Most Wanted FOX 6.50 55 “Outrageous Celebrity Look-A-Like Behavior” FOX 6.46

56 That ‘70s Show FOX 6.45 57 Judging Amy CBS 6.32 58 Whose Line Is It Anyway? ABC 6.26 59 Oliver Beene FOX 6.24 60 “Guilty Hearts,” Part 1 CBS 6.18

61 48 Hours Investigates (Fri.) CBS 6.10 62 The Guardian CBS 6.09 63 30 Seconds to Fame FOX 5.86 Cops (8:30 p.m.) FOX 5.86 65 My Wife & Kids (Mon., 9:30 p.m.) ABC 5.83

Anything for Love (Mon., 9:30 p.m.) FOX 5.83 67 My Wife & Kids (Mon., 8 p.m.) ABC 5.82 68 Hack CBS 5.80 69 The District CBS 5.74 70 “101 Dalmatians” ABC 5.69

71 King of the Hill FOX 5.67 72 Stupid Behavior: Caught on Tape FOX 5.61 73 Anything for Love (Mon., 9 p.m.) FOX 5.57 74 Whose Line Is It Anyway? (9:30 p.m.) ABC 5.55 75 The Agency CBS 5.42

76 20/20 (Fri.) ABC 5.41 77 WWE Smackdown! UPN 5.37 78 “Child Stars: Then And Now” NBC 5.15 79 Charlie Lawrence CBS 5.14 80 Keen Eddie FOX 4.92

81 Cops FOX 4.74 82 Baby Bob CBS 4.64 83 Yes, Dear (Fri.) CBS 4.60 84 Crossing Jordan NBC 4.57 85 “View: His & Her Body Test” ABC 4.52

86 Pulse FOX 4.51 87 “Amistad” ABC 4.33 88 Fastlane (9 p.m.) FOX 4.19 89 The Practice ABC 4.17 90 Alias ABC 3.91

91 America’s Next Top Model UPN 3.45 92 “Dumb and Dumber” WB 3.35 93 Fastlane FOX 3.29 94 Reba (9 p.m.) WB 3.02 95 7th Heaven WB 2.79

96 One on One UPN 2.70 97 Reba WB 2.64 98 Girlfriends UPN 2.57 99 Charmed WB 2.41 100 Jamie Kennedy (9:30 p.m.) WB 2.40

101 Jamie Kennedy WB 2.36 Half and Half UPN 2.36 Boarding House WB 2.36 104 Enterprise UPN 2.34 105 The Parkers UPN 2.33

106 Gilmore Girls: Beginnings WB 2.32 107 Grounded for Life WB 2.31 108 Boarding House (Sun.) WB 2.28 109 Smallville WB 2.25 Gilmore Girls WB 2.25

111 What I Like About You WB 2.23 112 Everwood WB 2.05 113 “Live and Let Die” UPN 1.93

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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 8.07 12.09

NBC 7.44 11.26

FOX 6.24 9.55

ABC 6.15 9.56

UPN 2.80 3.46

WB 2.53 3.93

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