Sweeps has ABC on ropes

Already destined to place fourth for the May rating sweeps, ABC faces two dubious cliffhangers as the TV season ratings race nears the finish line, with Fox breathing down its neck in total viewing and CBS looking to edge it out among key adult demographics, based on viewing estimates issued Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research.

Fox -- which through Sunday trails ABC by a mere 150,000 viewers in an average minute of prime time -- figures to get a significant boost from the “American Idol” finale tonight, marking the official end of the TV season that began in September. Fox has never beaten one of the three elder networks in total audience for the season.

CBS, the most-watched network, is also neck-and-neck with ABC among young-adult demographics. ABC is assured a fourth-place finish by both measures for the current sweeps, which also concludes tonight.

NBC helped its cause Sunday with back-to-back episodes of “Law & Order: Criminal Intent,” which drew a larger audience than “The Bachelor” finale and CBS’ miniseries “Hitler: The Rise of Evil.” “Friends” also surged with its expanded ninth-season finale.

“Dawson’s Creek’s” series finale scored a demographic coup, attracting the WB network’s highest ratings ever among young adults age 18 to 34, a core audience for the network.

The NBA basketball playoffs provided a lift to TNT, which averaged 3 million viewers last week.

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Prime-Time TV Rankings

Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (May 12-18) 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 Friends NBC 25.46 2 American Idol (Wed.) FOX 25.35 3 CSI CBS 23.87 4 American Idol (Tue.) FOX 23.36 5 ER NBC 21.61

6 Will & Grace NBC 20.28 7 Everybody Loves Raymond CBS 18.71 8 Law & Order NBC 18.33 9 CSI: Miami CBS 17.23 10 Law & Order: Criminal Intent (10 p.m.) NBC 16.16

11 Bernie Mac FOX 15.84 12 Without a Trace CBS 15.66 13 Still Standing CBS 15.46 14 “Bachelor” ABC 15.05 15 Law & Order: Criminal Intent NBC 14.46

16 The West Wing NBC 13.79 17 Law & Order: SVU NBC 13.72 18 “Hitler: The Rise of Evil,” Part 1 CBS 13.62 19 That ‘70s Show FOX 13.57 20 The Simpsons (8:30) FOX 13.44

21 60 Minutes CBS 12.94 22 Judging Amy CBS 12.79 23 24 FOX 12.72 24 JAG CBS 12.63 25 CSI (8 p.m.) CBS 12.30

26 Yes, Dear CBS 12.28 27 The Simpsons FOX 12.10 28 NYPD Blue ABC 11.77 29 The Guardian CBS 11.71 30 King of Queens CBS 11.58

31 Fear Factor NBC 11.04 32 Malcolm in the Middle FOX 10.83 33 CSI (Fri., 10 p.m.) CBS 10.74 34 Star Search CBS 10.61 35 60 Minutes II CBS 10.57

36 Malcolm in the Middle (9:30 p.m.) FOX 10.48 37 Frasier NBC 10.42 38 The District CBS 10.41 39 Star Search (Wed.) CBS 10.38 40 “Bachelor: Women Tell All” ABC 10.09

41 “Behind the Camera: Three’s Company” NBC 9.91 42 Extreme Makeover (Wed.) ABC 9.81 43 Law & Order: SVU (Sat.) NBC 9.71 44 48 Hours Investigates CBS 9.65 45 Dateline: NBC (Tue.) NBC 9.64 46 CSI (Fri., 9 p.m.) CBS 9.59

47 Lakers vs. Spurs (Thu.) ABC 9.48 48 Dateline: NBC (Wed.) NBC 9.27 49 My Wife and Kids ABC 9.21 50 Law & Order: SVU NBC 9.10

51 American Dreams NBC 9.02 52 According to Jim (9 p.m.) ABC 9.00 53 The Agency CBS 8.73 54 Boston Public FOX 8.71 55 “Daytime Emmy Awards” ABC 8.63

56 George Lopez ABC 8.47 57 “Price Is Right: Million 6” CBS 8.38 58 Less Than Perfect ABC 7.79 59 8 Simple Rules ABC 7.45 60 Watching Ellie NBC 7.44

61 America’s Most Wanted FOX 7.36 62 “Most Outrageous Game Show Moments 5” NBC 7.35 63 Dawson’s Creek WB 7.30 64 “Me, Myself and Irene” FOX 7.23 65 “All ABC Bloopers” ABC 7.18

66 Lakers-Spurs Postgame ABC 7.10 67 Smallville WB 7.06 68 7th Heaven WB 7.05 69 King of the Hill FOX 7.04 70 Mr. Personality FOX 7.03

Dateline: NBC (Sun.) NBC 7.03 72 According to Jim ABC 6.87 73 Cops (8:30 p.m.) FOX 6.63 74 “The Diary of Ellen Rimbauer” ABC 6.42 75 Law & Order (Sat.) NBC 6.38

76 Dateline: NBC (Fri.) NBC 6.32 77 “The Waterboy” ABC 6.25 78 “Charlie’s Angels” ABC 6.23 79 Cops FOX 6.09 80 Everwood WB 5.37

81 WWE Smackdown! UPN 5.05 82 Gilmore Girls WB 5.04 83 King of the Hill (7 p.m.) FOX 4.84 84 “Tim Allen Presents” ABC 4.75 85 “Most Outrageous Game Show Moments 5” NBC 4.66

86 Girlfriends UPN 4.26 87 Buffy the Vampire Slayer UPN 4.06 88 Half and Half UPN 4.04 89 “Married With Children Reunion” FOX 3.97 90 One on One UPN 3.64

91 Pulse FOX 3.56 92 Enterprise (9 p.m.) UPN 3.54 93 Enterprise UPN 3.30 94 “Mummy” WB 3.13 95 The Parkers UPN 3.06

96 Platinum UPN 2.13 97 “Celebrity Look-a-Likes” WB 2.11 98 “Thin Line Between Love and Hate” WB 2.05 99 Jamie Kennedy WB 2.04 100 “Outrageous Outtakes” WB 1.90

101 “Interview With the Vampire” UPN 1.66

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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 12.61 12.54

NBC 11.96 11.65

FOX 10.41 9.83

ABC 8.62 9.96

WB 4.31 4.08

UPN 3.40 3.52

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