‘CSI’ helps CBS stay in ratings lead

CBS handily won the prime-time ratings race for the second week of the television season, with “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” continuing as the nation’s most popular show, according to Nielsen Media data released Tuesday.

NBC was tops among the 18- to 49-year-old age demographic that advertisers care about most, but its popularity is off from last year.

The two networks still dominate series television. Among the 28 most-watched programs in prime time last week, the only nonsports show from another network was ABC’s “8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter.”

Viewership for NBC on Friday night was down 40% from the same night a year ago, with “Miss Match” and “Boomtown” failing to catch interest so far.

NBC has also seen viewership decline for longtime comedies “Friends” and “Frasier.” Kelsey Grammer’s “Frasier” was second in its time slot to ABC’s “According to Jim” last week.

Cable’s TLC recorded its highest ratings ever on Sunday night when 9.1 million people watched a special edition of “Trading Spaces.” It beat NBC’s “American Dreams.”

For the week, CBS averaged 13.1 million viewers, NBC had 10.9 million viewers, ABC had 9.8 million, Fox had 9.6 million, the WB had 4.6 million, UPN had 3.4 million and Pax TV had 950,000.

NBC’s “Nightly News” won the evening-news ratings race, averaging 9 million viewers. ABC’s “World News Tonight” had 8.8 million and the “CBS Evening News” had 7.5 million.

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Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (Sept. 29-Oct. 5) 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 26.65 2 Friends NBC 22.37 3 ER NBC 20.76 4 Everybody Loves Raymond CBS 20.47 5 Survivor: Pearl Islands CBS 19.68

6 Monday Night Football ABC 17.73 7 Law & Order NBC 17.50 8 CSI: Miami CBS 17.32 9 Scrubs NBC 17.15 10 Will & Grace NBC 16.80

11 The West Wing NBC 16.32 12 Two and a Half Men CBS 16.18 13 8 Simple Rules ABC 15.50 14 Baseball Playoffs (Sun.) FOX 15.41 15 Without a Trace CBS 15.25

16 NFL Monday Night Showcase ABC 15.16 17 Law & Order: Criminal Intent NBC 14.28 18 Cold Case CBS 13.95 19 King of Queens CBS 13.64 20 Still Standing CBS 13.42

21 JAG CBS 13.42 22 Coupling NBC 12.93 23 Fear Factor NBC 12.64 24 Joan of Arcadia CBS 12.49 25 60 Minutes CBS 12.31

26 The Guardian CBS 12.11 27 Navy NCIS CBS 12.08 28 I’m With Her ABC 11.95 29 According to Jim (9 p.m.) ABC 11.85 30 Frasier NBC 11.82

31 Judging Amy CBS 11.81 32 Yes, Dear CBS 11.79 33 “Blessings” CBS 11.70 34 My Wife and Kids ABC 11.64 35 Las Vegas NBC 11.50

36 Law & Order: SVU NBC 11.48 37 Third Watch NBC 11.31 38 Baseball Playoffs (Tue.) FOX 10.86 39 It’s All Relative ABC 10.79 40 The Handler CBS 10.51

41 NYPD Blue ABC 10.43 42 Less Than Perfect ABC 10.16 43 60 Minutes II CBS 10.15 44 The Bachelor ABC 10.13 45 Lyon’s Den NBC 10.07

46 The Practice ABC 9.94 47 Hope & Faith ABC 9.90 48 The District CBS 9.89 49 Alias ABC 9.40 50 Karen Sisco ABC 9.13

51 Whoopi NBC 8.94 52 10-8 ABC 8.91 53 Happy Family NBC 8.81 54 20/20 (Fri.) ABC 8.81 55 Baseball Playoffs (Thur.) FOX 8.71

56 Good Morning Miami NBC 8.68 57 Paradise Hotel (Wed.) FOX 8.67 58 Extreme Makeover (Thur.) ABC 8.43 59 “Lilo and Stitch” ABC 8.28 60 Dateline NBC (Fri.) NBC 8.27

61 Ed NBC 8.24 62 Hack CBS 8.12 63 Life With Bonnie ABC 8.06 64 Married to the Kellys ABC 8.04 65 Law & Order: SVU (Sat.) NBC 7.82

66 Primetime Thursday ABC 7.78 67 George Lopez Show ABC 7.61 68 America’s Most Wanted FOX 7.48 69 Funniest Home Videos ABC 7.47 70 American Dreams NBC 7.36

71 7th Heaven WB 7.24 72 Threat Matrix ABC 7.18 73 Brotherhood of Poland NH CBS 7.15 74 48 Hours Investigates CBS 6.84 75 Smallville WB 6.82

76 Primetime Monday ABC 6.79 77 Paradise Hotel (Wed.) FOX 6.74 78 Boomtown NBC 6.65 79 Cops (8:30 p.m.) FOX 5.96 80 Miss Match NBC 5.93

81 Charmed WB 5.84 82 Everwood WB 5.74 83 Cops FOX 5.72 84 Dateline NBC (Sun.) NBC 5.70 85 Tarzan WB 5.45

86 Temptation Island 3 FOX 5.18 87 Angel WB 5.16 88 Las Vegas (Sat.) NBC 5.03 89 Gilmore Girls WB 4.92 90 L.A. Dragnet ABC 4.91

91 All of Us UPN 4.70 92 Boston Public FOX 4.55 93 Wanda at Large FOX 4.54 94 Enterprise UPN 4.51 95 Half and Half UPN 4.48

96 Girlfriends UPN 4.36 97 Las Vegas (Sat., 8 p.m.) NBC 4.26 98 WWE Smackdown! UPN 4.23 99 Eve UPN 4.19 100 Reba WB 4.13

101 One on One UPN 3.93 102 Luis FOX 3.84 103 The Parkers UPN 3.65 104 Jamie Kennedy Experience WB 3.34 105 Life Family WB 3.33

106 One Tree Hill WB 3.30 107 Steve Harvey’s Big Time WB 3.23 108 Smallville (Sun.) WB 3.19 109 Rock Me Baby UPN 3.08 110 Grounded for Life WB 2.82

111 All About Andersons WB 2.69 112 Jake 2.0 UPN 2.66 113 What I Like About You WB 2.51 114 The Mullets UPN 2.42

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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 13.08 13.54

NBC 10.89 11.73

ABC 9.78 10.19

FOX 9.56 7.89

WB 4.61 4.31

UPN 3.38 3.39

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