Viewers are game for ‘Survivor,’ ‘Apprentice’

Producer Mark Burnett continued riding high last week with two of his prime-time games -- “Survivor: All-Stars” and “The Apprentice” -- among the five most popular shows last week.

“Survivor” was seen by 21.7 million viewers, and the Donald Trump game had an audience of 20.2 million, according to Nielsen Media Research.

“The Apprentice” was also the second-most watched show of the week, behind Tuesday night’s “American Idol” on Fox, among viewers 18 to 49 -- the demographic most coveted by advertisers.

Some of the more interesting stories were near the bottom of the ratings list, however.

That’s where you’ll find two of ABC’s biggest hopes for this spring -- the drama “The D.A.” and the miniseries “Stephen King’s Kingdom Hospital.” Each had a little more than 5 million viewers last week, fewer than any other prime-time show on ABC, CBS or NBC.

Fox’s critically praised drama, “Wonderfalls,” ranked No. 107 for the week with only 2.9 million viewers, leading to its cancellation. Another Fox reality series, “Forever Eden,” had a paltry 3 million viewers.

ABC’s new comedy, “The Big House,” is off to a slow start, attracting just 6.1 million viewers in its premiere Friday.

This season’s usual front-runner, CBS, led again for the week with an average of 13.2 million viewers. NBC was second with 11.1 million but led among the 18-to-49-year-old demographic. Fox had 8.3 million viewers; ABC, 7.4 million; UPN, 2.8 million; and the WB, 2.6 million.

Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (March 29-April 4) 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 CSI CBS 26.47 2 American Idol (Tue.) FOX 25.88 3 American Idol (Wed.) FOX 21.87 4 Survivor: All-Stars CBS 21.69 5 Apprentice NBC 20.17

6 CSI: Miami CBS 19.67 7 ER NBC 19.24 8 Without a Trace CBS 18.12 9 Law & Order NBC 17.86 10 NCAA Basketball (Sat.) CBS 16.74

11 Law & Order: SVU NBC 15.55 12 Everybody Loves Raymond CBS 15.41 13 Two and Half Men CBS 14.91 14 Cold Case CBS 14.25 15 Fear Factor NBC 13.78

16 Friends NBC 13.59 17 “NCAA Bridge Show” CBS 13.48 Will & Grace NBC 13.48 19 Crossing Jordan NBC 12.94 20 Law & Order: Criminal Intent NBC 12.39

21 60 Minutes CBS 12.06 22 Las Vegas NBC 11.74 23 24 FOX 11.50 24 The O.C. FOX 11.37 25 Frasier NBC 11.23

26 CSI: Miami (Sun.) CBS 11.22 27 That ‘70s Show FOX 11.21 28 JAG CBS 11.01 29 The West Wing NBC 10.95 30 Still Standing CBS 10.69

31 Navy NCIS CBS 10.57 32 Without a Trace (Sun.) CBS 10.51 33 Law & Order: Criminal Intent (Fri.) NBC 10.40 34 “The Ten Commandments” ABC 10.20 35 According to Jim ABC 10.13

36 60 Minutes II CBS 10.07 37 King of Queens CBS 9.92 38 Extreme Makeover (Wed.) ABC 9.69 39 Average Joe: Adam Returns NBC 9.61 40 Joan of Arcadia CBS 9.50

41 Dateline: NBC (Fri.) NBC 9.50 42 Yes, Dear CBS 9.32 43 48 Hours Investigates CBS 9.22 44 Scrubs NBC 9.21 45 NYPD Blue ABC 9.15

46 The Simpsons (8:30 p.m.) FOX 8.94 47 My Wife and Kids ABC 8.91 48 The District CBS 8.70 49 Law & Order (Sat.) NBC 8.58 50 It’s All Relative ABC 8.57

51 My Wife and Kids (8:30 p.m.) ABC 8.52 52 American Dreams NBC 8.44 53 Malcolm in the Middle FOX 8.10 54 The Simpsons FOX 7.85 55 Century City CBS 7.61

56 8 Simple Rules ABC 7.59 57 Cops (9 p.m.) FOX 7.44 58 Primetime Thursday ABC 7.16 59 Cops (8:30 p.m.) FOX 7.07 60 Hope & Faith ABC 7.03

61 Judging Amy CBS 6.97 62 The Stones CBS 6.94 63 Cops (9:30 p.m.) FOX 6.83 64 George Lopez ABC 6.75 65 Life With Bonnie ABC 6.50

66 Extreme Makeover (Thu.) ABC 6.46 67 Bernie Mac FOX 6.37 68 Whoopi NBC 6.32 69 “The Haunting” ABC 6.24 70 The Big House ABC 6.13

71 I’m With Her ABC 6.11 72 Dateline: NBC (Sun.) NBC 6.10 73 America’s Funniest Home Videos ABC 6.08 74 Apprentice (Wed.) NBC 6.00 75 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (Thu.) ABC 5.99

76 Cops (8 p.m.) FOX 5.64 77 20/20 ABC 5.58 78 Happy Family NBC 5.56 79 “Thomas Crown Affair” NBC 5.51 Arrested Development FOX 5.51

81 “The Emperor’s New Groove” ABC 5.43 That ‘70s Show (Mon., 9:30 p.m.) FOX 5.43 83 Tru Calling FOX 5.19 84 The D.A. ABC 5.10 85 Stephen King’s Kingdom Hospital ABC 5.09

86 King of the Hill FOX 5.00 87 That ‘70s Show (Mon., 9 p.m.) FOX 4.84 88 WWE Smackdown! UPN 4.80 89 World’s Craziest Videos FOX 4.28 90 Cracking Up FOX 4.09 91 Reba (8:30 p.m.) WB 4.00 92 Eve UPN 3.97 93 Girlfriends UPN 3.88 94 King of the Hill (7 p.m.) FOX 3.87 95 Totally Outrageous Behavior FOX 3.86

96 Half and Half UPN 3.75 97 Reba WB 3.70 98 Steve Harvey’s Big Time WB 3.33 99 7th Heaven WB 3.22 100 Half and Half (8 p.m.) UPN 3.08

101 Forever Eden (Fri.) FOX 3.05 102 All of Us UPN 2.98 103 Smallville WB 2.94 104 Wonderfalls FOX 2.93 105 High School Reunion WB 2.81

106 Smallville (9 p.m.) WB 2.76 107 One on One UPN 2.70 108 Charmed WB 2.60 109 Rock Me Baby UPN 2.59 110 Gilmore Girls WB 2.58

111 Grounded for Life WB 2.51 112 Like Family WB 2.50 113 Jamie Kennedy WB 2.49 114 Rock Me Baby (9:30 p.m.) UPN 2.33 115 Help WB 2.11

High School Reunion (Tue.) WB 2.11 117 Everwood WB 2.04 118 Enterprise UPN 2.02 119 Jamie Kennedy (9:30 p.m.) WB 1.99 120 Smallville: Beginnings WB 1.95

121 Enterprise (9 p.m.) UPN 1.84

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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 13.16 13.41

NBC 11.07 10.93

FOX 8.27 9.80

ABC 7.35 9.30

UPN 2.81 3.50

WB 2.64 3.69

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