Donald Trump gives NBC a nice, fat bonus

NBC owes Donald Trump a big thank-you bouquet: The outsized real estate mogul was almost single-handedly responsible for the network’s ratings sweep last week.

The finale of “The Apprentice,” where Trump hired Bill Rancic to oversee a Chicago construction project, was seen by more than 28 million people last week.

That was only the beginning, though. A “Dateline NBC” behind-the-scenes look at “The Apprentice” had 10.4 million viewers and ranked No. 22 in viewership for the week. The previous week, the highest rated “Dateline” installment finished in 44th place.

NBC News received criticism for its extensive Trump coverage. But it paid off in the ratings: A Trump profile on “Dateline NBC” was the second most-watched show (behind a “Cold Case” rerun) on Friday night.

The “Miss USA” pageant, which moved to NBC after many years on CBS, had its biggest audience in six years. The pageant’s owner? Donald Trump.

A special edition of “Fear Factor” with Miss USA contestants landed in Nielsen’s top 10, drawing more viewers than the pageant itself.

Trump TV enabled NBC to win the week with 11.6 million viewers, a competition dominated by CBS this season. NBC also handily won among the 18- to 49-year-old demographic that advertisers love.

“The Apprentice” did trail in teens ages 12 to 17 (who are too young to be job-hunting anyway). Fox’s “The O.C.” was No. 1 with that group, while “The Apprentice” finished fourth.

CBS was second with 10.8 million viewers. The network crowed that its three Thursday night shows -- “Survivor All-Stars,” “CSI” and “Without a Trace” -- all ended up in the week’s top five.

Fox, hurt in the ratings when President Bush’s news conference forced the network to move back “American Idol,” averaged 8.3 million and ABC had 7.4 million. The WB had 3.4 million viewers and UPN 2.9 million.

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*--* Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (April 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. Program Net- work View- ers Program Net- work View- ers

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*--* 1 Apprentice NBC 28.05 2 CSI CBS 23.79 3 American Idol (Wed.) FOX 23.10 4 Survivor: All-Stars CBS 20.42 5 Without a Trace CBS 17.13

6 Friends (8:30 p.m.) NBC 16.84 7 Law & Order NBC 16.16 8 American Idol (Thu.) FOX 15.33 9 Fear Factor NBC 14.66 10 Law & Order: Criminal Intent NBC 14.25

11 Friends NBC 13.49 12 Crossing Jordan NBC 13.31 13 CSI: Miami CBS 13.24 14 “Miss USA 2004” NBC 13.10 15 Cold Case CBS 12.93

16 Two and a Half Men (9:30 p.m.) CBS 11.25 17 Law & Order: SVU NBC 11.24 18 60 Minutes CBS 11.15 19 Two and a Half Men (9 p.m.) CBS 11.01 20 The O.C. FOX 10.49

21 The Bachelor ABC 10.47 22 Dateline: NBC (Wed.) NBC 10.37 23 Two and a Half Men (8:30 p.m.) CBS 10.15 24 Two and a Half Men (8 p.m.) CBS 9.80 25 NYPD Blue ABC 9.78

26 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (Sun.) AB C 9.74 27 “Along Came a Spider” CBS 9.64 28 Cold Case (Fri.) CBS 9.63 29 Extreme Makeover (Wed.) ABC 9.59 30 The Simpsons (8:30 p.m.) FOX 9.42

31 Frasier (Tue.) NBC 9.40 32 King of Queens (Wed., 9:30 p.m.) CBS 9.35 33 The District CBS 9.33 Dateline: NBC (Fri.) NBC 9.33 35 The Simpsons FOX 9.21

36 The Practice ABC 8.82 37 20/20 (Fri.) ABC 8.78 38 King of Queens (Wed., 9 p.m.) CBS 8.72 39 “Air Force One” ABC 8.47 40 That ‘70s Show (8 p.m.) FOX 8.44

41 Third Watch NBC 8.42 42 The Swan FOX 8.31 43 48 Hours Investigates CBS 8.18 44 60 Minutes II CBS 8.07 45 America’s Funniest Home Videos ABC 7.99

46 Alias ABC 7.96 47 Whoopi NBC 7.94 48 Dateline: NBC (Sun.) NBC 7.88 49 JAG CBS 7.78 50 King of Queens (Tue.) CBS 7.72

51 Cops (8:30 p.m.) FOX 7.54 52 “Miss Congeniality” CBS 7.50 53 8 Simple Rules ABC 7.46 54 My Wife and Kids ABC 7.39 Still Standing (Tue.) CBS 7.39

56 America’s Most Wanted FOX 7.24 57 Judging Amy CBS 6.89 George Lopez ABC 6.89 59 Hope & Faith ABC 6.86 60 According to Jim ABC 6.51

61 24 FOX 6.47 62 Cops FOX 6.44 63 The Big House (Fri.) ABC 6.39 64 Tru Calling FOX 6.37 65 King of the Hill (7:30 p.m.) FOX 6.36

66 Primetime Thursday ABC 6.34 67 Bernie Mac (Mon., 8:30 p.m.) FOX 6.25 68 That ‘70s Show (9:30 p.m.) FOX 6.21 69 Big House (Wed.) ABC 6.13 70 Bernie Mac FOX 6.11

71 King of the Hill (7 p.m.) FOX 5.82 72 Married to the Kellys ABC 5.72 73 Apprentice (Wed.) NBC 5.50 74 Survivor: All-Stars (Fri.) CBS 5.39 75 Baseball: N.Y.-Boston FOX 5.34

76 “The Mummy Returns” ABC 5.32 77 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (Thu.) ABC 5.09 78 Gilmore Girls WB 4.95 79 One Tree Hill WB 4.81 80 Smallville WB 4.48

81 WWE Smackdown! UPN 4.41 82 Everwood WB 4.33 83 7th Heaven WB 4.12 84 Charmed WB 3.86 85 The Simpsons (Thu.) FOX 3.81

86 Stephen King’s Kingdom Hospital ABC 3.51 87 Dateline: NBC (Sat.) NBC 3.43 88 Angel WB 3.32 89 One on One UPN 3.25 90 All of Us UPN 3.21

91 Reba WB 3.20 92 High School Reunion (9 p.m.) WB 3.15 93 Apprentice (Sat.) NBC 3.10 94 Half and Half (Mon.) UPN 2.99 95 Girlfriends UPN 2.87

96 I’m Still Alive UPN 2.80 97 Rock Me Baby UPN 2.57 98 What I Like About You WB 2.39 99 Grounded for Life WB 2.35 100 Half and Half (Tue.) UPN 2.30

101 The Parkers UPN 2.28 Eve UPN 2.28 103 Help WB 2.25 104 Jamie Kennedy (9:30 p.m.) WB 2.19 105 Jamie Kennedy WB 2.11

Like Family WB 2.11 107 “Blade” UPN 2.10 108 Enterprise UPN 2.05 109 Steve Harvey’s Big Time WB 1.97 110 High School Reunion (7 p.m.) WB 1.62

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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 NBC 11.63 10.92

CBS 10.76 13.25

FOX 8.28 9.71

ABC 7.44 9.19

WB 3.38 3.64

UPN 2.87 3.21

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