Investigating with ‘CSI’ and ‘Monk’

Perhaps it was the absence of organized protests from outraged rednecks that allowed the WB’s Jeff Foxworthy series “Blue Collar TV” on Thursday to edge out UPN’s controversial “Amish in the City” Wednesday night as the top series debut last week.

Even so, those shows were only the 44th and 45th most-watched shows of the week ending Sunday, according to data released Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research. They couldn’t even match the 5.4 million tally that “Monk,” on cable’s USA Network, drew on Friday.

CBS once again dominated the week in total viewers, with the top seven shows. Both versions of “CSI” topped the list. CBS was also helped by an original episode of the venerable “60 Minutes” on Sunday and the surging popularity of the unscripted “Amazing Race 5.”

Fox celebrated the success of its new unscripted show “Trading Spouses: Meet Your New Mommy,” which improved on its first-week numbers to finish as the No. 8 program, attracting more than 9 million viewers. That’s nearly 2 million more than watched the premiere.

-- Jonathan Taylor

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Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (July 26-Aug. 1) 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. ages 2 and older. Viewership is listed in millions.

*--* Program Network Viewers 1 CSI CBS 13.47 2 CSI: Miami CBS 11.88 3 60 Minutes CBS 10.87 4 Cold Case CBS 10.32 5 “The Pilot’s Wife” CBS 10.17

6 Amazing Race: 5 CBS 10.05 7 Two and a Half Men (Mon.) CBS 9.58 8 Trading Spouses FOX 9.26 9 Everybody Loves Raymond CBS 9.20 10 Extreme Makeover: Home ABC 9.08 Edition (Sun.)

11 Big Brother 5 (Tue.) CBS 8.77 12 Big Brother 5 (Thu.) CBS 8.64 13 Law & Order: SVU NBC 8.48 14 Navy NCIS CBS 7.91 15 Law & Order: Criminal Intent NBC 7.87

16 Cold Case (10 p.m.) CBS 7.77 17 Two and a Half Men (Wed.) CBS 7.75 18 60 Minutes II CBS 7.65 19 Law & Order (9 p.m.) NBC 7.64 20 Simple Life 2 FOX 7.59

21 America’s Funniest Home ABC 7.55 Videos (8 p.m.) 22 Crossing Jordan NBC 7.54 23 Last Comic Standing 2 NBC 7.33 (Tue., 9 p.m.) 24 20/20 (Fri.) ABC 7.28 25 King of Queens CBS 6.94

26 Trading Spouses (Mon.) FOX 6.92 27 Big Brother 5 (Sat.) CBS 6.65 28 America’s Most Wanted FOX 6.24 29 Fear Factor NBC 6.18 30 Cops (8:30 p.m.) FOX 6.10

31 The Days ABC 6.03 32 Extreme Makeover: Home ABC 5.88 Edition (Tue.) 33 America’s Funniest Home ABC 5.84 Videos 34 Last Comic Standing 2 (Thu.) NBC 5.79 35 According to Jim ABC 5.65

36 Las Vegas (Fri.) NBC 5.62 37 My Wife and Kids ABC 5.61 38 “Campaign 2004: Democratic CBS 5.55 Convention” (Thu.) Dateline: NBC (Fri.) NBC 5.55 40 Cops FOX 5.50

41 According to Jim (Mon.) ABC 5.46 42 NYPD 24/7 ABC 5.44 43 The Simpsons FOX 5.39 Blue Collar TV WB 5.39 45 Amish in the City UPN 5.38

46 For Love or Money 4 NBC 5.37 47 That ‘70s Show (Wed.) FOX 5.36 48 That ‘70s Show (Tue.) FOX 5.28 49 Method and Red FOX 5.13 50 George Lopez ABC 5.11

JAG CBS 5.11 52 Dateline: NBC (Sun.) NBC 5.04 53 Quintuplets (Wed.) FOX 5.01 54 Will & Grace NBC 5.00 55 WWE Smackdown! UPN 4.98

56 My Wife & Kids (Mon.) ABC 4.91 8 Simple Rules ABC 4.91 58 Hope & Faith (Mon.) ABC 4.88 59 “The Nutty Professor 2” FOX 4.87 60 48 Hours Investigates CBS 4.76

61 Hope & Faith ABC 4.71 Last Comic Standing 2 NBC 4.71 (Tue., 8 p.m.) 63 George Lopez (Mon.) ABC 4.61 64 Scrubs NBC 4.60 65 Less Than Perfect ABC 4.58

66 “Campaign 2004: Democratic CBS 4.55 Convention” (Mon.) 67 “Decision ‘04: Democratic NBC 4.53 Convention” (Mon.) 68 Casino FOX 4.50 69 “Vote 2004: Democratic ABC 4.40 Convention” (Mon.) 70 Quintuplets (Tue.) FOX 4.25

71 Reba (Thu.) WB 4.23 72 “Decision ‘04: Democratic NBC 4.15 Convention” (Wed..) 73 Simple Life 2 (Sun.) FOX 4.10 74 Extreme Makeover (Thu.) ABC 4.08 75 Joan of Arcadia CBS 4.06

“Vote 2004: Democratic ABC 4.06 Convention” (Wed.) 77 Life With Bonnie ABC 4.00 78 Summerland WB 3.95 79 “October Sky” ABC 3.90 80 “Campaign 2004: Democratic CBS 3.85 Convention” (Wed.)

81 “The Talented Mr. Ripley” NBC 3.83 82 The Drew Carey Show (9 p.m.) ABC 3.81 83 Whose Line Is It Anyway? ABC 3.71 (Sat., 10 p.m.) 84 Whose Line Is It Anyway? ABC 3.70 (Thu., 8:30 p.m.) 85 Arrested Development FOX 3.67

86 Malcolm in the Middle FOX 3.61 87 Whose Line Is It Anyway? ABC 3.60 (Thu., 8 p.m.) 88 King of the Hill FOX 3.58 89 Amazing Race 5 (Sat.) CBS 3.52 90 The Drew Carey Show (9:30 ABC 3.43 p.m.)

91 Next Action Star NBC 3.40 92 Quintuplets (Sun.) FOX 3.15 93 Reba WB 3.14 94 Whose Line Is It Anyway? ABC 3.04 (Sat., 10 p.m.)

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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 7.82 12.08

NBC 5.45 10.12

ABC 5.14 8.30

FOX 5.03 8.75

UPN 3.41 3.22

WB 2.48 3.35

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