‘Simple Life,’ ‘The 4400’ season finales attract crowds

Season finales for Fox’s “The Simple Life 2” and USA’s miniseries “The 4400” gave substantial ratings boosts to both programs, but it was CBS that once again dominated the summer TV ratings last week.

As usual, “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” was the most popular show, followed by a surprising surge for first-year comedy “Two and a Half Men,” which drew 3 million more viewers than it had the previous week, according to data released Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research.

CBS’ “The Amazing Race 5” is also building steam as it globe-trots.

“The Simple Life” conclusion that found Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie back in the safety of Los Angeles drew nearly 10 million viewers, good enough for 10th place overall. More notably, it was the most-watched show of the week ending Sunday among viewers 18 to 49 years old, the target age group for advertisers and most networks.

The show’s penultimate episode, which aired in the half-hour just prior to the finale, tied for second in the 18-to-49 demographic, along with “Amazing Race” and “CSI.”

But perhaps the most impressive performance last week was USA’s hit “The 4400,” which drew a combined viewership of around 14 million viewers in its back-to-back-to-back airings Sunday night. The 9-10 p.m. showing was the week’s most watched show on cable, with 6.13 million viewers.

The Disney Channel crowed about the success its Sept. 11-themed original movie, “The Tiger Cruise,” enjoyed with kids, teens and “tweens.”

CBS was the most-watched network overall, with an average prime-time audience of 8.6 million viewers, followed by NBC (6.45 million), ABC (5.27 million), Fox (5.04), UPN (2.9) and the WB (2.3).

-- Jonathan Taylor

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Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (Aug. 2-8) 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 14.09 2 Two and a Half Men CBS 12.80 3 CSI: Miami CBS 12.47 4 Everybody Loves Raymond CBS 12.11 5 Without a Trace CBS 11.28

6 Amazing Race: 5 CBS 10.55 7 Law & Order: SVU NBC 10.31 8 60 Minutes CBS 10.29 9 Cold Case CBS 10.11 10 “Simple Life: Finale” FOX 9.93

11 Big Brother 5 (Thu.) CBS 9.53 12 Law & Order: Criminal Intent NBC 9.40 13 Simple Life 2 (Wed.) FOX 9.19 14 Big Brother 5 (Tue.) CBS 8.98 15 “Personally Yours” CBS 8.79

16 Crossing Jordan NBC 8.46 17 60 Minutes II CBS 8.41 18 48 Hours Mystery CBS 7.98 19 Navy NCIS CBS 7.95 20 Primetime Thursday ABC 7.83

21 Trading Spouses FOX 7.82 22 Who Wants to Marry My Dad 2 NBC 7.80 23 Still Standing CBS 7.75 24 Law & Order NBC 7.74 25 Yes, Dear CBS 7.71

26 Last Comic Standing 2 (Tue., 9 p.m.) NBC 7.57 27 Last Comic Standing 2 (Thu.) NBC 7.48 28 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (Sun.) ABC 7.38 29 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (Tue.) ABC 7.23 30 Dateline: NBC (Sun.) NBC 7.22

31 Dateline: NBC (Fri.) NBC 6.97 32 King of Queens CBS 6.96 33 Fear Factor NBC 6.88 34 20/20 (Fri.) ABC 6.82 35 King of Queens (9:30 p.m.) CBS 6.76

36 CSI: Miami (Sat.) CBS 6.64 37 According to Jim ABC 6.63 38 America’s Most Wanted FOX 6.59 39 48 Hours Investigates CBS 6.33 40 My Wife and Kids (8:30 p.m.) ABC 6.32

41 Extreme Makeover (9 p.m.) ABC 6.31 42 Big Brother 5 (Sat.) CBS 6.29 43 My Wife and Kids ABC 6.22 44 Cops (8:30 p.m.) FOX 6.14 45 For Love or Money 4 NBC 6.13

46 The Simpsons FOX 6.12 47 20/20 (Wed.) ABC 6.07 48 That ‘70s Show FOX 6.05 49 Quintuplets FOX 6.04 50 JAG CBS 5.74

51 Extreme Makeover ABC 5.72 52 Law & Order: Criminal Intent (10 p.m.) NBC 5.71 53 Will & Grace (8:30 p.m.) NBC 5.58 54 Less Than Perfect ABC 5.43 55 “Miss Teen USA” NBC 5.34

56 NYPD 24/7 ABC 5.33 57 WWE Smackdown! UPN 5.15 58 ER NBC 5.11 59 Will & Grace NBC 5.08 60 “Lincoln Financial Battle” (golf) ABC 5.07

61 George Lopez ABC 4.91 62 The Days ABC 4.90 63 Cops FOX 4.83 64 North Shore FOX 4.62 65 Blue Collar TV WB 4.62

66 Last Comic Standing 2 (Tue., 8 p.m.) NBC 4.58 67 “Bet Your Life ...” NBC 4.52 68 8 Simple Rules ABC 4.52 69 “Little Nicky” FOX 4.50 70 Hope & Faith ABC 4.43

71 That ‘70s Show FOX 4.42 72 Casino FOX 4.34 73 Simple Life 2 (Sun., 9 p.m.) FOX 4.32 74 Less Than Perfect (Fri.) ABC 4.31 75 Joan of Arcadia CBS 4.31

76 Arrested Development FOX 4.27 77 “The Replacements” NBC 4.19 78 Simple Life 2 (Sun., 8:30 p.m.) FOX 4.07 79 Whose Line Is It Anyway? (Sat., 10:30 p.m.) ABC 4.01 80 The Drew Carey Show ABC 4.00

81 Amish in the City UPN 3.97 82 “Mystic Pizza” ABC 3.92 83 The Drew Carey Show (9:30 p.m.) ABC 3.83 84 Malcolm in the Middle FOX 3.76 85 Amazing Race 5 (Sat.) CBS 3.59

86 Quintuplets (Tue.) FOX 3.53 87 Reba (Thu.) WB 3.50 88 Summerland WB 3.48 89 King of the Hill FOX 3.40 90 “X-Games” ABC 3.38

91 Whose Line Is It Anyway? (Sat. 10 p.m.) ABC 3.27 92 Half and Half (8:30 p.m.) UPN 3.16 93 One on One UPN 3.15 94 Girlfriends UPN 3.01 95 Bernie Mac FOX 2.72

96 Half and Half (9:30 p.m.) UPN 2.68 97 The Jury FOX 2.65 98 Blue Collar TV (Fri.) WB 2.57 99 Reba (Fri.) WB 2.52 100 Smallville (9 p.m.) WB 2.50

101 Method and Red FOX 2.45 102 7th Heaven WB 2.37 103 Summerland (Mon.) WB 2.36 104 Smallville WB 2.30 105 All of Us UPN 2.30

106 Eve UPN 2.23 107 Gilmore Girls WB 2.19 108 “The Player” (Tue.) UPN 2.11 109 Charmed WB 2.10 110 What I Like About You WB 2.00

111 Steve Harvey’s Big Time WB 1.91 112 “The Player” (Wed.) UPN 1.88 113 Grounded for Life WB 1.68 114 Studio 7 WB 1.62 115 Amish in the City (Fri.) UPN 1.38

116 Steve Harvey’s Big Time (7:30 p.m.) WB 1.37 117 Enterprise UPN 1.11 118 Studio 7 (Sun.) WB 0.87

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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 Seasonto date CBS 8.60 12.00

NBC 6.45 10.04

ABC 5.27 8.23

FOX 5.04 8.67

UPN 2.90 3.21

WB 2.30 3.33

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