Williams runs with the baton

It’s still early, but NBC’s attempt at a seamless transition from Tom Brokaw to Brian Williams on “Nightly News” appears to have worked.

Williams beat ABC’s Peter Jennings and CBS’ Dan Rather handily in the ratings during his first three days as anchor. Each night, Williams’ advantage over the second-place Jennings was at least 1.5 million viewers, according to Nielsen Media Research figures released Tuesday.

Brokaw retired from “Nightly News” after Wednesday’s broadcast. Williams, his chief sub for the last decade, took over Thursday. It was the first turnover among anchors at a network evening news program in two decades.

For the week, “Nightly News” averaged 12.4 million viewers, “World News Tonight” averaged 9.5 million and “CBS Evening News” averaged 7.7 million.

In prime time, CBS ended the November sweeps on a dominant note. Several shows on the nation’s most popular network -- “Everybody Loves Raymond,” “CSI: Miami,” “The King of Queens,” “Judging Amy” and “The Amazing Race” -- scored season highs in the ratings.

ABC’s three-hour book adaptation “Mitch Albom’s The Five People You Meet in Heaven” was the highest-rated made-for-TV movie in 2 1/2 years (excluding miniseries). It was seen by 18.6 million people, Nielsen said.

In a holiday faceoff, the durable cartoon “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” proved more popular (14.9 million viewers) than Nick Lachey and Jessica Simpson’s family Christmas special (12.4 million) or the lighting of the Christmas tree in New York’s Rockefeller Center (10.9 million).

For the week, CBS averaged 13 million viewers.

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Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (Nov. 29-Dec. 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 277.93 million potential viewers in the U.S. age 2 and older. Viewership is listed in millions.

*--* 1 CSI CBS 24.67 2 CSI: Miami CBS 22.71 3 Survivor: Vanuatu CBS 19.48 4 Everybody Loves Raymond CBS 18.71 5 “The Five People You Meet in Heaven” ABC 18.61

6 Two and a Half Men CBS 17.88 7 Without a Trace CBS 17.73 8 ER NBC 17.67 9 Monday Night Football ABC 17.35 10 Lost ABC 17.15

11 Apprentice 2 NBC 16.72 12 60 Minutes CBS 16.17 13 NCIS CBS 15.65 14 Law & Order: SVU NBC 15.30 15 “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” CBS 14.93

16 CSI: NY CBS 14.91 17 Law & Order NBC 14.71 18 NFL Monday Showcase ABC 14.56 19 Cold Case CBS 13.65 20 The West Wing NBC 13.28

21 King of Queens CBS 12.66 22 “Nick and Jessica’s Family Christmas” ABC 12.40 23 Amazing Race: 6 CBS 11.84 24 According to Jim ABC 11.61 Las Vegas NBC 11.61

26 Joey NBC 11.44 Fear Factor NBC 11.44 28 Judging Amy CBS 11.30 29 “Christmas at Rockefeller Center” NBC 10.93 30 “Frosty Returns” CBS 10.62

31 “NFL Sunday Post-Game” FOX 10.54 32 Will & Grace NBC 10.53 33 Still Standing CBS 10.41 34 The Simpsons FOX 10.36 35 Medical Investigation NBC 10.33

36 Third Watch NBC 10.24 37 Listen Up CBS 10.15 38 Center of the Universe CBS 10.12 39 “Frosty the Snowman” CBS 10.07 40 Rodney ABC 10.06

41 Biggest Loser NBC 9.87 “The Family Man” NBC 9.87 43 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (Sun.) ABC 9.76 44 NYPD Blue ABC 9.52 45 My Wife and Kids ABC 9.38

46 Wife Swap ABC 9.34 47 “A Very Married Christmas” CBS 8.94 48 Dateline: NBC (Wed.) NBC 8.91 49 Dateline: NBC (Fri.) NBC 8.85 George Lopez ABC 8.85

51 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (Mon.) ABC 8.55 52 The Swan 2 FOX 8.18 53 Trading Spouses FOX 8.09 54 20/20 (Fri.) ABC 7.99 55 Nanny 911 FOX 7.84

56 Malcolm in the Middle FOX 7.78 57 America’s Most Wanted FOX 7.66 58 Cops (8:30 p.m.) FOX 7.57 59 Apprentice 2 (Wed.) NBC 7.39 60 “Ice Wars: 2004” CBS 7.10

61 7th Heaven WB 6.88 62 Cops FOX 6.79 63 “Home Depot SEC Championship Game” CBS 6.77 64 Hope & Faith ABC 6.74 65 8 Simple Rules ABC 6.71

66 Arrested Development FOX 6.66 67 Extreme Makeover ABC 6.61 68 Primetime Live ABC 6.55 69 O.C. FOX 6.51 70 House FOX 6.33

71 Crimetime Saturday CBS 6.27 72 Complete Savages ABC 6.25 73 Gilmore Girls WB 6.23 74 That 70s Show FOX 6.15 75 Less Than Perfect ABC 5.71

76 “The Perfect Storm” NBC 5.57 77 Thrifty Post-Late ABC 5.48 78 WWE Smackdown! UPN 5.27 79 Everwood WB 5.09 80 America’s Next top Model 3 UPN 4.90

81 Smallville WB 4.89 82 Quintuplets FOX 4.79 83 “Big 12 Championship” ABC 4.62 84 Rebel Billionaire FOX 4.37 85 One Tree Hill WB 4.36

86 Bernie Mac (9:30 p.m.) FOX 4.10 87 Big Fat Obnoxious Boss FOX 4.05 88 Bernie Mac FOX 4.00 89 Reba WB 3.91 90 North Shore FOX 3.89

91 That ‘70s Show FOX 3.78 92 Girlfriends UPN 3.67 93 Fear Factor (Sun.) NBC 3.58 94 One on One UPN 3.48 95 Life as we Know It ABC 3.45

96 Eve UPN 3.38 97 Half and Half UPN 3.37 98 Second Time Around UPN 3.26 99 Enterprise UPN 3.19 100 Blue Collar TV WB 3.17

101 Quintuplets (Fri.) FOX 3.09 102 Kevin Hill UPN 3.06 103 All of Us UPN 3.04 104 Steve Harvey’s Big Time WB 2.63 105 Veronica Mars UPN 2.40

106 Charmed WB 2.36 107 Malcolm in the Middle (7:30 p.m.) FOX 2.26 108 Grounded for Life WB 2.22 109 Jack & Bobby WB 2.12 110 What I Like About You WB 2.09

111 “40 Days and 40 Nights” WB 1.94 112 America’s Next Top Model 3 (Fri.) UPN 1.65 113 Mountain WB 1.35

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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 13.03 13.37

ABC 10.44 10.27

NBC 10.37 10.28

FOX 6.58 9.36

UPN 3.58 3.62

WB 3.50 3.90

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