A mixed holiday for Fox

A holiday week in which TV networks essentially took a vacation provided stark evidence of who’s hot and who’s not this season.

Of the 30 most popular prime-time shows last week -- most of them reruns -- 13 were on CBS and 12 on ABC, Nielsen Media Research said Tuesday. “Everybody Loves Raymond,” approaching its victory lap, topped the list with 17 million viewers.

Struggling NBC had four. Only one NBC prime-time show, a “Law & Order: SVU” rerun, topped 10 million viewers.

It was even worse at Fox. The network’s only top 30 entrant came by accident, when a Sunday football game went long and crept into prime time. The top-rated Fox entertainment show, “The Swan 2,” ranked No. 43 for the week.

Fox News Channel celebrated a ratings milestone, with its average prime-time viewership topping that of CNN, MSNBC, CNBC and CNN Headline News combined for the first time, Nielsen said. News viewership was generally flat or down from last year, when the Iraq war began.

Barring any sudden change in the last few days of the year, Fox News will also log 11 of the top 12 cable news shows, led by “The O’Reilly Factor.” The only non-Fox show to crack that list is CNN’s “Larry King Live.”

For the week, CBS averaged 10 million viewers. ABC had 9.7 million and won convincingly among viewers ages 18 to 49. NBC averaged 7 million; Fox had 5.8 million; UPN, 2.8 million; the WB, 2.3 million; and Pax, 560,000.

NBC’s “Nightly News” won the evening news ratings race, averaging 10.6 million viewers. ABC’s “World News Tonight” had 10.3 million and the “CBS Evening News” had 7.9 million.

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Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (Dec. 20-26) 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. ages 2 and older. Viewership is listed in millions.

*--* Program Net- work View- ers Program Net- work View- ers

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*--* 1 Everybody Loves Raymond CBS 16.99 2 Monday Night Football ABC 16.18 3 CSI CBS 15.83 4 Two and aHalf Men CBS 15.47 5 CSI: Miami CBS 14.84

6 Without a Trace CBS 13.06 7 Desperate Housewives ABC 12.89 8 NFL Monday Showcase ABC 12.49 9 60 Minutes CBS 12.37 10 “NFL Sunday Post-Game” FOX 12.03

11 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition ABC 11.88 12 Cold Case CBS 11.62 13 “Ocean’s Eleven” CBS 11.58 14 Lost ABC 11.27 15 Lost (9 p.m.) ABC 10.92

16 CSI: NY CBS 10.77 17 Amazing Race: 6 CBS 10.72 18 Law & Order: SVU NBC 10.68 19 According to Jim ABC 10.58 20 NYPD Blue ABC 10.38

21 Wonderful World of Disney (Thu.) ABC 10.37 22 Biggest Loser NBC 9.69 23 Still Standing CBS 9.66 24 Law & Order NBC 9.64 NCIS CBS 9.64

26 Rodney ABC 9.32 27 Listen Up CBS 9.24 28 Law & Order: Criminal Intent NBC 9.11 29 America’s Funniest Home Videos ABC 9.08 30 Wife Swap ABC 8.66

31 “Kennedy Center Honors” CBS 8.48 32 Fear Factor NBC 8.25 33 Primetime Live ABC 8.24 34 Crossing Jordan NBC 7.86 35 The West Wing NBC 7.83

36 George Lopez ABC 7.79 37 America’s Funniest Home Videos (Fri.) ABC 7.72 38 King of Queens CBS 7.65 39 My Wife and Kids ABC 7.64 40 Dateline: NBC (Sun.) NBC 7.48

41 Will & Grace (Wed.) NBC 7.47 42 Las Vegas NBC 7.44 43 The Swan 2 FOX 7.20 44 “My Dog Skip” CBS 7.14 45 Joey NBC 7.10

46 Will & Grace (Thu., 9 p.m.) NBC 7.08 47 “Funniest Holiday Moments” FOX 7.03 48 Nanny 911 FOX 6.99 49 Wonderful World of Disney (Sat.) ABC 6.90 50 The Simpsons FOX 6.87

51 “TV Guide: Greatest Moments” ABC 6.82 52 House FOX 6.73 53 Center of the Universe CBS 6.59 54 Law & Order: Criminal Intent (Fri.) NBC 6.50 55 Will & Grace (Thu., 8:30 p.m.) NBC 6.34

56 Las Vegas (10 p.m.) NBC 6.33 57 48 Hours Mystery (Sat.) CBS 6.20 58 King of the Hill FOX 6.19 59 Father of the Pride NBC 6.16 60 Scrubs NBC 6.09

61 That ‘70s Show FOX 6.05 62 Wonderful World of Disney (Fri.) ABC 5.94 63 ER NBC 5.91 64 Cops (8:30 p.m.) FOX 5.79 65 JAG CBS 5.53

66 48 Hours Mystery (Fri.) CBS 5.30 67 “Home for the Holidays” CBS 5.26 68 Cops FOX 4.93 69 WWE Smackdown! UPN 4.85 70 Quintuplets FOX 4.84

71 Malcolm in the Middle (9:30 p.m.) FOX 4.52 72 “It’s a Wonderful Life” NBC 4.43 73 “Christmas Carol” NBC 4.38 74 Arrested Development FOX 4.37 75 Malcolm in the Middle FOX 4.34

76 Joan of Arcadia CBS 4.24 77 The O.C. FOX 4.14 78 “Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle” FOX 3.96 79 7th Heaven WB 3.70 80 The O.C. (9 p.m.) FOX 3.54

81 Blue Collar WB 3.17 82 Reba WB 3.16 83 Gilmore Girls WB 3.00 84 Smallville WB 2.97 85 Rebel Billionaire FOX 2.82

86 High School Reunion WB 2.81 87 One on One UPN 2.78 88 Girlfriends UPN 2.61 89 Half and Half UPN 2.60 90 Everwood WB 2.58

91 “Nora’s Hair Salon” UPN 2.47 92 Eve UPN 2.38 93 All of Us UPN 2.31 94 Second Time Around UPN 2.16 95 Kevin Hill UPN 2.12

96 Steve Harvey’s Big Time WB 2.09 97 Charmed WB 2.07 98 Kevin Hill UPN 1.90 99 Grounded WB 1.80 100 What I Like About You WB 1.79

101 Veronica Mars UPN 1.65 102 BMOC WB 1.60 “Crazy/Beautiful” WB 1.60 104 Mountain WB 1.10

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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 10.02 13.04

ABC 9.65 10.18

NBC 8.98 9.96

FOX 5.81 8.73

UPN 2.77 3.54

WB 2.31 3.67

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