NBC hikes ratings with key viewers

Tanks filled with tarantulas and swarming rats on “Fear Factor” were a winning formula for NBC, which had its best ratings week of the year in the demographic it cares about.

“Fear Factor” slipped into Nielsen Media Research’s top 10 last week with 17.9 million viewers. Next week’s tally will be even better: Preliminary ratings showed Monday’s conclusion of its couples competition had a series-best 18.6 million viewers.

The movie “Shrek” on Sunday also boosted NBC’s ratings on a night when it normally has problems.

Last week gave NBC its highest ratings of the season among the 18- to 49-year-old viewers craved by advertisers -- and the only group NBC executives profess to care about -- and the network’s widest margin of victory.

It was also a milestone week for producer Jerry Bruckheimer: Three of his CBS shows -- “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation,” “Without a Trace” and “Cold Case” -- had their most-watched episodes ever.

“CSI” was the week’s most popular show overall, with 30.9 million viewers.

Last week’s ratings proved one thing to ABC: Viewers like home redesigns more than people redesigns. “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” was seen by 10.9 million people Sunday, while “Extreme Makeover” had 7.7 million viewers Thursday.

For the week, CBS averaged 14.2 million viewers in prime time, NBC 12.6 million, Fox 9.3 million, ABC 8.3 million, UPN 4.1 million and the WB 4 million.

NBC’s “Nightly News” won the evening news ratings race, averaging 10.9 million viewers. ABC’s “World News Tonight” had 10.4 million and the “CBS Evening News” 8.3 million.

From Associated Press

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Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (Feb. 9-15) 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 30.94 2 American Idol (Tue.) FOX 26.18 3 Friends NBC 25.90 4 American Idol (Wed.) FOX 24.46 5 Survivor: All-Stars CBS 22.45

6 ER NBC 21.95 7 CSI: Miami CBS 21.76 8 Without a Trace CBS 20.12 9 The Apprentice NBC 18.47 10 Fear Factor NBC 17.87

11 Everybody Loves Raymond CBS 17.58 12 Cold Case CBS 17.33 13 Law & Order NBC 16.96 Two and a Half Men CBS 16.96 15 60 Minutes CBS 15.01

16 “It Must Be Love” CBS 14.54 17 Big Fat Obnoxious Fiance FOX 13.83 18 “Shrek” NBC 13.44 19 Law & Order: Criminal Intent NBC 13.30 20 Navy NCIS CBS 13.18

21 Law & Order: SVU NBC 12.89 22 Average Joe: Hawaii NBC 12.38 23 Still Standing CBS 12.34 24 That ‘70s Show FOX 12.29 King of Queens (9:30 p.m.) CBS 12.29

26 Las Vegas NBC 12.05 27 King of Queens CBS 11.89 28 The West Wing NBC 11.64 29 Yes, Dear CBS 11.56 30 Judging Amy CBS 11.46

31 The O.C. FOX 11.42 32 JAG CBS 11.37 33 The Bachelorette ABC 11.28 CSI: Miami (Fri.) CBS 11.28 35 NYPD Blue ABC 11.11

36 Dateline NBC (Fri.) NBC 11.08 37 Scrubs NBC 11.04 38 Extreme Makeover: Home Ed. ABC 10.95 39 Joan of Arcadia CBS 10.88 40 Will & Grace NBC 10.84

41 American Dreams NBC 10.46 42 60 Minutes II CBS 10.37 43 48 Hours Investigates CBS 10.25 44 The Guardian CBS 10.18 45 My Wife and Kids ABC 10.01

46 24 FOX 9.97 47 Alias ABC 9.54 48 According to Jim ABC 9.44 49 The Simpsons FOX 9.43 50 Third Watch NBC 9.29

51 America’s Funniest Home Videos ABC 9.12 52 The District CBS 8.93 53 20/20 (Fri.) ABC 8.75 54 Hack CBS 8.73 55 Friends (Tue.) NBC 8.69

Cops FOX 8.69 57 The Practice ABC 8.62 58 Less Than Perfect ABC 8.52 59 Celebrity Mole Yucatan ABC 8.49 60 “The Princess Diaries” ABC 8.46

61 Star Search CBS 8.38 62 Law & Order: SVU (Sat.) NBC 8.34 63 Hope & Faith ABC 7.95 64 Primetime Thursday ABC 7.85 65 8 Simple Rules ABC 7.74

66 Extreme Makeover (Thu., 9 p.m.) ABC 7.68 67 Malcolm in the Middle FOX 7.61 68 Life With Bonnie ABC 7.50 69 The Apprentice (Wed.) NBC 7.36 70 George Lopez ABC 7.27

71 America’s Next Top Model 2 UPN 7.13 72 Bernie Mac Show FOX 7.03 73 It’s All Relative ABC 6.68 74 That ‘70s Show (Mon., 8:30 p.m.) FOX 6.65 75 “The Mummy Returns” ABC 6.64

76 That ‘70s Show (Mon., 8 p.m.) FOX 6.56 77 Law & Order (Sat.) NBC 6.52 78 Married to the Kellys ABC 6.48 79 Extreme Makeover (Thu., 8 p.m.) ABC 6.33 80 “Charlie Brown Valentine” ABC 6.27

81 7th Heaven WB 6.11 82 Everwood WB 6.07 83 I’m With Her ABC 5.81 84 WWE Smackdown! UPN 5.35 85 Arrested Development FOX 5.21

86 Smallville WB 5.01 87 King of the Hill FOX 4.84 88 Oliver Beene FOX 4.78 89 Gilmore Girls WB 4.56 90 Big Fat Obnoxious Fiance (Thu.) FOX 4.55

91 Reba WB 4.48 92 Tru Calling FOX 4.30 93 Surreal Life WB 4.27 94 Whoopi NBC 4.11 95 “Celebrity Spelling Bee” FOX 4.10

96 Charmed WB 4.08 97 One Tree Hill WB 4.00 98 Enterprise UPN 3.95 99 Girlfriends UPN 3.82 100 The Tracy Morgan Show NBC 3.76

101 Eve UPN 3.69 102 Angel WB 3.64 103 “National Geographic: Animal Attractions” FOX 3.59 104 Half and Half UPN 3.52 105 Steve Harvey’s Big Time WB 3.24

106 All of Us UPN 3.16 107 The Parkers UPN 3.12 108 Grounded for Life WB 3.02 109 “Shaft” UPN 3.01 110 What I Like About You WB 2.97

111 One on One UPN 2.76 112 All About the Andersons WB 2.65 113 America’s Next Top Model 2 (Wed.) UPN 2.64 114 Smallville: Beginnings WB 2.36 115 Like Family WB 2.34

116 Surreal Life (Thu.) WB 2.20

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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 14.24 13.79

NBC 12.59 10.88

FOX 9.32 9.85

ABC 8.31 9.37

UPN 4.05 3.50

WB 3.98 3.79

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