Big bowls play for a tie; ABC wins week

For college football’s national championship, it was a split decision among television viewers too.

Both Sunday’s Sugar Bowl game and the Rose Bowl on New Year’s Day drew an identical 23.9 million viewers, according to Nielsen Media Research. Winners of the two games -- LSU and USC -- shared the national college football title.

Technically, the Sugar Bowl, played in New Orleans, did slightly better: 23.94 million to 23.87 million. But that game had the advantage of being aired in prime time, which the Rose Bowl wasn’t. Both games were on ABC, and in Los Angeles, the game was seen in 1.2 million households on KABC-TV.

The statistical oddity highlighted a football-dominated week that gave ABC its first prime-time weekly ratings win since the Academy Awards last March.

Also last week, CBS had 10.5 million viewers for Friday’s “Michael Jackson Number Ones” special. The network had postponed the show in November when the pop star began facing child molestation accusations, and only rescheduled it when Jackson addressed the charges in a “60 Minutes” interview.

That’s not a bad rating for a special hurriedly scheduled for a Friday night, when viewership is generally down. Only the Fiesta Bowl game beat Jackson in the time slot.

For the week, ABC averaged 13.8 million viewers; CBS had 10.6 million; NBC, 9 million; Fox, 6.3 million; the WB, 2.9 million; and UPN, 2.7 million.

NBC’s “Nightly News” won the evening news ratings race, averaging 11.7 million viewers.

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Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (Dec. 29-Jan. 4) 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.

*--* 1 AFC/NFC Showcase (Sat.) ABC 25.08 2 Football: Dallas at Carolina (Sat.) ABC 24.66 3 Sugar Bowl ABC 23.94 4 AFC Wildcard Post Game (Sun.) CBS 19.08 5 Rose Bowl Post Game ABC 17.87

6 Sugar Bowl Pregame Show ABC 17.37 7 CSI CBS 16.20 8 60 Minutes CBS 15.76 9 Everybody Loves Raymond CBS 15.09 10 CSI: Miami CBS 15.06

11 CSI: Miami (Sun.) CBS 14.58 12 Orange Bowl ABC 14.18 13 Fiesta Bowl ABC 13.69 14 Law & Order: Criminal Intent NBC 13.20 15 Without a Trace CBS 13.02

16 Two and Half Men CBS 12.94 17 Dateline NBC (Sun.) NBC 12.77 18 Cold Case (Thu.) CBS 12.59 19 Dateline NBC (Fri.) NBC 12.30 20 The Simpsons FOX 12.00

21 Friends NBC 11.66 22 Cold Case (Sun.) CBS 11.12 23 “Most Outrageous Game Show Moments” NBC 10.94 24 Still Standing CBS 10.67 25 Yes, Dear CBS 10.59

26 “Michael Jackson Number Ones” CBS 10.49 27 Fear Factor NBC 10.25 28 Law & Order: SVU NBC 10.18 29 Navy NCIS CBS 10.17 30 The Simple Life (Tue., 9:30 p.m.) FOX 10.01

31 American Dreams NBC 9.71 32 Fiesta Bowl Pregame Show ABC 9.63 33 Will & Grace NBC 9.58 34 The Simple Life (Tue., 9 p.m.) FOX 9.52 35 “Dreamkeeper,” Part 2 ABC 9.38

36 “Life of Luxury” ABC 9.32 37 Frasier NBC 8.62 38 Bernie Mac Show FOX 8.53 >39 Judging Amy CBS 8.46 40 Queer Eye, Straight Guy NBC 8.44

41 The Simple Life (Tue., 8:30 p.m.) FOX 8.38 42 Las Vegas NBC 8.37 43 Third Watch NBC 8.28 44 Joan of Arcadia CBS 8.02 45 Law & Order NBC 7.80

46 “New Year’s Rockin’ Eve ‘04” ABC 7.78 47 “World Idol, Part 2” FOX 7.73 48 America’s Most Wanted FOX 7.71 49 60 Minutes II CBS 7.70 50 Whoopi NBC 7.64

51 America’s Funniest Home Videos ABC 7.59 52 King of Queens (Wed.) CBS 7.58 53 King of the Hill FOX 7.52 Happy Family NBC 7.52 55 8 Simple Rules ABC 7.50

56 Malcolm in the Middle (Sun., 9 p.m.) FOX 7.45 57 The Simple Life (Tue., 8 p.m.) FOX 7.30 58 JAG CBS 7.25 59 “Heartbreakers” NBC 7.22 60 The Guardian CBS 7.18

61 Cops (8:30 p.m.) FOX 7.13 62 ER NBC 7.03 63 Scrubs NBC 7.02 64 The Tracy Morgan Show NBC 7.01 65 48 Hours Investigates CBS 6.97

66 According to Jim ABC 6.94 67 Less Than Perfect ABC 6.91 68 Becker CBS 6.79 69 “American Idol Life on the Road” FOX 6.53 70 “The Mask of Zorro” CBS 6.43

71 My Wife and Kids ABC 6.29 72 Line of Fire ABC 6.19 73 The West Wing NBC 6.09 74 Cops FOX 6.02 75 George Lopez (9:30 p.m.) ABC 5.97

76 King of the Hill (7 p.m.) FOX 5.76 77 Arrested Development (Sun.) FOX 5.72 78 I’m With Her ABC 5.66 79 George Lopez ABC 5.60 80 Malcolm in the Middle (Mon., 8:30 p.m.) FOX 5.49

81 Malcolm in the Middle (Mon., 9:30 p.m.) FOX 5.29 82 Malcolm in the Middle (Mon., 9 p.m.) FOX 5.20 83 The Simpsons (Fri.) FOX 5.07 84 It’s All Relative ABC 4.99 85 King of Queens (Sat.) CBS 4.89

86 Malcolm in the Middle (Mon., 8 p.m.) FOX 4.84 87 “Bring It On” WB 4.77 88 “Celebrity Poker” NBC 4.69 89 That ‘70s Show FOX 4.64 90 WWE Smackdown! UPN 4.58

91 Reba WB 4.47 92 Malcolm in the Middle (Fri.) FOX 4.12 93 Arrested Development (Fri.) FOX 3.75 94 7th Heaven WB 3.71 95 Arrested Development (Wed., 9 p.m.) FOX 3.36

96 Eve UPN 3.28 97 Arrested Development (Wed., 9:30 p.m.) FOX 3.26 98 What I Like About You WB 3.20 99 The Parkers UPN 3.14 100 Girlfriends UPN 2.96

101 Arrested Development (Wed., 8 p.m.) FOX 2.94 102 Gilmore Girls WB 2.92 103 Arrested Development (Wed., 8:30 p.m.) FOX 2.86 104 Steve’s Harvey’s Big Time (8:30 p.m.) WB 2.85 105 Half and Half UPN 2.71

106 All of Us UPN 2.67 107 Everwood WB 2.63 108 “Love and Basketball” WB 2.58 109 One on One UPN 2.56 110 Grounded for Life WB 2.52

111 Like Family WB 2.43 112 Smallville: Beginnings WB 2.36 113 “Fled” UPN 2.35 114 Girlfriends (Tue.) UPN 2.33 115 Steve Harvey’s Big Time WB 3.32

116 Rock Me Baby UPN 2.10 117 One Tree Hill WB 1.91 118 Enterprise UPN 1.80 119 Jamie Kennedy WB 1.73 120 Jamie Kennedy (9:30 p.m.) WB 1.60

121 Jake 2.0 UPN 1.25

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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 ABC 13.88 9.85

CBS 10.65 12.96

NBC 9.02 10.56

FOX 6.34 9.25

WB 2.99 3.81

UPN 2.78 3.43

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