Football and awards help propel CBS to No. 1 spot

CBS ruled in the ratings last week, with strong performances from regular series as well as sports and the “People’s Choice Awards.”

The week’s top show was “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation,” with fellow CBS series “CSI: Miami,” “Everybody Loves Raymond” and “Without a Trace” also landing in the top 10, along with the American Football Conference divisional playoff game between Tennessee and New England. The “People’s Choice Awards” special ranked 20th.

The week’s most promising new entry belonged to NBC: “The Apprentice,” in which would-be moguls vie to work for Donald Trump, opened for business Thursday to grab eighth place.

For the week, CBS averaged 15.6 million viewers, while NBC had 12.2 million and Fox 11.5 million, Nielsen Media Research said Tuesday. ABC logged 8.9 million; the WB had 3.5 million and UPN 3.1 million.

“The NBC Nightly News” won the evening news ratings race, averaging 12.6 million viewers. ABC’s “World News Tonight” had 11.3 million, while the “CBS Evening News” had 9.7 million.

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Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (Jan. 5-11) 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 CSI CBS 27.48 2 “NFC Playoff Pre-Game” (Sun.) FOX 27.09 3 “AFC Playoff Game” (Sat.) CBS 25.91 4 Friends NBC 25.48 5 ER NBC 22.83

6 CSI: Miami CBS 20.40 7 Everybody Loves Raymond CBS 19.10 8 Apprentice NBC 18.48 9 Without a Trace CBS 18.18 10 Law & Order NBC 17.99

11 Two and Half Men CBS 16.75 12 CSI (8 p.m.) CBS 16.43 13 The Simpsons FOX 16.30 14 Law & Order: Criminal Intent NBC 16.11 15 Law & Order: SVU NBC 15.36

16 Cold Case CBS 15.20 17 Fear Factor NBC 14.78 18 Navy NCIS CBS 14.51 19 “Cast Away” ABC 13.96 20 “People’s Choice Awards” CBS 13.89

21 Still Standing CBS 13.55 22 King of Queens CBS 13.33 23 The West Wing NBC 13.28 24 Las Vegas NBC 13.17 25 Yes, Dear CBS 12.69

26 Law and Order: Criminal Intent (10 p.m.) NBC 12.65 27 Judging Amy CBS 12.51 28 JAG CBS 12.32 29 Joan of Arcadia CBS 12.05 30 Dateline: NBC (Fri.) NBC 12.00

31 60 Minutes II CBS 11.97 32 60 Minutes CBS 11.86 33 Simple Life (Wed.) FOX 11.75 34 Third Watch NBC 11.67 35 Becker CBS 11.65

36 8 Simple Rules ABC 11.59 37 The Guardian CBS 11.48 38 My Wife and Kids ABC 11.42 39 “NFC Playoff Post-Game” (Sat.) FOX 11.39 Bernie Mac FOX 11.39

41 According to Jim ABC 11.35 42 Frasier NBC 10.92 43 48 Hours Investigates CBS 10.60 44 20/20 (Fri.) ABC 10.50 45 Happy Family NBC 10.18

46 The Practice ABC 9.69 47 Average Joe: Hawaii NBC 9.59 48 I’m With Her ABC 9.52 49 O.C. FOX 9.37 50 American Dreams NBC 9.35

51 Less Than Perfect ABC 9.33 52 24 FOX 9.31 53 Malcolm in the Middle FOX 9.07 54 Alias ABC 9.05 55 Hope & Faith ABC 8.98

56 Whoopi NBC 8.78 57 It’s All Relative ABC 8.70 58 George Lopez ABC 8.36 59 America’s Most Wanted FOX 8.35 60 Primetime Thursday ABC 8.33

61 Life With Bonnie ABC 8.27 62 Ed NBC 8.15 63 That ‘70s Show FOX 8.05 64 “Life After Extreme Makeover” ABC 7.90 65 Cops FOX 7.84

66 Law & Order: SVU (Sat.) NBC 7.74 67 Tracy Morgan Show NBC 7.69 68 America’s Funniest Home Videos ABC 7.52 69 10-8 ABC 7.48 70 Line of Fire ABC 7.38

71 The Handler CBS 7.32 72 Arrested Development FOX 7.21 73 Celebrity Mole Yucatan ABC 7.19 74 Married to the Kellys ABC 6.84 75 “U.S. Figure Skating Championships” ABC 6.76

76 The Simpsons (Tue.) FOX 6.69 77 Extreme Makover ABC 6.59 78 Dateline: NBC (Sun.) NBC 6.52 79 That ‘70s Show (Tue.) FOX 6.49 80 7th Heaven WB 6.31

81 World’s Craziest Videos FOX 5.66 82 “Billy Madison” FOX 5.63 83 WWE Smackdown! UPN 5.55 84 Surreal Life 2 WB 5.29 Charmed WB 5.29

86 Threat Matrix ABC 5.25 87 Totally Outrageous Behavior FOX 4.80 88 Law & Order (Sat.) NBC 4.65 89 Simple Life (Thu., 9:30 p.m.) FOX 4.35 90 Boston Public FOX 4.32

91 Tru Calling FOX 4.15 92 Reba WB 3.86 Average Joe: Hawaii (Sat.) NBC 3.86 94 Smallville WB 3.59 95 Half and Half UPN 3.52

96 Girlfriends UPN 3.47 97 Steve Harvey’s Big Time WB 3.34 98 7th Heaven (Mon.) WB 3.31 99 Simple Life (Thu., 9 p.m.) FOX 3.20 100 Gilmore Girls WB 3.14

101 Eve UPN 3.10 102 All of Us UPN 2.88 103 The Parkers UPN 2.79 104 All About the Andersons WB 2.76 105 Grounded For Life WB 2.75

106 Jamie Kennedy WB 2.72 107 Rock Me Baby UPN 2.65 108 Smallville: Beginnings WB 2.64 109 One Tree Hill WB 2.45 110 What I Like About You WB 2.37

Girlfriends (Tue.) UPN 2.37 112 “Phantoms” UPN 2.36 113 Enterprise UPN 2.29 One on One UPN 2.29 115 Like Family WB 2.16

116 Angel WB 2.06 117 Run of the House WB 1.64 118 Jake 2.0 UPN 1.52

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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 15.60 13.13

NBC 12.18 10.66

FOX 11.50 9.39

ABC 8.92 9.80

WB 3.46 3.79

UPN 3.12 3.42

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