All-Star snoozer barely tags up ahead of rerun

Baseball’s All-Star Game, which barely beat out a “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” rerun to be the week’s most popular television show, didn’t do Fox many favors.

The game was seen by a shade under 14 million people last Tuesday, according to Nielsen Media Research. That’s slightly better than last year, which was the worst showing for the midseason classic since viewership records started in 1983.

Fox wasn’t helped much by the poor showing of National League starter Roger Clemens, who put his team in a 6-0 hole in the first inning, making for a less compelling game.

An All-Star Game-related event did prove a hit in the cable ratings. ESPN’s coverage Monday of the annual home run derby was the most-watched show of the week among cable channels, drawing an audience of more than 7.7 million viewers.

ABC, which hasn’t had much to smile about lately, was pleased by the 6.5 million who tuned in to the premiere of “The Days” Sunday. It finished in 36th place among overall viewers, but tied for 18th place among viewers 18 to 49, the ones most networks target. ABC was also pleased by the second place finish “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” enjoyed in that demographic.

USA’s science fiction miniseries “The 4400” continued to perform well, drawing 5.6 million viewers. USA’s Sci Fi Channel subsidiary enjoyed its own record breaker with the premiere of “Stargate Atlantis.” The spinoff of the channel’s long-running “Stargate SG-1” was the sixth-highest rated cable show, attracting just under 4.2 million fantasy fans.

Elsewhere, in a summer full of reality programming that has barely stirred the public pulse, the fifth version of CBS’ “Amazing Race” looks like a winner. It landed in 11th place.

For the week, CBS averaged 8.9 million viewers, and also edged Fox for domination among viewers ages 18 to 49. NBC averaged 6.7 million, Fox had 6.2 million, ABC 5.5 million, UPN 2.6 million and the WB 2.2 million. *

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Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (July 12-18) 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. ages 2 and older. Viewership is listed in millions.

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

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*--* 1 “All-Star Baseball Game’ FOX 13.99 2 CSI CBS 13.95 3 CSI: Miami CBS 13.27 4 Without a Trace CBS 12.31 5 Cold Case CBS 11.94

6 60 Minutes CBS 11.46 7 “All-Star Pre-Game” FOX 11.22 8 60 Minutes II CBS 11.00 9 Law & Order NBC 10.77 10 Two and a Half Men CBS 10.76

11 Amazing Race: 5 CBS 10.50 12 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (9 p.m.) ABC 10.29 13 Everybody Loves Raymond CBS 10.17 14 Law & Order: SVU NBC 10.13 15 Navy NCIS CBS 9.30

16 “CMA Music Festival” CBS 9.19 17 Law & Order (9 p.m.) NBC 9.16 18 Simple Life 2 FOX 8.95 19 “Dodson’s Journey” CBS 8.86 20 Big Brother 5 (Thu.) CBS 8.76

21 Big Brother 5 (Tue.) CBS 8.63 22 Crossing Jordan NBC 8.33 23 20/20 (Fri.) ABC 8.02 24 Law & Order: Criminal Intent NBC 7.97 25 Fear Factor NBC 7.83

26 CSI: Miami (Sat.) CBS 7.66 27 Last Comic Standing 2 NBC 7.61 28 Dateline: NBC (Fri.) NBC 7.57 29 Who Wants to Marry My Dad 2? NBC 7.36 30 For Love or Money 4 NBC 7.28

31 Still Standing CBS 7.18 32 Yes, Dear CBS 6.99 33 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition ABC 6.78 34 America’s Funniest Home Videos ABC 6.56 35 According to Jim ABC 6.55

36 The Days ABC 6.53 37 My Wife & Kids (Wed., 8:30 p.m.) ABC 6.45 38 Will & Grace (8 p.m.) NBC 6.37 39 Cops (8:30 p.m.) FOX 6.35 40 Will & Grace (9:30 p.m.) NBC 6.24

41 Will & Grace (8:30 p.m.) NBC 6.23 42 Will & Grace (9 p.m.) NBC 6.21 43 8 Simple Rules ABC 6.13 44 Las Vegas (Fri.) NBC 6.10 45 Method and Red FOX 5.93

46 Primetime Thursday ABC 5.90 47 NYPD 24/7 ABC 5.88 48 America’s Most Wanted FOX 5.86 49 The Simpsons FOX 5.83 50 That ‘70s Show FOX 5.82

51 My Wife and Kids (Wed., 8 p.m.) ABC 5.81 52 Last Comic Standing (8 p.m.) NBC 5.76 53 48 Hours Investigates CBS 5.69 54 Less Than Perfect ABC 5.62 55 ER NBC 5.58

56 Cops FOX 5.50 57 “Olympic Trials” (Sun.) NBC 5.41 58 WWE Smackdown! UPN 5.39 59 Quintuplets FOX 5.37 60 George Lopez ABC 5.32

61 I’m With Her ABC 5.24 62 JAG CBS 5.21 63 My Wife & Kids (Mon.) ABC 5.20 64 “ABC 50th Anniversary Bloopers” ABC 5.13 65 George Lopez (Mon.) ABC 5.09

66 Joan of Arcadia CBS 5.00 67 According to Jim (Mon.) ABC 4.98 68 Big Brother 5 (Sat.) CBS 4.87 69 Simple Life 2 (Sun.) FOX 4.79 70 Wonderful World of Disney ABC 4.70

71 The Drew Carey Show (9 p.m.) ABC 4.61 72 Hope & Faith (Mon.) ABC 4.41 73 The Drew Carey Show (9:30 p.m.) ABC 4.35 74 Weddings ABC 4.25 75 North Shore FOX 4.23

76 Casino FOX 4.21 77 Hope & Faith (Fri., 9 p.m.) ABC 4.17 78 Married to the Kellys ABC 4.06 Next Action Star NBC 4.06 80 Hope & Faith (Fri., 9:30 p.m.) ABC 4.00

81 Malcolm in the Middle FOX 3.96 82 King of the Hill FOX 3.86 83 Arrested Development FOX 3.84 84 Stephen King’s Kingdom Hospital ABC 3.66 85 Summerland WB 3.54

86 The Ultimate Love Test ABC 3.53 Amazing Race: 5 (Sat.) CBS 3.53 88 “End of Days” NBC 3.43 89 Crime and Punishment 3 NBC 3.42 90 Quintuplets (Sun.) FOX 3.36

91 Reba (9:30 p.m.) WB 3.28 92 Method and Red (Fri.) FOX 3.09 93 North Shore FOX 3.05 94 Bernie Mac FOX 2.73 95 Half and Half UPN 2.62

96 Reba WB 2.61 97 Girlfriends UPN 2.60 98 Smallville WB 2.51 99 Half and Half UPN 2.41 100 Tru Calling FOX 2.39

101 7th Heaven WB 2.34 102 Gilmore Girls WB 2.30 103 Jamie Kennedy (9:30 p.m.) WB 2.28 One On One UPN 2.28 105 Charmed (9 p.m.) WB 2.27

106 The Jury FOX 2.24 107 Eve UPN 2.18 108 Smallville (9 p.m.) WB 2.14 109 America’s Next Top Model UPN 2.12 110 Charmed WB 2.09

111 Steve Harvey’s Big Time (7:30 p.m.) WB 1.99 112 Summerland (Mon.) WB 1.97 113 Jamie Kennedy WB 1.85 114 All of Us UPN 1.81 115 Steve Harvey Big Time WB 1.79

116 Enterprise UPN 1.76 117 Enterprise (9 p.m.) UPN 1.44 118 Pepsi Smash WB 1.33 119 “Lost and Found” UPN 1.30 120 Grounded for Life WB 1.28

121 What I Like About You WB 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 CBS 8.94 12.27

NBC 6.67 10.31

FOX 6.18 8.92

ABC 5.48 8.43

UPN 2.57 3.23

WB 2.20 3.40

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