CBS ‘Amazing’ in ratings race

CBS continued its sizzling summer prime-time ratings streak last week, thanks to strong performances from drama repeats plus the unscripted hit “Amazing Race: 5.” Fox, meanwhile, saw an encouraging premiere for its reality series “Trading Spouses: Meet Your New Mommy.”

CBS had eight of the top 10 most-watched shows for the week ending July 25, according to figures from Nielsen Media Research. Among them: No. 1 “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” (13.1 million total viewers) and No. 2 “Without a Trace” (12.6 million).

Overall, CBS won the week (7.9 million), trailed by NBC (6.6 million), ABC (5.7 million) and Fox (5.1 million).

CBS tied with NBC in the adults ages 18 to 49 category prized by advertisers, trailed by Fox and ABC. The top show in the 18-49 demographic was Fox’s “Simple Life 2,” followed by CBS’ “Amazing Race.” Fox also easily won its 8 p.m. time slot Tuesday with “Trading Spouses.”

The WB Network and UPN ran neck and neck in the 18-49 demographic, but UPN narrowly won in total viewers, 2.4 million versus 2.2 million.

Among basic cable networks, TNT had the week’s most-watched program with its coverage of NASCAR’s Nextel Cup on Sunday afternoon (6.8 million viewers). TNT’s NASCAR coverage was also tops in 18-49. In prime time, the No. 1 show was USA Network’s limited series “The 4400” (5.5 million).

-- Scott Collins

*

Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (July 19-25) 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 13.08 2 Without a Trace CBS 12.56 3 CSI: Miami CBS 11.48 4 Amazing Race: 5 CBS 11.10 5 Two and a Half Men CBS 10.75

6 Everybody Loves Raymond CBS 10.69 7 Law & Order NBC 10.63 8 Law & Order: SVU NBC 9.95 9 Cold Case CBS 9.50 10 60 Minutes CBS 9.47

11 Simple Life 2 FOX 9.16 12 Big Brother 5 (Tue.) CBS 9.15 13 Navy NCIS CBS 8.82 14 Big Brother 5 (Thu.) CBS 8.61 15 Dateline: NBC (Fri.) NBC 8.43

Extreme Makeover: Home ABC 8.43 Edition (9 p.m.) 17 60 Minutes II CBS 8.36 18 Crossing Jordan NBC 8.35 19 Law & Order: Criminal NBC 8.25 Intent 20 48 Hours Mystery CBS 8.17

21 Law & Order (9 p.m.) NBC 7.58 22 America’s Funniest Home ABC 7.54 Videos 23 Trading Spouses FOX 7.48 24 Two and Half Men (Wed.) CBS 7.46 25 Extreme Makeover ABC 7.37

26 Fear Factor NBC 7.34 27 20/20 (Fri.) ABC 7.29 28 Who Wants to Marry My NBC 7.11 Dad 2? 29 Last Comic Standing 2 NBC 7.10 30 “The Stair Case” ABC 6.86

31 King of Queens CBS 6.79 32 America’s Most Wanted FOX 6.77 33 My Wife & Kids (8:30 ABC 6.72 p.m.) 34 Still Standing CBS 6.69 35 “Legally Blond” FOX 6.62

36 “Murder on the Orient CBS 6.61 Express” 37 Las Vegas (Fri.) NBC 6.44 38 My Wife & Kids ABC 6.37 39 Yes, Dear CBS 6.36 “Funniest Families of TV ABC 6.36 Comedy”

41 For Love or Money 4 NBC 6.33 42 Quintuplets FOX 6.30 43 That ‘70s Show FOX 6.29 44 Dateline: NBC (Sun.) NBC 6.16 45 Cops (8:30 p.m.) FOX 6.14

46 According to Jim ABC 6.07 47 America’s Funniest Home ABC 5.96 Videos 48 Method and Red FOX 5.86 49 Law & Order: Criminal NBC 5.70 Intent (Sat.) 50 According to Jim (Mon.) ABC 6.62

51 Less Than Perfect ABC 5.60 52 Cops (8:10 p.m.) FOX 5.39 53 The Days ABC 5.38 54 48 Hours Investigates CBS 5.32 NYPD 24/7 ABC 5.32

56 George Lopez ABC 5.05 57 My Wife and Kids (Mon.) ABC 4.98 58 Big Brother 5 (Sat.) CBS 4.94 59 The Simpsons FOX 4.92 60 WWE Smackdown! UPN 4.89

61 Last Comic Standing 2 (8 NBC 4.84 p.m.) 62 Simple Life 2 (Sun.) FOX 4.82 “Unbreakable” ABC 4.82 64 The Drew Carey Show” ABC 4.75 65 George Lopez (Mon.) ABC 4.69

66 That ‘70s Show (Tue.) FOX 4.64 67 Without a Trace (Sat.) CBS 4.60 68 ER NBC 4.56 69 JAG CBS 4.55 North Shore FOX 4.55

71 Scrubs (8 p.m.) NBC 4.47 72 Scrubs (9:30 p.m.) NBC 4.44 73 Scrubs (8:30 p.m.) NBC 4.30 Next Action Star NBC 4.30 75 “Days” ABC 4.26

76 Hope & Faith ABC 4.25 77 The Drew Carey Show ABC 4.15 (9:30 p.m.) 78 Married to the Kellys ABC 4.11 79 Scrubs (9 p.m.) NBC 4.10 80 “Chicken Run’ NBC 3.97

81 Joan of Arcadia CBS 3.82 82 Arrested Development FOX 3.77 83 Casino FOX 3.74 84 King of the Hill FOX 3.63 85 Life With Bonnie ABC 3.57

86 Summerland WB 3.51 87 Quintuplets (Tue.) FOX 3.49 88 Bernie Mac FOX 3.44 89 Malcolm in the Middle FOX 3.41 90 The Ultimate Love Test ABC 3.39

91 Amazing Race: 5 (Sat.) CBS 3.29 92 Quintuplets (Sun.) FOX 3.27 93 Reba (Fri., 9 p.m.) WB 3.05 94 Method and Red (Fri.) FOX 2.96 95 Grounded for Life (9:30 WB 2.91 p.m.)

96 Reba (Thu., 8:30 p.m.) WB 2.73 Cops (8 p.m.) FOX 2.73 98 Reba (Thu., 8 p.m.) WB 2.50 99 The Jury FOX 2.31 100 7th Heaven WB 2.29

101 Half and Half (8:30 p.m.) UPN 2.28 102 Girlfriends UPN 2.20 103 Steve Harvey’s Big Time WB 2.18 (7:30 p.m.) 104 One on One UPN 2.16 105 Smallville WB 2.13

106 What I like About You WB 2.11 107 Gilmore Girls WB 2.10 108 Half and Half (9:30 p.m.) UPN 2.06 109 Summerland (Mon.) WB 2.05 110 Smallville (9 p.m.) WB 1.99

Grounded for Life (8:30 WB 1.99 p.m.) 112 America’s Next Top Model UPN 1.98 113 Eve UPN 1.96 114 Charmed WB 1.93 115 All of Us UPN 1.92

116 “Kingdom Come” UPN 1.75 117 Studio 7 WB 1.65 118 Steve Harvey’s Big Time WB 1.64 119 Enterprise UPN 1.62 120 Studio 7 (Sun.) WB 1.32

121 Enterprise (9 p.m.) UPN 1.03

*--*

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 7.93 12.18

NBC 6.56 10.23

ABC 5.71 8.37

FOX 5.09 8.83

UPN 2.42 3.21

WB 2.19 3.37

*--*