It’s a slam dunk for ABC

Laker fans couldn’t be happy with the result of the third and fourth games of the team’s NBA championship series with the Detroit Pistons. But those two contests in Detroit, along with the Lakers’ winning effort on June 8 at Staples Center, dominated the week’s ratings and gave ABC a rare victory in all of the key audience demographics. It was the network’s best showing since the Academy Awards.

The only other programming that showed significant life last week, according to information from Nielsen Media Research, was the second season launch of NBC’s “Last Comic Standing,” which finished in 11th place and attracted almost 11 million viewers when it debuted June 9.

It did even better with the 18- to 49-year-old viewers advertisers and networks crave, finishing just behind the NBA finals. Perhaps the controversy generated by several disgruntled judges helped boost interest in the show.

More foreboding for NBC, though, was the small viewership for Monday night’s premiere of the unscripted “Next Action Star.”

CBS, which is ignoring the call for year-round programming, had to be pleased that repeats of its shows produced six of the seven top-rated scripted shows last week.

Jonathan Taylor

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Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (June 7-13) 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 NBA Finals: Game 4 ABC 20.29 2 NBA Finals: Game 3 ABC 16.21 3 NBA Finals: Game 2 ABC 16.13 4 CSI CBS 13.84 5 Without a Trace CBS 13.25

6 Everybody Loves Raymond CBS 13.22 7 Two and a Half Men CBS 12.58 8 CSI: Miami CBS 12.14 9 Law & Order: SVU NBC 11.33 10 Cold Case CBS 11.23

11 “Last Comic NBC 10.70 11 Standing 2” (Wed.) 12 60 Minutes CBS 10.57 13 Crossing Jordan NBC 9.93 14 Law & Order: NBC 9.92 14 Criminal Intent 15 48 Hours Mystery CBS 9.28

16 Last Comic NBC 9.13 16 Standing 2 (Tue.) 17 Still Standing CBS 8.61 18 Fear Factor NBC 8.16 19 “See You in My Dreams” CBS 8.10 20 60 Minutes II CBS 7.67

21 Dateline NBC (Sun.) NBC 7.50 22 NBA Hangtime Finals: ABC 7.49 22 Game 4 23 King of Queens CBS 7.44 24 Yes, Dear CBS 7.32 25 America’s Funniest ABC 7.16 25 Home Videos

26 Judging Amy CBS 7.04 27 Navy NCIS CBS 6.75 28 NBA Hangtime Finals: ABC 6.72 28 Game 3 29 Still Standing (Wed.) CBS 6.68 30 The Simpsons FOX 6.63

Friends NBC 6.63 32 20/20 (Fri.) ABC 6.44 33 ABC Stanley Cup Final: ABC 6.29 33 Game 7 34 For Love or Money 3 NBC 6.26 35 America’s Most Wanted FOX 6.10

36 Dateline NBC (Fri.) NBC 6.04 37 Scrubs (Wed., 8 p.m.) NBC 5.99 38 Cops (8:30 p.m.) FOX 5.87 39 “NBC News: NBC 5.83 39 Reagan Motorcade” 40 The Guardian CBS 5.75

41 Joan of Arcadia (Thu.) CBS 5.71 42 My Wife and Kids (Thu.) ABC 5.68 43 “Mission Impossible II” CBS 5.58 44 Scrubs (Wed., 8:30 p.m.) NBC 5.54 45 Will & Grace NBC 5.50

46 Come to Papa NBC 5.48 47 My Wife and Kids ABC 5.46 48 ER NBC 5.43 49 8 Simple Rules ABC 5.21 “American Pie 2” FOX 5.21

51 That ‘70s Show (8:30 p.m.) FOX 5.02 52 Simple Life (Wed., 9:30 p.m.) FOX 4.86 53 NBA Hangtime Finals: ABC 4.84 53 Game 2 54 Olympic Trials (Sun.) NBC 4.80 55 Cops FOX 4.70

56 Crime and Punishment 3 NBC 4.68 57 Law & Order (Sat.) NBC 4.67 Simple Life (Wed., 9 p.m.) FOX 4.67 59 WWE Smackdown! UPN 4.64 60 Scrubs (Thu., 9:30 p.m.) NBC 4.58

61 Arrested Development (8:30 p.m.) FOX 4.44 62 Two and a Half Men (Sat.) CBS 4.42 63 Malcolm in the Middle FOX 4.41 Simple Life (Wed., 8:30 p.m.) FOX 4.41 65 That ‘70s Show (8 p.m.) FOX 4.32

66 Joan of Arcadia CBS 4.30 67 The Jury (8 p.m.) FOX 4.21 68 The Jury (9 p.m.) FOX 4.18 69 Simple Life (Wed., 8:17 p.m.) FOX 4.14 70 Summerland (Tue.) WB 4.11

71 “Field of Dreams” WB 4.10 72 The Drew Carey Show (9 p.m.) ABC 4.06 73 The Drew Carey Show (9:30 p.m.) ABC 3.96 74 King of the Hill FOX 3.87 75 Olympic Trials (Sat.) NBC 3.62

76 “The Ultimate Love Test” ABC 3.58 77 Arrested Development (9:30 p.m.) FOX 3.41 78 Reba (9:30 p.m.) WB 3.36 79 Oliver Beene FOX 3.33 80 Tru Calling FOX 3.29

81 Reba WB 3.19 82 Superstar USA WB 3.07 83 All of Us UPN 2.92 84 Eve UPN 2.85 85 “Lucy Must Be Traded” ABC 2.84

86 “O” WB 2.75 87 7th Heaven WB 2.69 88 One on One UPN 2.67 89 Simple Life (Wed., 8 p.m.) FOX 2.63 90 Girlfriends UPN 2.60

91 The Parkers UPN 2.58 92 Grounded for Life WB 2.56 93 Half and Half UPN 2.55 94 One on One (9 p.m.) UPN 2.53 95 Gilmore Girls WB 2.49

96 What I Like About You WB 2.39 97 “The Astronaut’s Wife” UPN 2.30 98 Steve Harvey’s Big Time (7:30 p.m.) WB 2.02 99 Summerland (Sun.) WB 2.00 100 Enterprise UPN 1.97

101 Malcolm in the Middle FOX 1.94 102 Rock Me Baby UPN 1.45 103 Bernie Mac FOX 1.72 104 Steve Harvey’s Big Time WB 1.65 105 Charmed WB 1.57

106 Enterprise (9 p.m.) UPN 1.51 107 Summerland (Thu.) WB 1.26 108 “Pepsi Smash” WB 1.24

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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 8.60 8.84

CBS 8.40 12.76

NBC 7.26 10.77

FOX 4.40 9.43

UPN 2.76 3.33

WB 2.42 3.56

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