Clinton draws viewers to CBS

Bill Clinton was a polarizing figure when he was president, and he remained one Sunday night on CBS’ newsmagazine “60 Minutes.” This time the divisions had more to do with age than party affiliation.

The hourlong interview with Clinton was the second most-watched program for the week ending June 20, according to Nielsen Media Research. It trailed the fifth and final game of the NBA Finals.

“60 Minutes” scored 15.8 million viewers, a strong number considering that the telecast landed on Father’s Day and aired when the sun was still shining (it was the second longest day of the year).

However, young viewers seemed decidedly unimpressed by the Clinton chat. Among ages 18 to 49, “60 Minutes” placed 16th for the week, tied with NBC’s reality series “For Love or Money.” Among 18- to 34-year-olds, the newsmagazine tied for 32nd place, and among 12- to 17-year-olds -- seldom a strong target audience for news programs -- it tied for 102nd.

Young adults were keener on Wednesday’s premiere of “The Simple Life 2,” the unscripted comedy starring Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie. “Life” took second place in the 18-49 demographic, tied with a repeat of CBS’ crime drama “CSI: Miami.” NBC also did well among young adults with the return of its stand-up contest, “Last Comic Standing.”

Overall, CBS won the week in total viewers (8.6 million average), followed by NBC (7.2 million), ABC (6.4 million) and Fox (4.7 million). NBC won the week in the 18-49 demographic, with ABC and CBS tied for second and Fox fourth.

Scott Collins

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Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (June 14-20) 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 Net- work View- ers Program Net- work View- ers

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*--* 1 NBA Finals: Game 5 ABC 21.84 2 60 Minutes CBS 15.77 3 CSI CBS 14.12 4 CSI: Miami CBS 14.05 5 Without a Trace CBS 12.84

6 Law & Order NBC 11.81 7 Cold Case CBS 11.41 8 Everybody Loves Raymond CBS 11.36 9 Two and Half Men CBS 11.02 10 Last Comic Standing NBC 10.37

11 Law & Order: SVU NBC 10.33 12 Navy NCIS CBS 9.80 13 Simple Life 2 FOX 9.76 14 Last Comic Standing (Wed.) NBC 9.75 15 CSI: Miami (Thu.) CBS 9.53

16 Dateline: NBC (Fri.) NBC 9.39 17 Law & Order: Criminal Intent NBC 9.29 18 Fear Factor NBC 9.11 19 60 Minutes (Wed.) CBS 9.00 20 Crossing Jordan NBC 8.92

21 48 Hours Mystery CBS 8.39 King of Queens CBS 8.39 23 Simple Life 2 FOX 8.29 24 Method and Red FOX 8.27 25 “Cider House Rules” CBS 8.06

26 NBA Hangtime Finals: Game 5 ABC 7.34 27 Yes, Dear CBS 7.20 28 For Love or Money 3 NBC 7.15 29 Quints FOX 7.12 30 Las Vegas (Fri.) NBC 6.92

31 Still Standing CBS 6.85 32 48 Hours Investigates CBS 6.79 33 America’s Most Wanted FOX 6.62 34 20/20 (Fri.) ABC 6.53 35 Weddings ABC 6.50

36 Fear Factor (Wed.) NBC 6.42 37 Judging Amy CBS 6.17 38 North Shore FOX 5.92 39 Casino FOX 5.80 40 Primetime Thursday ABC 5.72

41 ER NBC 5.66 42 My Wife and Kids ABC 5.59 43 Extreme Makeover (9 p.m.) ABC 5.55 44 8 Simple Rules ABC 5.49 Last Comic Standing (Sun., 8 p.m.) NBC 5.49

46 Friends NBC 5.46 Next Action Star NBC 5.46 48 The Guardian CBS 5.45 49 Cops (8:30 p.m.) FOX 5.44 50 Extreme Makeover ABC 5.40

51 JAG CBS 5.25 52 Will & Grace NBC 5.14 “Sleep: How to Get the Rest” ABC 5.14 54 George Lopez ABC 5.09 55 “Bicentennial Man” ABC 5.08

56 Hope & Faith (Mon.) ABC 4.99 57 Cops FOX 4.97 58 My Wife and Kids (Mon.) ABC 4.94 59 “Next Action Star” NBC 4.93 60 The Simpsons FOX 4.91

61 According to Jim (Mon.) ABC 4.90 62 “Thirteen Days” CBS 4.88 63 George Lopez (Mon.) ABC 4.60 America’s Funniest Home Videos ABC 4.60 65 WWE Smackdown! UPN 4.58

66 Hope & Faith ABC 4.39 67 “Patch Adams” ABC 4.35 68 Bernie Mac (8:30 p.m.) FOX 4.29 69 Married to the Kellys ABC 4.27 Joan of Arcadia CBS 4.27

71 Scrubs NBC 4.26 72 Come to Papa NBC 4.25 73 Superstar USA WB 4.24 74 Last Comic Standing (Sun., 7:35 p.m.) NBC 4.23 75 The Jury FOX 4.18

76 Crime and Punishment 3 NBC 4.04 77 Bernie Mac FOX 3.96 78 Drew Carey Show (9:30 p.m.) ABC 3.93 79 Drew Carey Show ABC 3.84 80 Malcolm in the Middle FOX 3.80

81 Life With Bonnie ABC 3.73 82 North Shore (Thu.) FOX 3.57 The Ultimate Love Test ABC 3.57 84 Quints (Sun.) FOX 3.44 85 Summerland (Tue.) WB 3.39

“Apollo at 70” NBC 3.39 87 “Arrested” FOX 3.30 88 Reba WB 3.25 89 Reba (9:30 p.m.) WB 3.23 90 Tru Calling FOX 2.97

91 7th Heaven WB 2.70 92 King of the Hill FOX 2.67 93 The Jury (Fri., 9 p.m.) FOX 2.43 94 Half and Half UPN 2.42 95 Girlfriends UPN 2.39

96 Grounded for Life WB 2.34 97 The Jury (Fri., 9 p.m.) FOX 2.32 98 Gilmore Girls WB 2.29 >99 Eve UPN 2.25 100 Oliver Beene FOX 2.24

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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 CBS 8.64 12.65

NBC 7.20 10.67

ABC 6.42 8.78

FOX 4.67 9.31

UPN 2.52 3.31

WB 2.32 3.53

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