Fox tactic not yet paying off

Fox is preaching patience as viewers have yet to embrace its attempt to run more original summer programming.

The network finished fourth in the ratings for the week ending Sunday, behind even ABC, which Fox routinely beat during the winter months. Fox came in third among viewers aged 18 to 49, the demographic it most cares about.

Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie’s “The Simple Life 2,” which finished just out of Nielsen Media Research’s Top 10 last week with 9.3 million viewers, is Fox’s summer highlight, coming in No. 1 among viewers 18 to 49.

None of Fox’s five other new shows are doing well, including “Casino,” from usually reliable reality producer Mark Burnett.

Perhaps most disappointing is “North Shore,” a soap about young workers at a luxury hotel in Hawaii. It drew just 4.4 million viewers last week.

Fox was hoping to catch attention in the summer, saying it was no longer a time it would subject viewers to a steady diet of reruns.

While the shows’ numbers are small, Fox is taking some solace in the fact that they’re not dropping much week to week.

Otherwise, viewers enjoyed the American Film Institute’s salute to Hollywood music. The CBS special was the week’s No. 3 show, with 12.3 million viewers.

CBS won the week, averaging 8.8 million viewers, focusing on a diet of repeats. NBC was second with 7.2 million viewers (and won among the 18-49 demographic). ABC averaged 5 million viewers, Fox had 4.8 million, UPN 2.4 million and the WB 2.3 million.

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Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (June 21-27) 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 15.29 2 Without a Trace CBS 12.64 3 “AFI 100 Years, 100 Songs” CBS 12.32 4 Law and Order NBC 11.86 5 CSI: Miami CBS 11.78

6 Two and a Half Men CBS 11.35 7 Everybody Loves Raymond CBS 11.30 8 60 Minutes CBS 10.93 9 Cold Case CBS 10.20 10 Law & Order (Wed., 9 p.m.) NBC 10.13

11 Without a Trace (8 p.m.) CBS 9.62 12 Simple Life 2 FOX 9.30 Law & Order: Criminal Intent NBC 9.30 14 Law & Order: SVU NBC 9.18 15 Crossing Jordan NBC 9.01

16 “The Soul Collector” CBS 8.82 17 Fear Factor NBC 8.66 18 Last Comic Standing 2 NBC 8.49 19 60 Minutes II CBS 7.90 20 Who Wants to Marry My Dad 2 NBC 7.88

21 Dateline: NBC (Fri.) NBC 7.72 22 48 Hours Mystery CBS 7.31 23 Yes, Dear CBS 7.29 24 America’s Most Wanted FOX 7.23 25 For Love or Money 3 NBC 7.19

26 “Practical Magic” ABC 7.08 27 NYPD Blue ABC 7.03 28 Still Standing CBS 6.96 Cops (8:30 p.m.) FOX 6.96 30 “Them” (8:30 p.m.) NBC 6.86

31 Will & Grace NBC 6.69 32 48 Hours Investigates CBS 6.66 33 “Them” NBC 6.54 34 The Simpsons FOX 6.49 35 Friends NBC 6.39

36 Las Vegas (Fri.) NBC 6.37 37 Primetime Thursday ABC 6.29 38 My Wife & Kids (8:30 p.m.) ABC 6.27 39 Method and Red (Wed.) FOX 6.26 40 8 Simple Rules ABC 6.06

41 King of Queens CBS 5.97 42 My Wife and Kids ABC 5.85 43 “Olympic Trials” (Sun.) NBC 5.82 44 America’s Funniest Home Videos ABC 5.81 45 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition ABC 5.79

46 Quintuplets FOX 5.63 47 Cops FOX 5.54 48 That ‘70s Show FOX 5.48 49 Scrubs NBC 5.45 50 Still Standing CBS 5.39

51 Come to Papa NBC 5.26 52 “Olympic Trials” (Sat.) NBC 5.14 53 According to Jim ABC 5.08 54 JAG CBS 5.02 My Wife & Kids (Mon.) ABC 5.02

56 Casino FOX 4.99 57 ER NBC 4.98 58 Whose Line Is It Anyway? (8:30 p.m.) ABC 4.96 Weddings ABC 4.96 60 According to Jim (Mon.) ABC 4.93

61 Hope & Faith (Mon.) ABC 4.91 62 Next Action Star NBC 4.88 63 “Keeping the Faith” CBS 4.82 64 George Lopez ABC 4.79 65 Arrested Development FOX 4.78

66 WWE Smackdown! UPN 4.74 67 Malcolm in the Middle FOX 4.73 68 Less Than Perfect ABC 4.71 69 Whose Line Is It Anyway? ABC 4.69 70 The Drew Carey Show (9:30 p.m.) ABC 4.67

71 Joan of Arcadia CBS 4.65 72 I’m With Her ABC 4.64 73 Method and Red (Tue.) FOX 4.60 74 Hope & Faith ABC 4.54 Bernie Mac (Tue.) FOX 4.54

76 20/20 (Fri.) ABC 4.50 77 George Lopez (Mon.) ABC 4.49 78 North Shore FOX 4.37 79 The Drew Carey Show ABC 4.34 80 The Jury FOX 4.25

81 Crime and Punishment 3 NBC 4.16 82 King of the Hill FOX 4.09 83 Life With Bonnie ABC 4.03 84 Quintuplets (Sun.) FOX 3.94 Married to the Kellys ABC 3.94

86 The Ultimate Love Test ABC 3.83 87 Summerland WB 3.72 88 King of Queens (Sat.) CBS 3.56 89 “Artificial Intelligence: AI” ABC 3.55 90 Bernie Mac (Fri.) FOX 3.52

91 Reba (9:30 p.m.) WB 3.27 92 Method and Red (Fri.) FOX 3.23 93 North Shore (Thu.) FOX 3.22 94 Stephen King’s Kingdom Hospital ABC 2.96 95 “Love and Basketball” WB 2.78

96 Tru Calling FOX 2.77 97 Girlfriends UPN 2.71 98 Half and Half UPN 2.61 99 7th Heaven WB 2.60 100 Reba WB 2.56

101 Eve UPN 2.53 102 The Jury (Fri.) FOX 2.45 103 Grounded for Life WB 2.36 104 The Parkers UPN 2.35 105 Gilmore Girls WB 2.34

106 Charmed WB 2.14 107 Jamie Kennedy (9:30 p.m.) WB 2.03 108 All of Us UPN 2.00 109 Summerland (Mon.) WB 1.95 110 Charmed (9 p.m.) WB 1.92

111 Steve Harvey’s Big Time (7:30 p.m.) WB 1.88 112 One on One UPN 1.87

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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 8.84 12.55

NBC 7.18 10.59

ABC 5.00 8.68

FOX 4.79 9.20

UPN 2.44 3.29

WB 2.30 3.50

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