There’s no slowing Fox’s ‘Idol’

Fox’s “American Idol” juggernaut continues unabated, with all three episodes of the talent show/humiliation contest finishing in the top seven in overall viewers for last week, according to national ratings information released Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research.

The three “Idols,” which included the March 1 “Untalented” bonus installment that boasted the return of improbable star William Hung, also took three of the top four slots in the 18-49 demographic most favored by advertisers.

NBC’s new Thursday hit “The Apprentice” also scored well in overall viewers and the young demographic. It helped power the first of two installments of the “Princess Diana: Secret Tapes” specials to the 12th most watched show overall, 10th highest in the key demographic.

CBS remains the most-watched network overall, with six shows in the week’s top 10.

The premiere of ABC’s “Stephen King’s Kingdom Hospital” benefited from plenty of promos on the Feb. 29 Oscar telecast to finish in 18th place for the week, the third most-watched drama behind CBS’ “CSI” and “CSI: Miami.”

Two shows departing after this season, NBC’s “Friends” and “Frasier,” seem to be facing different endings. A repeat “Friends” still finished as the 11th most-watched show for the week, and No. 7 in the young demographic, while a new “Frasier” couldn’t fare better than 35th overall, 34th in the key demographic.

And Monday’s airing of “Judas” on ABC drew just more than 9 million viewers; everyone else must’ve been at their multiplex watching “The Passion of the Christ.”

-- Jonathan Taylor

Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (March 1-7) 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 Network Viewers 1 American Idol (Tue.) FOX 25.48 2 Survivor: All-Stars CBS 23.30 3 CSI CBS 22.74 4 Apprentice NBC 20.21 5 CSI: Miami CBS 19.90

6 “American Idol: Uncut” FOX 19.69 7 American Idol (Wed.) FOX 19.31 8 Everybody Loves Raymond CBS 17.80 9 Without a Trace CBS 17.46 10 Two and a Half Men CBS 17.10

11 Friends NBC 17.00 12 “Princess Diana: Secret Tapes 1” NBC 16.83 13 Cold Case CBS 15.98 14 Will & Grace NBC 15.32 15 Law and Order: Criminal Intent NBC 14.99

16 Law and Order NBC 14.61 17 Average Joe: Hawaii NBC 14.07 18 Stephen King’s Kingdom Hospital ABC 14.06 19 Fear Factor NBC 12.98 20 Las Vegas NBC 12.97

21 Navy NCIS CBS 12.82 22 Crossing Jordan NBC 12.79 23 Law and Order: SVU NBC 12.45 24 60 Minutes CBS 12.21 25 Judging Amy CBS 11.99

26 Everybody Loves Raymond (Wed.) CBS 11.50 27 The West Wing NBC 11.43 28 King of Queens CBS 11.10 29 The Guardian CBS 11.08 30 Still Standing CBS 10.96

31 The Simpsons FOX 10.78 32 CSI (Wed.) CBS 10.70 33 Third Watch NBC 10.67 34 60 Minutes II CBS 10.63 35 Frasier NBC 10.42

36 Yes, Dear CBS 10.32 37 O.C. FOX 10.27 38 Extreme Makeover (Sun.) ABC 10.17 39 Forever Eden (Tue.) FOX 9.92 40 “The Mystery of Natalie Wood” ABC 9.82

41 Forever Eden (Mon.) FOX 9.74 42 That ‘70s Show FOX 9.69 43 The Practice ABC 9.44 44 NYPD Blue ABC 9.26 45 “The Survivor’s Club” CBS 9.18

46 Primetime Thursday ABC 9.16 47 My Wife and Kids ABC 9.03 48 Dateline: NBC (Sun.) NBC 9.02 49 Dateline: NBC (Fri.) NBC 8.86 50 American Dreams NBC 8.66

51 America’s Funniest Home Videos ABC 8.65 Joan of Arcadia CBS 8.65 53 Less Than Perfect ABC 8.58 54 20/20 (Fri.) ABC 8.44 55 According to Jim ABC 8.41

56 JAG CBS 8.36 57 Scrubs NBC 8.19 58 Hope & Faith ABC 8.18 59 Bernie Mac FOX 8.15 60 America’s Most Wanted FOX 8.09

61 8 Simples Rules ABC 8.07 62 Law and Order: SVU (Sat.) NBC 8.03 63 Malcolm in the Middle FOX 7.97 64 Hack CBS 7.96 65 48 Hours Investigates CBS 7.93

Cops (8:30 p.m.) FOX 7.93 67 Star Search CBS 7.62 68 The District CBS 7.61 69 George Lopez ABC 7.52 70 Alias ABC 7.39

71 Extreme Makeover (Thu., 9 p.m.) ABC 7.30 72 Married to the Kellys ABC 7.06 73 Life With Bonnie ABC 6.98 74 Cops FOX 6.85 75 Whoopie NBC 6.74

76 I’m With Her ABC 6.73 77 America’s Next Top Model 2 UPN 6.58 78 Arrested Development FOX 6.42 79 Apprentice (Wed.) NBC 6.12 80 Oliver Beene FOX 6.07

81 Extreme Makover (Thu., 8 p.m.) ABC 5.96 82 King of the Hill FOX 5.64 “Frequency” ABC 5.64 84 7th Heaven WB 5.46 85 Happy Family NBC 5.39

86 Smallville WB 5.26 87 “Test the Nation 2” FOX 5.13 88 WWE Smackdown! UPN 4.89 89 Gilmore Girls WB 4.71 90 Frasier (Sat.) NBC 4.58

91 Reba (8:30 p.m.) WB 4.38 92 Reba WB 4.37 93 Tru Calling FOX 4.36 94 Whoopi (Sat.) NBC 4.22 95 Happy Family (Sat.) NBC 4.06

96 One Tree Hill WB 3.95 97 Girlfriends UPN 3.80 98 Enterprise UPN 3.78 99 All of Us UPN 3.73 100 Half and Half UPN 3.71

101 Angel WB 3.68 102 Charmed WB 3.54 The Tracy Morgan Show NBC 3.54 104 7th Heaven (9 p.m.) WB 3.49 105 Tru Calling (9 p.m.) FOX 3.45

106 Steve Harvey’s Big Time WB 3.41 107 Help WB 3.33 108 Grounded for Life WB 3.31 109 Eve UPN 3.12 110 Jamie Kennedy WB 2.95

Charmed (9 p.m.) WB 2.95 112 The Parkers UPN 2.87 113 One on One UPN 2.82 114 Smallville: Beginnings WB 2.46 115 All About the Andersons WB 2.43

116 America’s Top Model (Wed.) UPN 2.39 117 “Operation Condor” UPN 2.26

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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 12.50 13.66

NBC 11.06 10.97

FOX 9.85 9.85

ABC 8.64 9.54

WB 3.78 3.81

UPN 3.71 3.55

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