A week when reality ruled the airwaves

Fun and games dominated the television landscape during a week when many of the scripted series were airing reruns.

The four most popular programs were reality shows, led by two editions of Fox’s “American Idol.” With 26.7 million viewers, the show had its largest audience ever last week for a Tuesday broadcast, according to Nielsen Media Research.

Two Mark Burnett productions, CBS’ “Survivor: All Stars” and NBC’s “The Apprentice,” came next.

After the games, the most-watched program offered a more sober form of reality. CBS’ “60 Minutes,” featuring an interview with former terrorism advisor Richard A. Clarke, was seen by 16.2 million people. That’s 1.3 million more than the average “60 Minutes” telecast this season.

Elsewhere, struggling ABC had more bad news. “Stephen King’s Kingdom Hospital,” after a strong start, has fallen flat in the ratings and was seen by only 7.1 million viewers last week.

Still, that’s better than the premiere of another ABC drama, “The D.A.,” which had 6.9 million viewers Friday. The network’s highest-rated scripted show last week was “NYPD Blue” in 35th place.

The new CBS comedy “The Stones” also had a lackluster premiere, seen by 7.1 million viewers.

Fox’s new series are also struggling so far. The Monday night comedy “Cracking Up” attracted about 4.9 million viewers, just behind a Thursday night encore of the premiere episode of “Wonderfalls,” which drew 5 million viewers. That didn’t help the second episode, which attracted 3.7 million in its Friday slot.

CBS won the week, averaging 11 million viewers. NBC had 10.6 million and Fox had 10.3 million, but won among the advertiser-coveted 18-to-49-year-old demographic. ABC had 8.4 million viewers, UPN 3.4 million and the WB 3.1 million.

Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (March 15-21) 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 American Idol (Tue.) FOX 26.72 2 American Idol (Wed.) FOX 22.92 3 Survivor: All-Stars (Wed.) CBS 18.96 4 Apprentice NBC 17.49 5 60 Minutes CBS 16.15

6 Friends NBC 15.26 7 Will & Grace NBC 15.00 8 Everybody Loves Raymond CBS 14.95 9 Fear Factor NBC 14.49 10 Cold Case CBS 14.41

11 Law & Order NBC 14.26 12 CSI: Miami CBS 14.24 13 Two and a Half Men CBS 13.58 14 Las Vegas NBC 13.46 15 Navy NCIS CBS 13.29

16 Law & Order: Criminal Intent NBC 13.16 17 ER NBC 12.13 18 Dateline: NBC (Fri.) NBC 11.94 Crossing Jordan NBC 11.94 20 The Simpsons (8:30 p.m.) FOX 11.84

21 Judging Amy CBS 11.60 22 The Simpsons FOX 11.24 Crossing Jordan (Fri.) NBC 11.24 24 Primetime Thursday ABC 11.09 25 “The Green Mile” ABC 11.04

26 Average Joe: Adam Returns NBC 10.69 27 Law & Order (9 p.m.) NBC 10.53 28 Still Standing CBS 10.38 29 That ‘70s Show FOX 10.15 30 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (Sun.) ABC 10.02

31 King of Queens CBS 9.87 32 Law & Order: SVU NBC 9.86 33 Yes, Dear CBS 9.66 34 Arrested Development (Wed.) FOX 9.62 35 NYPD Blue ABC 9.59

36 NCAA Basketball (Sat.) CBS 9.54 37 The Practice ABC 9.40 38 Malcolm in the Middle FOX 9.30 39 Extreme Makeover (Wed.) ABC 9.28 40 NCAA Basketball (Thu., 9:48 p.m.) CBS 9.18

Dateline: NBC (Sun.) NBC 9.18 42 My Wife and Kids ABC 9.17 43 Law & Order: SVU (Sat.) NBC 9.14 44 NCAA Basketball (Thu., 7 p.m.) CBS 9.11 45 America’s Funniest Home Videos ABC 8.92

46 Century City CBS 8.86 47 American Dreams NBC 8.85 48 NCAA Basketball (Fri., 9:38) CBS 8.75 49 My Wife and Kids (8:30 p.m.) ABC 8.68 50 Extreme Makeover (Thu.) ABC 8.59

51 America’s Most Wanted FOX 8.41 52 “NCAA Post-Game” (Sat.) CBS 8.30 53 According to Jim ABC 8.28 54 Frasier NBC 8.25 55 “Proof of Life” CBS 7.95

56 Alias ABC 7.93 57 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (Thu.) ABC 7.86 58 8 Simple Rules ABC 7.77 59 48 Hours Investigates CBS 7.54 60 Cops (8:30 p.m.) FOX 7.53

61 Less Than Perfect ABC 7.37 62 The Stones CBS 7.13 63 George Lopez ABC 7.10 64 Stephen King’s Kingdom Hospital ABC 7.09 65 Arrested Development FOX 7.02

66 King of the Hill FOX 6.95 67 The D.A. ABC 6.93 68 Hope & Faith ABC 6.87 69 Whoopi NBC 6.73 70 Scrubs NBC 6.60

71 Life With Bonnie ABC 6.48 72 Married to the Kellys ABC 6.45 73 Cops FOX 6.31 74 I’m With Her ABC 6.28 75 America’s Funniest Home Videos (Sat.) ABC 6.14

76 Wonderful World of Disney ABC 6.12 77 That ‘70s Show (Mon.) FOX 5.78 78 America’s Next Top Model 2 (Tue.) UPN 5.69 79 Happy Family NBC 5.67 80 Apprentice (Wed.) NBC 5.58

81 Tru Calling FOX 5.52 82 WWE Smackdown! UPN 5.51 83 King of the Hill (Sun., 7 p.m.) FOX 5.11 84 Wonderfalls (Thu.) FOX 5.04 85 Cracking Up FOX 4.86

86 7th Heaven WB 4.59 87 Forever Eden FOX 4.34 88 Reba (8:30 p.m.) WB 4.08 89 Charmed WB 3.97 90 Reba WB 3.86

91 Tracy Morgan Show (8:30 p.m.) NBC 3.85 92 Tracy Morgan Show NBC 3.81 93 Wonderfalls (Fri.) FOX 3.68 94 Steve Harvey’s Big Time WB 3.67 95 Playing It Straight FOX 3.65

96 Average Joe: Adams Returns (Sat.) NBC 3.60 97 Eve UPN 3.45 98 High School Reunion WB 3.34 99 All of Us UPN 3.32 100 The Parkers UPN 3.31

101 Girlfriends UPN 3.34 102 Jamie Kennedy WB 2.96 103 Half and Half UPN 2.90 104 Gilmore Girls WB 2.88 105 One on One UPN 2.74

106 Grounded for Life WB 2.72 107 Smallville WB 2.66 108 Everwood WB 2.57 Like Family WB 2.57 Smallville (9 p.m.) WB 2.57

111 Jamie Kennedy (9:30 p.m.) WB 2.56 112 Help WB 2.47 113 High School Reunion (Tue.) WB 2.29 114 Smallville: Beginnings WB 2.28 115 Enterprise UPN 2.24

116 America’s Next Top Model 2 (Fri., 9 p.m.) UPN 1.76 117 Game Over UPN 1.72 118 The Mullets UPN 1.70 119 America’s Next Top Model 2 (Fri., 8 p.m.) UPN 1.62

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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 11.04 13.50

NBC 10.55 10.93

FOX 10.32 9.86

ABC 8.43 9.43

UPN 3.35 3.53

WB 3.05 3.76

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