Viewers don’t cross ‘Jordan’

Absence apparently made television viewers fonder of Jill Hennessy and her NBC drama “Crossing Jordan.”

The show has been an unexpectedly strong performer for the network since its return to the air March 7. The 14.7 million people who watched last week was well above last season’s average of 10.6 million viewers.

NBC rewarded “Crossing Jordan” this week with an early pickup order for a new season. The drama had gone 10 months without new episodes during Hennessy’s maternity leave.

“The Apprentice” continues to climb the Nielsen Media Research rankings for NBC, scoring a series-high 22.8 million viewers Thursday.

Its performance was helped by the preemption of CBS’ competing “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” for NCAA basketball.

Only Fox’s juggernaut, “American Idol,” was more popular last week than Donald Trump’s boardroom game.

Fourth-place ABC continues to tumble in the ratings. Of the 32 prime-time shows to earn an audience of 10 million or more last week, only one -- “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” -- was on ABC.

Underscoring ABC’s woes, HBO’s “The Sopranos” attracted 9.7 million viewers Sunday night, more than either ABC or Fox attracted, although both broadcast networks reach far more homes than the pay cable network. HBO’s new drama “Deadwood” drew 4.9 million.

CBS, with five of the week’s 10 top shows, won the week with an average of 11.5 million viewers. NBC averaged 10.9 million and Fox averaged 9.8 million viewers, while ABC had 8 million, UPN 3.3 million and the WB 2.7 million.

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Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (March 22-28) 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.

*--* 1 American Idol (Tue.) FOX 26.97 2 Apprentice NBC 22.84 3 American Idol (Wed.) FOX 20.39 4 CSI: Miami CBS 20.33 5 Everybody Loves Raymond CBS 18.04

6 60 Minutes CBS 16.74 7 Survivor: All-Stars CBS 16.70 8 Friends NBC 16.69 9 Two and Half Men CBS 16.43 10 Will & Grace NBC 15.94

11 Fear Factor NBC 15.25 12 Law & Order NBC 15.05 13 Crossing Jordan NBC 14.67 14 Law & Order: Criminal Intent NBC 14.40 15 Cold Case CBS 14.26

16 ER NBC 13.65 17 Las Vegas NBC 13.60 18 King of Queens CBS 12.98 19 Still Standing CBS 12.07 20 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition ABC 11.87

21 That ‘70’s Show (Wed.) FOX 11.65 22 The Simpson (8:30 p.m.) FOX 11.37 23 Law & Order: Criminal Intent (Fri.) NBC 11.34 24 NCAA Basketball (Sat., 7 p.m.) CBS 11.20 25 The O.C. FOX 11.09

26 Yes, Dear CBS 11.07 27 Law & Order: SVU NBC 10.81 28 The West Wing NBC 10.76 29 The Simpsons FOX 10.52 30 NCAA Basketball (Thu., 9:35 p.m.) CBS 10.38

31 Navy NCIS CBS 10.30 32 Dateline: NBC (Fri.) NBC 10.04 33 “NCAA Post-Game” (Sat.) CBS 9.98 CSI CBS 9.98 35 “Secrets of Extreme Makeover” ABC 9.84

36 The Practice ABC 9.83 37 NYPD Blue ABC 9.69 38 48 Hours Investigates (Tue.) CBS 9.39 39 Average Joe: Adam Returns NBC 9.19 40 NCAA Basketball (Thu., 7 p.m.) CBS 9.17

41 The Stones CBS 9.15 42 NCAA Basketball (Fri., 10 p.m.) CBS 9.14 43 Malcolm in the Middle FOX 9.06 44 American Dreams NBC 8.95 45 Alias ABC 8.80

46 “Price Is Right: Millionaire” CBS 8.54 47 Dateline: NBC (Sun.) NBC 8.44 48 NCAA Basketball (Fri., 7 p.m.) CBS 8.43 49 America’s Most Wanted FOX 8.37 World Figure Skating Championships (8 p.m.) ABC 8.37

20/20 (Mon.) ABC 8.37 52 Cops (8:30 p.m.) FOX 8.24 53 “NTSB: The Crash of Flight 323” ABC 8.18 54 George Lopez ABC 8.16 55 America’s Funniest Home Videos ABC 8.10

56 My Wife and Kids (8:30 p.m.) ABC 7.93 57 Hope & Faith ABC 7.77 58 Primetime Thursday ABC 7.50 59 “Jesus” CBS 7.48 60 My Wife and Kids ABC 7.41

61 Cops FOX 7.41 62 Century City CBS 7.30 63 Frasier NBC 7.28 64 Life With Bonnie ABC 6.93 65 World Figure Skating Championships (Thu.) ABC 6.82

66 The D.A. ABC 6.74 67 Married to the Kellys ABC 6.69 68 8 Simple Rules ABC 6.64 69 Arrested Development FOX 6.53 70 According to Jim ABC 6.45

71 King of the Hill (7:30 p.m.) FOX 6.29 72 Bernie Mac FOX 5.94 73 Whoopi Goldberg NBC 5.91 74 America’s Next Top Model 2 UPN 5.89 75 Less Than Perfect ABC 5.88

76 Scrubs NBC 5.81 77 “Knight’s Tale” NBC 5.76 78 That ‘70’s Show (Mon., 9:30 p.m.) FOX 5.59 79 I’m With Her ABC 5.58 80 Stephen King’s Kingdom Hospital ABC 5.38

81 Tru Calling FOX 5.33 82 WWE Smackdown! UPN 5.25 83 That’s ‘70’s Show (Mon., 9:30 p.m.) FOX 5.09 84 Century City (Sat.) CBS 5.02 85 King of the Hill (7 p .m.) FOX 4.81

86 Happy Family NBC 4.73 87 Apprentice (Wed.) NBC 4.54 88 Cracking Up FOX 4.37 89 Reba (8:30 p.m.) WB 3.98 90 Eve UPN 3.92

91 Steve Harvey’s Big Time WB 3.89 92 Reba WB 3.88 93 Girlfriends UPN 3.69 94 Forever Eden FOX 3.62 95 The Parkers UPN 3.47

96 7th Heaven WB 3.31 97 Wonderfalls FOX 3.25 98 Grounded for Life WB 3.14

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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 11.49 13.42

NBC 10.86 10.92

FOX 9.83 9.86

ABC 8.00 9.38

UPN 3.30 3.53

WB 2.71 3.72

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