Awards, disaster lift CBS

Country crooners and a made-for-TV disaster flick helped CBS run away with the prime-time ratings last week, while rivals reaped mostly ho-hum results for the first full week of the November “sweep” period, which helps set ad rates for local stations.

CBS had seven of the 10 most-watched programs for the week ending Sunday, including No. 1 “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” (29.6 million viewers), according to figures released Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research. “Category 6: Day of Destruction,” a heavily promoted sci-fi thriller about a series of storms that lay waste to Chicago, gave CBS its most-watched scripted Sunday movie (19.3 million) since the “Jesus” miniseries in May 2000.

And the three-hour 38th annual Country Music Assn. Awards (18.5 million), hosted by country duo Brooks & Dunn, handed CBS a rare Tuesday win in both total viewers and the key demographic of adults aged 18 to 49.

Overall, CBS handily won the week (averaging 15 million viewers per hour), trailed by NBC (11.3 million), ABC (10.4 million) and Fox (7.3 million). CBS, which also ranked first among young adults, was the only network to post gains in both viewers (up 6%) and young adults (up 20%) compared to the same week last year.

NBC’s Friday lineup, anchored by the new drama “Medical Investigation,” pulled out a narrow win in young adults, although CBS -- replacing the defunct drama “Dr. Vegas” with a repeat of “CSI: NY” -- still won in total viewers. “The West Wing” was dominant in its Wednesday slot among total viewers (15.3 million) and tied among young adults with CBS’ comedy block of “King of Queens” and “Center of the Universe.” But NBC sputtered with the Monday premiere of a reality miniseries, “The $25 Million Hoax” (7.2 million), drubbed by CBS’ “CSI: Miami” and ABC’s “Monday Night Football.”

ABC pre-empted its most-watched series, Sunday’s “Desperate Housewives,” to air the American Music Awards (12.9 million). But its desert-island thriller “Lost” (18.4 million) helped propel the network to its most-watched Wednesday in nearly a year, not counting the Oct. 13 presidential debates.

Fox, struggling to get traction with some recent program launches, found its best young-adult performances from Sunday’s “The Simpsons” (11.6 million overall) and a new reality series, “Nanny 911” (8.7 million).

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Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (Nov. 8-14) 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 277.93 million potential viewers in the U.S. age 2 and older. Viewership is listed in millions.

*--* Program Network Viewers 1 CSI CBS 29.64 2 CSI: Miami CBS 22.08 3 Without a Trace CBS 20.46 4 Survivor: Vanuatu CBS 19.99 5 ER NBC 19.83 6 “Category 6: Day of Destruction,” Part 1 CBS 19.34 7 “CMA Awards” CBS 18.46 8 Lost ABC 18.43 9 Cold Case CBS 18.42 10 Monday Night Football ABC 17.15 11 Apprentice 2 NBC 16.19 12 Two and Half Men CBS 16.04 13 CSI: NY CBS 15.38 14 The West Wing NBC 15.26 15 Law and Order: Criminal Intent NBC 15.16 16 Law and Order NBC 15.14 17 60 Minutes CBS 15.10 18 Las Vegas NBC 14.80 19 Law & Order: SVU NBC 14.30 20 Crossing Jordan NBC 13.76 21 “NFL Sunday Post-Game” FOX 13.69 22 NFL Monday Showcase ABC 13.26 23 “American Music Awards” ABC 12.91 24 King of Queens CBS 12.74 25 Fear Factor NBC 12.40 26 Will & Grace NBC 11.96 27 Wife Swap ABC 11.80 28 Joey NBC 11.69 29 The Simpsons FOX 11.64 30 Center of the Universe CBS 11.03 31 Still Standing CBS 10.77 32 NYPD Blue ABC 10.76 33 JAG CBS 10.41 34 Dateline: NBC (Fri.) NBC 10.38 35 Listen Up CBS 10.34 36 CSI: NY (Fri.) CBS 10.07 37 Biggest Loser NBC 10.00 38 The Bachelor ABC 9.69 39 According to Jim ABC 9.66 40 60 Minutes (Wed.) CBS 9.44 41 Third Watch NBC 9.32 42 Joan of Arcadia CBS 9.19 43 Law & Order: SVU (Sat.) NBC 9.12 44 Malcolm in the Middle FOX 9.06 45 20/20 (Fri.) ABC 9.03 46 Medical Investigation NBC 8.94 47 Scrubs NBC 8.93 48 My Wife and Kids ABC 8.84 49 Nanny 911 FOX 8.73 50 Rodney ABC 8.67 51 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition ABC 8.65 52 American Dreams NBC 8.63 53 Wonderful World of Disney ABC 8.53 54 George Lopez ABC 8.50 55 Trading Spouses FOX 8.43 56 Hope & Faith ABC 8.20 America’s Most Wanted FOX 8.20 58 O.C. FOX 8.08 59 Cops (8:30 p.m.) FOX 7.84 60 8 Simple Rules ABC 7.77 61 “Saving Private Ryan” ABC 7.71 62 Dateline: NBC (Sun) NBC 7.22 Arrested Development FOX 7.22 64 Less Than Perfect ABC 7.19 65 LAX NBC 7.16 66 “25 Million Dollar Hoax” NBC 7.15 67 That ‘70s Show FOX 7.00 68 Cops FOX 6.84 69 The Swan 2 FOX 6.79 70 Complete Savages ABC 6.54 71 Gilmore Girls WB 6.13 72 48 Hours Mystery CBS 5.87 73 “Men in Black” NBC 5.82 Quintuplets FOX 5.82 75 Life of Luxury ABC 5.64 76 America’s Next Top Model 3 UPN 5.60 77 Smallville WB 5.51 78 Rebel Billionaire (Tue.) FOX 5.09 79 Big Fat Obnoxious Boss FOX 4.95 80 WWE Smackdown! UPN 4.85 81 Reba WB 4.82 82 One Tree Hill WB 4.54 83 “Dallas Reunion Encore” CBS 4.53 84 “Lord of the Rings,” Part 2 WB 4.17 85 North Shore FOX 4.08 86 Charmed WB 3.94 87 Blue Collar TV WB 3.93 88 Girlfriends UPN 3.92 89 Renovate My Family FOX 3.91 90 Half and Half UPN 3.68 91 Kevin Hill UPN 3.45 92 One On One UPN 3.41 93 Enterprise UPN 3.39 94 Grounded for Life WB 3.34 95 Eve UPN 3.32 96 All of Us UPN 3.22 97 Rebel Billionaire (Fri.) FOX 3.18 98 Second Time Around UPN 3.14 99 “The Fellowship of the Ring,” Part 2 WB 3.01 100 Steve Harvey’s Big Time WB 2.91 101 What I Like About You WB 2.83 102 Veronica Mars UPN 2.74 103 Jack & Bobby WB 2.52 104 America’ Next Top Model 3 (Fri.) UPN 1.90 105 Mountain WB 1.64

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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 15.04 13.25 NBC 11.26 10.23 ABC 10.41 10.12 FOX 7.35 10.18 WB 3.77 3.95 UPN 3.71 3.58

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