Crime pays for week’s leader, CBS

Three CBS procedural crime dramas were the most popular prime-time programs last week, helping the network to victories in total viewers and young adults. It was hardly a typical week, however, with numerous disruptions from the presidential and vice presidential debates and postseason baseball.

Thursday’s “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” was the most-watched show (28.4 million viewers), followed by “Without a Trace” (21.3 million) and “CSI: Miami” (20.8 million), according to figures released Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research.

With seven of the top 10 shows, CBS dominated for the week ending Oct. 10 (averaging 13.8 million viewers), trailed by NBC (9.9 million), ABC (9.7 million) and Fox (7.7 million). CBS also led among the advertiser-friendly category of adults ages 18 to 49, repeating its premiere-week triumph last month.

ABC received more good news about two first-year dramas. The desert island ensemble “Lost” continued to hold up well on Wednesdays, tied with CBS’ new hit “CSI: NY” as the top-rated program among young adults for the night. And on Sunday, viewership for the suburban soap “Desperate Housewives” slipped just 7% compared with the previous week’s No. 1-ranked premiere -- an encouraging indicator of ratings stamina.

NBC had less to brag about. “ER” (17.1 million viewers) was its only top-10 entry, and, season to date, the network has slipped 16% among its core young-adult audience (ABC is up 3% and CBS has climbed 11%).

On basic cable, Sunday’s Baltimore versus Washington NFL game on ESPN was the week’s most-watched (8.4 million).

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Scott Collins

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Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (Oct. 4-10) 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.

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Program Net- work View- ers Program Net- work View- ers

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*--* 1 CSI CBS 28.43 2 Without a Trace CBS 21.31 3 CSI: Miami CBS 20.75 4 Desperate Housewives ABC 20.03 5 Survivor: Vanuatu CBS 19.46

6 Everybody Loves Raymond CBS 17.35 7 ER NBC 17.06 8 CSI: NY CBS 16.89 9 Lost ABC 16.54 10 Two and a Half Men CBS 16.43

11 Monday Night Football ABC 16.35 12 Apprentice 2 NBC 16.21 13 Cold Case CBS 15.50 14 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition ABC 15.23 15 NCIS CBS 14.28

16 CSI: Miami CBS 13.76 17 Joey NBC 12.83 18 Law & Order: Criminal Intent NBC 12.81 19 Law & Order NBC 12.50 20 Crossing Jordan NBC 12.45

21 Will & Grace NBC 12.41 22 60 Minutes CBS 12.39 23 Boston Legal ABC 12.13 24 NFL Monday Showcase ABC 12.08 25 Las Vegas NBC 11.24

“Fox NFL Sunday Post-Game” FOX 11.24 27 “While I Was Gone” CBS 11.04 28 Still Standing CBS 10.75 Listen Up CBS 10.75 30 Fear Factor NBC 10.72

31 “Decision ‘04: Debate Analysis” (Fri.) NBC 10.60 32 Law & Order: SVU NBC 10.57 33 “Decision ‘04: Debate Analysis” (Tue.) NBC 9.77 34 George Lopez ABC 9.07 35 Wife Swap ABC 8.92

36 “Debate Analysis” (Tue.) ABC 8.77 37 Joan of Arcadia CBS 8.74 38 “MLB Playoff: Cardinals-Dodgers” (Sun.) FOX 8.71 39 60 Minutes (Wed.) CBS 8.67 40 “Analysis: Debate” (Fri.) ABC 8.62

41 The Bachelor ABC 8.52 42 “MLB Playoff: Twins-Yankees” (Tue.) FOX 8.46 43 Crimetime Saturday CBS 8.22 48 Hours Mystery CBS 8.22 45 My Wife and Kids ABC 8.06

46 Dateline: NBC (Sun.) NBC 7.82 47 “MLB Playoff: Cardinals-Dodgers” (Sat.) FOX 7.77 Law & Order: SVU (Sat.) NBC 7.77 49 LAX NBC 7.76 50 “Campaign ‘04: Debate Analysis” (Tue.) CBS 7.66

51 America’s Funniest Home Videos ABC 7.62 52 Dateline: NBC (Fri.) NBC 7.50 53 7th Heaven WB 7.36 54 Extreme Makeover ABC 7.28 55 “MLB Playoff: Cardinals-Dodgers” (Thu.) FOX 7.05

Desperate Housewives (Sat.) ABC 7.05 57 American Dreams NBC 7.04 58 Hawaii NBC 6.68 59 Renovate My Family (9 p.m.) FOX 6.60 60 “Most Outrageous Game Show Moments” NBC 6.38

61 That ‘70s Show FOX 6.26 62 Gilmore Girls WB 6.10 63 8 Simple Rules ABC 5.98 64 “Liar, Liar” ABC 5.80 65 Last Comic Standing 3 NBC 5.75

66 Smallville WB 5.45 67 One Tree Hill WB 5.43 68 Primetime Live ABC 5.39 69 Bernie Mac (9:30 p.m.) FOX 5.16 70 WWE Smackdown! UPN 5.14

71 Quintuplets FOX 5.09 Bernie Mac FOX 5.09 73 America’s Next Top Model 3 UPN 5.06 74 Everwood WB 5.05 75 Renovate My Family (8 p.m.) FOX 5.04

76 Complete Savages ABC 4.90 77 Charmed WB 4.81 78 Apprentice 2 (Sat.) NBC 4.51 79 Life as We Know It ABC 4.34 80 Reba WB 4.32

81 One on One UPN 4.11 82 Survivor: Vanuatu (Sat.) CBS 4.10 83 The Benefactor ABC 4.04 84 Half and Half UPN 3.93 85 Girlfriends UPN 3.90

86 Eve UPN 3.72 87 Kevin Hill UPN 3.62 88 Blue Collar TV (Fri.) WB 3.51 89 Second Time Around UPN 3.35 90 Blue Collar TV (Thu.) WB 3.32

91 All of Us UPN 3.02 92 What I Like About You WB 2.94 93 Grounded for Life WB 2.93 “Drew Carey’s Green Screen” WB 2.93 95 Enterprise UPN 2.89

96 Complex: Malibu FOX 2.80 97 Jack & Bobby WB 2.52 98 Veronica Mars WB 2.38 99 Steve Harvey’s Big Time WB 2.28 100 Mountain WB 2.10

101 America’s Next Top Model 3 (Fri.) UPN 1.86 102 One Tree Hill (Thu.) WB 1.19

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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 13.80 13.23

NBC 9.87 10.08

ABC 9.70 10.19

FOX 7.80 6.15

WB 4.02 4.08

UPN 3.71 3.34

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Los Angeles Times