‘Joey’ a real friend to NBC

A slew of debuting and returning shows, an abundance of prime-time football and the skew from the Labor Day holiday made for an atypical showing in the penultimate week of the TV ratings year.

For all the comparisons to its predecessor, NBC’s “Joey” launched with a solid victory in the week ending Sunday, averaging 18.6 million viewers. Results may change this Thursday when the show goes up against the season debut of CBS’ “Survivor,” but for now, “Joey” seems to have a shot at being a worthy successor to the “Friends” crown.

“Joey” also topped the week among young adults and older adults, but among teens trailed Fox’s repeat airing Sunday of “Deuce Bigelow: Male Gigolo.”

NBC also made the overall Top 10 with the launch of “The Apprentice 2,” although viewership for the Donald Trump reality show was off substantially from its first season.

CBS, which aside from the two weeks when NBC aired the Olympics from Athens has dominated the ratings this summer, finished second for the week overall as it continued to show repeats of its dramas and comedies, and originals of two unscripted series. “The Amazing Race 5,” is doing particularly well as it nears its finale, good news for the network, which has scheduled “The Amazing Race 6” on Saturdays this fall.

NBC won the week in overall viewers, with an average of 8.9 million, followed by CBS (8.4), ABC (7.2), Fox (6.1), the WB (3.1) and UPN (2.4).

It was also a good week for football. ABC scored with Thursday’s debut of “Monday Night Football” and ESPN dominated the cable ratings with its Sunday telecast of the Chiefs and the Broncos. The pre-game show finished third for the week.

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Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (Sept. 6-12) 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.

*--* 1 Joey NBC 18.55 2 Pro Football (Thu.) ABC 16.88 3 “NFL Showcase” ABC 14.71 4 Apprentice 2 NBC 14.05 5 CSI CBS 13.31

6 CSI: Miami CBS 12.53 7 “Fox NFL Post-Game” FOX 11.83 8 “Medical Investigation” (Thu.) NBC 11.78 9 Law & Order NBC 11.72 10 Amazing Race: 5 CBS 10.85

11 Medical Investigation (Fri.) NBC 10.80 12 Without a Trace CBS 10.77 13 Everybody Loves Raymond CBS 10.58 14 Cold Case CBS 10.41 15 Dateline: NBC (Fri.) NBC 10.35

16 Law & Order (9 p.m.) NBC 10.30 17 “A Painted House” CBS 9.99 18 Fear Factor NBC 9.97 19 60 Minutes CBS 9.93 Hawaii (Mon.) NBC 9.93

21 Law & Order: SVU NBC 9.92 22 Two and a Half Men CBS 9.91 23 Father of the Pride NBC 9.89 24 60 Minutes II CBS 9.88 25 Big Brother 5 (Tue.) CBS 9.76

26 Navy NCIS CBS 9.06 27 College Football (Sat.) ABC 8.93 28 Big Brother 5 (Thu.) CBS 8.72 29 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition ABC 8.66 30 Hawaii NBC 8.44

31 According to Jim (9:30 p.m.) ABC 8.18 32 Yes, Dear CBS 8.04 33 Scrubs NBC 7.90 34 That ‘70s Show FOX 7.85 35 According to Jim ABC 7.81

36 Trading Spouses FOX 7.48 37 Still Standing CBS 7.46 38 “NFL Opening Kickoff 2004” ABC 7.42 39 “Perfect Storm” NBC 7.39 40 The Simpsons FOX 7.37

41 CSI (Fri.) CBS 7.23 42 My Wife and Kids (8:30 p.m.) ABC 7.20 43 King of Queens CBS 7.09 44 “Deuce Bigelow: Male Gigolo” FOX 6.92 45 20/20 ABC 6.80

46 America’s Most Wanted FOX 6.78 47 My Wife and Kids ABC 6.69 48 Bernie Mac Show FOX 6.58 49 Big Brother 5 (Sat.) CBS 6.47 50 Last Comic Standing 3 (Tue.) NBC 6.41

51 Cops (8:30 p.m.) FOX 6.24 52 Quintuplets FOX 6.20 53 48 Hours Mystery CBS 6.11 54 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (Sun.) ABC 6.02 55 Dateline: NBC (Sun.) NBC 5.83

56 “CBS Fall Preview” CBS 5.81 57 “Pepsi’s Play for a Billion” ABC 5.79 58 George Lopez ABC 5.70 Renovate My Family FOX 5.70 60 America’s Funniest Home Videos ABC 5.65

61 Charmed WB 5.59 62 Crossing Jordan NBC 5.53 63 JAG CBS 5.51 64 The Drew Carey Show (9:30 p.m.) ABC 5.36 65 Cops FOX 5.33

66 The Drew Carey Show ABC 5.14 67 “College Football” (Sat.) ABC 5.11 68 Next Great Champ FOX 5.01 Method and Red FOX 5.01 70 8 Simple Rules ABC 4.87

71 World’s Craziest Videos (9:30 p.m.) FOX 4.76 72 Totally Outrageous Behavior (9 p.m.) FOX 4.72 73 Jack & Bobby WB 4.71 74 Apprentice 2 (Sat.) NBC 4.62 75 World’s Crazies Videos (8:30 p.m.) FOX 4.60

76 In the Jury Room ABC 4.51 77 The Practice ABC 4.35 78 North Shore FOX 4.15 79 Hope & Faith ABC 4.10 80 Joan of Arcadia CBS 4.03

81 Last Comic Standing (Mon.) NBC 4.02 82 Blue Collar: Boyz in the Woodz WB 3.88 83 Totally Outrageous Behavior (8 p.m.) FOX 3.73 84 WWE Smackdown! UPN 3.72 85 Reba (9:30 p.m.) WB 3.66

86 “Bill Engvall: Your Sign” WB 3.65 87 “Peter Jennings Reporting” ABC 3.56 88 Reba WB 3.50 89 Less Than Perfect ABC 3.28 90 “U.S. Open Tennis” CBS 3.17

91 Amish in the City UPN 2.96 92 7th Heaven WB 2.83 93 Grounded for Life WB 2.73 94 Steve Harvey’s Big Time WB 2.69 95 Complex: Malibu FOX 2.59

96 All of Us UPN 2.52 97 Smallville (9 p.m.) WB 2.50 98 Eve UPN 2.42 99 Half and Half UPN 2.41 100 What I Like About You WB 2.32

101 Gilmore Girls WB 2.29 102 Girlfriends (9:30 p.m.) UPN 2.24 103 Everwood WB 2.12 104 Smallville WB 2.10 105 Girlfriends UPN 2.06

One on One UPN 2.06 107 Next Great Champ (Fri.) FOX 2.04 108 The Player (Tue.) UPN 1.93 109 The Player (Wed.) UPN 1.74 110 One Tree Hill WB 1.71

111 Enterprise UPN 1.40 112 Amish in the City (Fri.) UPN 1.17

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*--* Network averages Here is the number of Last week Season to date viewers (in millions) that each network averaged per hour of prime time, for last week and for the season. Network NBC 8.94 10.61

CBS 8.39 11.57

ABC 7.19 7.99

FOX 6.12 8.30

WB 3.10 3.24

UPN 2.35 3.14

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