CBS slam-dunks with NCAA

CBS’ strong Thursday night lineup and the NCAA men’s basketball tournament helped the network dominate the prime-time ratings competition last week.

Led by “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation,” all three of CBS’ Thursday programs were among the six most-watched programs of the week, according to Nielsen Media Research figures released Tuesday. Three of NBC’s programs that night were in reruns.

The basketball semifinals Saturday night also finished among Nielsen’s top 12.

The ABC medical drama “Grey’s Anatomy” cracked Nielsen’s top 10 for its second episode Sunday, helped by its plum time slot following the sensation “Desperate Housewives.”

NBC’s remake of “The Office” ranked a disappointing No. 74, with fewer than 6 million viewers, in its premiere. Fox’s new “Life on a Stick” did much better on the surface, with 9.5 million people watching last Wednesday, but that was less than half the audience of its “American Idol” lead-in.

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Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (March 28-April 3) 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. ages 2 and older. Viewership is listed in millions.

*--* 1 CSI CBS 28.22 2 American Idol (Tue.) FOX 26.35 3 American Idol (Wed.) FOX 24.93 4 Desperate Housewives ABC 24.61 5 Without a Trace CBS 21.27

6 Survivor: Palau CBS 20.89 7 House FOX 18.28 8 Lost ABC 17.75 9 Grey’s Anatomy ABC 17.71 10 NCAA Basketball Tournament (8:40 p.m.) CBS 17.55

11 Everybody Loves Raymond CBS 15.80 12 NCAA Basketball Tournament (6 p.m.) CBS 15.66 13 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition ABC 15.46 14 Two and a Half Men CBS 15.40 15 CSI: Miami CBS 15.02

16 Cold Case CBS 14.84 17 Law & Order: SVU NBC 14.56 18 NCIS CBS 14.27 19 “NCAA Basketball: Bridge Show” CBS 13.92 20 Apprentice 3 NBC 13.84

21 Medium NBC 13.71 22 Law & Order NBC 13.49 23 Amazing Race: 7 CBS 13.18 24 Law & Order: Criminal Intent NBC 12.98 25 Las Vegas NBC 11.63

26 24 FOX 11.58 27 Alias ABC 10.83 28 Law & Order: Trial By Jury NBC 10.58 29 60 Minutes CBS 10.32 30 Numb3rs CBS 9.98

31 The West Wing NBC 9.88 32 According to Jim ABC 9.71 33 Yes, Dear CBS 9.66 34 Nanny 911 FOX 9.61 35 Fear Factor NBC 9.60

36 Dateline: NBC (Fri.) NBC 9.59 37 Life on a Stick FOX 9.49 38 60 Minutes Wednesday CBS 9.35 39 CSI: NY CBS 9.32 40 ER NBC 9.31

41 Crossing Jordan NBC 9.23 42 Law & Order: Criminal Intent (Sat.) NBC 9.17 43 Still Standing CBS 9.01 JAG CBS 9.01 45 King of Queens CBS 8.96

46 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition: How’d They Do That? ABC 8.90 47 America’s Funniest Home Videos ABC 8.59 48 Rodney ABC 8.56 49 The Bachelor ABC 8.23 50 Eyes ABC 8.21

51 20/20 (Fri.) ABC 8.04 52 Listen Up CBS 8.01 53 Blind Justice ABC 7.94 54 America’s Most Wanted FOX 7.86 55 The Simpsons FOX 7.48

56 “John Q” CBS 7.43 57 Joey NBC 7.33 58 Simple Life 3 FOX 7.32 59 Primetime Live ABC 7.28 60 That ‘70s Show FOX 7.25

Dateline: NBC (Sun.) NBC 7.25 62 Will & Grace NBC 7.15 63 Wonderful World of Disney ABC 7.08 64 Joan of Arcadia CBS 6.94 65 Law & Order: SVU (Sat.) NBC 6.70

66 My Wife and Kids ABC 6.60 67 George Lopez ABC 6.50 68 Scrubs NBC 6.37 69 Cops FOX 6.31 70 8 Simple Rules ABC 6.12

71 Hope & Faith ABC 6.10 72 8 Simple Rules (8:30 p.m.) ABC 6.06 73 American Dreams NBC 6.00 74 Office NBC 5.95 75 Jake in Progress (8:30 p.m.) ABC 5.76

76 Jake in Progress ABC 5.66 77 Contender NBC 5.61 78 Less Than Perfect ABC 5.58 79 Tru Calling (8 p.m.) FOX 5.57 80 America’s Next Top Model 4 UPN 5.56

81 WWE Smackdown! UPN 5.51 82 The Simpsons (9 p.m.) FOX 5.46 83 Arrested Development FOX 5.33 84 Extreme Makeover ABC 4.47 85 Dateline: NBC (Sat.) NBC 4.43

86 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (Sat.) ABC 4.26 Tru Calling (9 p.m) FOX 4.26 88 Bernie Mac FOX 4.22 89 Sketch Show FOX 4.15 Malcolm in the Middle FOX 4.15

91 Reba (9:30 p.m.) WB 4.11 92 Reba WB 3.87 93 Will & Grace (Tue.) NBC 3.70 94 Girlfriends UPN 3.57 95 Blue Collar TV (8:30 p.m.) WB 3.53

96 Scrubs (8:30 p.m.) NBC 3.52 97 Cuts UPN 3.51 98 Half and Half UPN 3.37 99 Malcolm in the Middle (Fri.) FOX 3.33 100 Blue Collar TV WB 3.26

101 King of the Hill FOX 3.22 102 One on One UPN 3.15 103 Smallville WB 3.11 104 Summerland WB 3.02 105 7th Heaven WB 2.96

106 Smallville (9 p.m.) WB 2.92 107 Arrested Development (9:30 p.m.) FOX 2.89 108 Arrested Development FOX 2.86 109 Gilmore Girls WB 2.72 110 Eve UPN 2.60

111 What I Like About You (8:30 p.m.) WB 2.59 112 Charmed (8 p.m.) WB 2.50 113 All of Us UPN 2.44 114 Veronica Mars UPN 2.33 115 Steve Harvey’s Big Time WB 2.30

116 What I Like About You WB 2.13 117 Starlet (Tue.) WB 2.11 118 Kevin Hill UPN 2.04 119 Enterprise UPN 1.96 120 Charmed (7 p.m.) WB 1.85

121 America’s Next Top Model (Fri.) UPN 1.80 122 Starlet (Thu.) WB 1.24

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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 13.43 12.88

ABC 9.59 10.28

NBC 9.28 10.01

FOX 9.07 9.99

UPN 3.40 3.37

WB 2.65 3.35

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