High ratings a serious matter

Viewers aren’t doing much laughing these days -- at least intentionally.

Only two of Nielsen Media Research’s top 30 programs last week were situation comedies, and one of them -- CBS’ “Everybody Loves Raymond” -- ends its network run next month. The only other top-rated sitcom: “Two and a Half Men.”

Laughs aren’t necessarily absent elsewhere: ABC’s “Desperate Housewives” is classified as a comedy, and reality shows have some funny moments. And CBS’ Sunday movie last week, “Locusts,” had its camp appeal.

But the ratings released Tuesday were otherwise dominated by drama and reality, with comedy at a low ebb.

The top-rated non-CBS sitcom last week, ABC’s “According to Jim,” was No. 40 with roughly one-third of the viewers “American Idol” routinely gets.

Once the gold standard, NBC’s Thursday comedies finished even lower -- “Will & Grace” (No. 45) and “Joey” (No. 55).

Several ABC comedies --”Hope & Faith,” “George Lopez” and “Jake in Progress” -- were among that network’s lowest-rated offerings.

With the final months of the season looming, it was another dominant week for CBS, which averaged 12.5 million viewers. Fox was second with 9.2 million viewers and won among the key 18-to-49-year-old demographic. ABC had 8.7 million viewers, NBC 8.4 million, the WB 3.3 million, UPN 3.2 million and Pax TV 590,000. NBC’s “Nightly News” won the evening news ratings race, averaging 8.6 million viewers. ABC’s “World News Tonight” had 8.5 million viewers and “CBS Evening News” had 6.1 million.

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Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (April 18-24) 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 27.01 2 American Idol (Tue.) FOX 24.10 3 Desperate Housewives ABC 23.85 4 American Idol (Wed.) FOX 22.68 5 CSI: Miami CBS 20.11

6 Survivor: Palau CBS 19.34 7 Grey’s Anatomy ABC 17.90 8 House FOX 17.48 9 Two and a Half Men CBS 17.12 10 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition ABC 17.11

11 Everybody Loves Raymond CBS 16.96 12 Cold Case CBS 16.73 13 ER NBC 16.05 14 Without a Trace CBS 15.95 15 Law & Order NBC 14.32

16 Apprentice 3 NBC 13.89 17 “Locusts” CBS 12.68 18 60 Minutes CBS 12.64 19 Amazing Race: 7 CBS 12.33 20 Revelations NBC 11.77

21 NCIS CBS 11.67 22 Numb3rs CBS 11.49 23 24 FOX 11.07 24 Judging Amy CBS 10.83 25 Law & Order: SVU NBC 10.67

26 JAG CBS 10.24 27 Law & Order: Trial by Jury NBC 10.07 28 Lost ABC 9.97 29 CSI: NY CBS 9.41 30 20/20 (Fri.) ABC 9.18

31 Still Standing CBS 9.05 32 Listen Up CBS 9.02 33 Nanny 911 FOX 8.99 34 Third Watch NBC 8.81 35 Law & Order (Sat.) NBC 8.80

36 NASCAR: Subway Fresh 500 FOX 8.75 37 Crossing Jordan NBC 8.74 38 Supernanny NBC 8.68 39 Yes, Dear CBS 8.64 40 According to Jim (9 p.m.) ABC 8.62

41 Funniest Home Videos ABC 8.41 42 Rodney ABC 8.18 43 Alias ABC 8.08 44 Blind Justice ABC 8.05 45 Will & Grace NBC 8.04

46 Life on a Stick FOX 7.97 47 60 Minutes Wednesday CBS 7.87 48 King of Queens CBS 7.85 49 Medium NBC 7.82 50 Crimetime Saturday CBS 7.78

51 Las Vegas NBC 7.68 52 48 Hours Mystery CBS 7.60 53 Funniest Home Videos (8 p.m.) ABC 7.54 54 Joan of Arcadia CBS 7.53 55 Joey NBC 7.51

56 The Bachelor ABC 7.50 57 Stacked FOX 7.46 58 Dateline NBC (Fri.) NBC 7.38 59 Prime-Time Live ABC 6.99 60 Fear Factor NBC 6.91

61 NCIS (Sat.) CBS 6.74 62 Dateline NBC (Wed.) NBC 6.67 63 Eyes ABC 6.66 64 The O.C. FOX 6.54 65 The Simple Life 3 FOX 6.42

66 Law & Order: SVU (Sat.) NBC 6.12 67 “Maid in Manhattan” FOX 6.08 68 Extreme Makeover: How’d They Do That ABC 6.01 69 Contender NBC 5.97 70 The Simpsons (7 p.m.) FOX 5.92

71 “Little House on the Prairie” ABC 5.90 72 Scrubs NBC 5.81 73 “Jurassic Park III” ABC 5.79 74 Malcolm in the Middle FOX 5.71 75 Dateline NBC (Sun.) NBC 5.70

76 Hope & Faith ABC 5.41 77 WWE Smackdown! UPN 5.33 78 Hope & Faith (Fri.) ABC 5.22 79 Office NBC 5.03 80 George Lopez ABC 4.94

81 Gilmore Girls WB 4.80 82 “Most Outrageous Moments on TV” NBC 4.73 83 My Wife and Kids ABC 4.70 84 Jake in Progress (8 p.m.) ABC 4.42 85 Everwood WB 4.41

86 Extreme Makeover (Thu.) ABC 4.40 87 Smallville WB 4.38 88 America’s Next Top Model 4 UPN 4.27 89 Jake in Progress (8:30 p.m.) ABC 4.26 90 Tru Calling WB 4.21

91 One Tree Hill WB 4.07 92 Charmed WB 3.92 93 American Top 40 Live FOX 3.80 94 7th Heaven WB 3.55 95 Reba WB 3.54

96 Crossing Jordan (Sat.) NBC 3.31 97 Living With Fran WB 3.19 98 Girlfriends WB 3.01 99 Steve Harvey WB 3.00 100 Blue Collar TV (Thu.) WB 2.93

101 Blue Collar TV WB 2.83 102 Cuts UPN 2.70 103 Blue Collar TV (Thu., 9 p.m.) WB 2.66 104 Half and Half UPN 2.65 105 One on One UPN 2.60

106 Enterprise UPN 2.59 107 Blue Collar (Thu., 9:30 p.m.) WB 2.48 108 Veronica Mars UPN 2.47 109 Eve UPN 2.45 110 Reba (Fri.) WB 2.40

111 What I Like About You WB 2.33 112 All of Us UPN 2.30 113 Kevin Hill UPN 2.26 114 Charmed (Sun.) WB 2.12 115 Jack & Bobby WB 1.83

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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 12.51 12.83

FOX 9.17 9.90

ABC 8.68 10.11

NBC 8.40 9.86

WB 3.34 3.32

UPN 3.16 3.34

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Los Angeles Times