Reruns rule but football pass connects

Summer reruns ruled last week, and so did CBS, whose retreads claimed nine of the top 10 slots and helped that network to another ratings victory. “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” was the top-rated show, and only ABC’s exhibition football broadcast (ranked eighth) spoiled CBS’ top 10 sweep, according to figures released Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research.

Fox’s summer hit “So You Think You Can Dance” remained a high stepper in 13th place. But ABC’s “Brat Camp,” which initially appeared to buck the summer’s trend of a general lack of interest in first-run programming, ended its run with its lowest viewership: 6.4 million.

After drawing 10.4 million viewers for its July 13 premiere -- the second most for a season premiere this summer -- viewership for “Brat Camp” dropped for each episode. The audience for the finale was 11% lower than for the previous week’s installment.

For the 13th week in a row, CBS remained the most popular network in prime time, averaging 7.71 million viewers. Fox vaulted to second place from fourth the previous week, averaging 5.96 million, while NBC had 5.84 million and ABC 5.66 million.

“NBC Nightly News” had 8.1 million viewers while ABC’s “World News Tonight” averaged 7.8 million viewers and “CBS Evening News” 6.4 million.

Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (Aug. 22-28) 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 12.23 2 60 Minutes CBS 10.89 3 Two and a Half Men (9:30 p.m.) CBS 10.85 4 Cold Case CBS 10.54 5 CSI: Miami CBS 10.21

6 Without a Trace CBS 10.13 7 Two and a Half Men (9 p.m.) CBS 9.78 8 “NFL Preseason Football” (Mon.) ABC 9.71 9 “Stone Cold” CBS 9.63 10 NCIS CBS 9.34

11 Law & Order (Mon., 10 p.m.) NBC 9.20 12 Law & Order: SVU NBC 8.97 13 So You Think You Can Dance FOX 8.58 14 “Preseason Showcase” (Mon.) ABC 8.21 15 House FOX 8.18

16 Law & Order: Criminal Intent NBC 8.08 17 Big Brother 6 (Tue.) CBS 7.95 18 Everybody Loves Raymond CBS 7.90 19 Crossing Jordan (Sun.) NBC 7.87 20 Law & Order (Wed., 9 p.m.) NBC 7.81

21 Big Brother 6 (Thu.) CBS 7.76 22 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition ABC 7.38 23 CSI: NY CBS 7.35 24 America’s Funniest Home Videos ABC 7.06 25 King of Queens CBS 6.87

Law & Order (Sat.) NBC 6.87 27 Dateline: NBC (Fri.) NBC 6.74 28 “Sweet Home Alabama” FOX 6.66 29 The Simpsons FOX 6.55 30 Brat Camp (9 p.m.) ABC 6.45

31 So You Think You Can Dance Preshow FOX 6.40 32 Medium NBC 6.39 33 Family Guy FOX 6.21 34 Rock Star: INXS (Tue.) CBS 6.19 35 Family Guy (8:30 p.m.) FOX 6.12

36 According to Jim (9 p.m.) ABC 5.99 37 Primetime ABC 5.97 38 Yes, Dear CBS 5.85 39 Still Standing CBS 5.84 40 Rodney ABC 5.82

41 Rock Star: INXS (Wed.) CBS 5.77 42 House (Mon., 9 p.m.) FOX 5.66 43 “NFL Preseason Football” (Sat.) CBS 5.57 44 “Evolution” ABC 5.53 45 Tommy Lee Goes to College (9 p.m.) NBC 5.45

46 Nanny 911 FOX 5.42 47 Crossing Jordan (Fri.) NBC 5.36 American Dad FOX 5.36 49 House (Tue., 8 p.m.) FOX 5.35 50 Las Vegas (Sat.) NBC 5.34

51 Las Vegas (Mon.) NBC 5.22 52 “NFL on Fox Preseason Football” (Fri.) FOX 5.17 53 According to Jim (8 p.m.) ABC 5.16 54 America’s Most Wanted FOX 5.09 55 Rodney (8:30 p.m.) ABC 5.07

56 Cops (8:30 p.m.) FOX 5.06 57 My Kind of Town ABC 4.94 58 Boston Legal ABC 4.80 59 WWE Smackdown! UPN 4.78 60 20/20 ABC 4.63

61 Will & Grace NBC 4.58 62 Tommy Lee Goes to College (8:30 p.m.) NBC 4.54 63 Crossing Jordan (Sat.) NBC 4.51 64 Joey NBC 4.46 65 Tommy Lee Goes to College (8 p.m.) NBC 4.43

66 “Eagles Farewell Tour” NBC 4.41 67 Numb3rs CBS 4.39 68 60 Minutes II CBS 4.33 69 Fear Factor NBC 4.26 70 Scrubs (9 p.m.) NBC 4.25

71 Desperate Housewives ABC 4.24 Cops FOX 4.24 73 Meet Mister Mom NBC 4.23 74 E.R. NBC 4.22 75 Scrubs (9:30 p.m.) NBC 4.08

76 Brat Camp (8 p.m.) ABC 4.07 77 King of the Hill FOX 4.05 78 Supernanny ABC 4.04 79 “The Mexican” ABC 4.03 80 Lost ABC 3.98

81 Malcolm in the Middle FOX 3.80 82 Hope and Faith ABC 3.71 83 Office NBC 3.54 84 The Cut CBS 2.88 85 R U the Girl: T-Boz & Chili UPN 2.76

86 “All About the Benjamins” UPN 2.55 87 Reba WB 2.47 88 Gilmore Girls (9 p.m.) WB 2.39 89 Living With Fran WB 2.31 90 Gilmore Girls (8 p.m.) WB 2.27

91 One on One (Tue.) UPN 2.17 92 Girlfriends UPN 2.16 93 R U the Girl: Encore UPN 2.11 Smallville (Wed.) WB 2.11 95 All of Us UPN 2.07

96 Smallville (Thu.) WB 2.02 97 Eve UPN 2.01 98 “Final Destination” WB 1.94 99 Half and Half UPN 1.92 100 7th Heaven WB 1.91

101 Veronica Mars UPN 1.88 102 What I Like About You WB 1.86 103 Blue Collar TV WB 1.74 104 One on One (Mon.) UPN 1.66 105 One Tree Hill WB 1.54

106 Everwood WB 1.50 107 Summerland WB 1.35 108 Charmed WB 1.33

*--*

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 7.71 11.40 FOX 5.96 8.71 NBC 5.84 8.73 ABC 5.66 8.93 UPN 2.74 3.15 WB 1.88 2.97

*--*