Pope movies draw less than a huge flock

CBS bested ABC in last week’s competition between TV movies about the late Pope John Paul II, but the results hardly answered any network prayers.

The first part of CBS’ story, which featured Cary Elwes and Jon Voight, was seen by 7.5 million people on Sunday, according to Nielsen Media Research figures released Tuesday. That’s nearly 3 million fewer viewers than CBS’ Sunday movie has averaged this season. The second part of the miniseries airs at 8 tonight.

ABC’s two-hour movie, “Have No Fear: The Life of John Paul II,” was seen by 6.7 million people Thursday. That beats the 6.1 million average that “Alias” and “Night Stalker” have been drawing in the time slot this season on Thursday, when ABC usually struggles. However, any program that’s beaten by NBC’s “Joey” (7.3 million) doesn’t have much to brag about.

The mediocre results appear to justify the networks’ decisions to schedule the movies after the November ratings “sweeps” period ended.

Although CBS kept alive its streak of not losing a week this TV season, it was pushed hard by ABC. Four of the week’s five most popular prime-time programs, including a “Monday Night Football” face-off between Pittsburgh and unbeaten Indianapolis, were on ABC. ABC won the week among the 18-to-49-year-old demographic that advertisers watch most keenly.

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Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (Nov. 28-Dec. 4) 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 280.50 million potential viewers in the U.S. ages 2 and older. Viewership is listed in millions.

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

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*--* 1 Desperate Housewives ABC 25.52 2 CSI CBS 23.24 3 Monday Night Football ABC 22.64 4 Lost ABC 21.54 5 Grey’s Anatomy ABC 20.59

6 Survivor: Guatemala CBS 19.81 7 CSI: Miami CBS 19.77 8 NCIS CBS 18.17 9 NFL Monday Showcase ABC 18.12 10 Law & Order: SVU (Tue.) NBC 17.54

11 60 Minutes CBS 17.52 12 Two and a Half Men CBS 16.53 13 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition ABC 16.46 14 Biggest Loser 2 NBC 15.95 15 CSI: NY CBS 15.84

16 “Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer” CBS 15.80 17 Criminal Minds CBS 15.55 18 ER NBC 15.44 19 Without a Trace CBS 15.29 20 House FOX 14.91

21 Commander in Chief ABC 13.66 22 Cold Case CBS 13.32 23 Out of Practice CBS 12.99 24 “Barbara Walters Presents” ABC 12.98 25 King of Queens CBS 12.92

26 Law & Order NBC 12.87 27 Crossing Jordan NBC 12.56 28 How I Met Your Mother CBS 12.27 29 Medium NBC 12.23 30 Prison Break (9 p.m.) FOX 12.18

31 Law & Order: Criminal Intent NBC 11.85 32 Apprentice 4 NBC 11.72 33 Las Vegas NBC 11.35 34 Invasion ABC 10.10 35 Surface NBC 10.00

36 America’s Funniest Home Videos (Fri.) ABC 9.80 37 “Christmas at Rockefeller Center” NBC 9.51 38 America’s Funniest Home Videos (Sun.) ABC 9.33 39 The Simpsons (8 p.m.) FOX 9.29 40 Law & Order: SVU (Sat.) NBC 9.16

41 20/20 ABC 8.83 42 Amazing Race 8 CBS 8.80 43 Ghost Whisperer CBS 8.77 44 “Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town” ABC 8.71 45 Criminal Minds (Tue.) CBS 8.59

46 Wife Swap ABC 8.48 47 Dateline: NBC (Sun,) NBC 8.21 48 Freddie ABC 8.05 49 George Lopez ABC 7.93 50 Rodney ABC 7.88

51 Bones FOX 7.64 52 According to Jim ABC 7.63 Will & Grace NBC 7.63 54 ACC Championship Game (8:20) ABC 7.62 55 “Pope John Paul II,” Part 1 CBS 7.54

56 “40th Anniversary of the ACMs” CBS 7.49 57 Family Guy FOX 7.42 58 Joey NBC 7.32 59 The West Wing NBC 7.26 60 War at Home FOX 7.17

61 Medium NBC 7.05 62 “Knots Landing Reunion” CBS 6.89 63 “Have No Fear: Life of Pope John Paul II” ABC 6.72 64 Prison Break (8 p.m.) FOX 6.66 65 Trading Spouses FOX 6.62

66 King of the Hill FOX 6.62 67 That ‘70s Show FOX 6.58 68 The Simpsons (7:17 p.m.) FOX 6.56 69 America’s Most Wanted FOX 6.52 70 Primetime ABC 6.41

71 American Dad FOX 6.40 72 Three Wishes NBC 6.29 73 Crossing Jordan NBC 6.06 74 Apprentice: Martha NBC 5.97 75 7th Heaven (8 p.m.) WB 5.93

76 The O.C. FOX 5.90 77 Cops FOX 5.88 78 “The Happy Elf” NBC 5.70 79 “Interrogation Room” FOX 5.65 80 America’s Next Top Model 5 (Wed.) UPN 5.23

81 Dateline: NBC (Fri.) NBC 5.22 82 Stacked FOX 5.05 83 ACC Championship (8:08) ABC 4.84 84 Everybody Hates Chris UPN 4.43 85 WWE Smackdown! (Fri.) UPN 4.40

86 Killer Instinct FOX 4.10 87 Reunion FOX 4.07 88 “Felicity: An American Girl Adventure” (Tue.) WB 3.97 89 Girlfriends UPN 3.76 90 The Simpsons (7 p.m.) FOX 3.75

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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 12.91 13.42

ABC 12.35 11.10

NBC 10.25 9.43

FOX 6.96 8.46

UPN 3.64 3.61

WB 3.06 3.54

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