With the top five, it’s CBS in the fore

CBS ran away with the prime-time network ratings for the first full week of December, with an airtight lock on the top five most-watched shows.

CBS’ “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” was the No. 1 program for the week ending Dec. 11, rounding up a season-high average of 31 million viewers, according to figures released Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research. The forensics drama got a powerful boost from Thursday’s finale of “Survivor: Guatemala” (21.2 million). Meanwhile, a football overrun on Sunday helped drive “60 Minutes” to its biggest number in five years (19.7 million).

For prime time overall, CBS led with an average of 14 million viewers, tailed by ABC (9.6 million), NBC (9.4 million) and Fox (5.7 million). CBS also held a commanding lead among the adults aged 18-49 demographic, the group considered most important by advertisers.

With the November “sweep” period over and the holidays approaching, other network lineups were heavily larded with low-performing repeats. However, NBC’s Tuesday (soon to be Thursday) comedy “My Name is Earl” delivered its most-watched episode (14 million), and ABC did well with the holiday chestnut “A Charlie Brown Christmas” (15.3 million). But NBC’s “West Wing” looked defeated on Sunday (8.1 million).

On basic cable, the most-watched program was Sunday’s Lions-Packers game on ESPN (8.9 million). The Sci-Fi Channel opened relatively well with Monday’s debut of the miniseries thriller “The Triangle” (4.3 million).

SCOTT COLLINS

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*--* Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (Dec. 5-11) 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 CSI CBS 30.94 2 Without a Trace CBS 21.76 3 “Survivor: Guatemala Finale” CBS 21.18 4 Survivor: Guatemala CBS 20.21 5 60 Minutes CBS 19.72

6 Law & Order: SVU NBC 16.29 7 Grey’s Anatomy ABC 15.70 8 “Charlie Brown Christmas” ABC 15.34 ER NBC 15.34 10 CSI: Miami CBS 15.33

11 “Survivor: Guatemala Reunion” CBS 15.21 12 Monday Night Football ABC 15.09 13 Two and a Half Men CBS 14.11 14 NCIS CBS 14.00 15 My Name Is Earl NBC 13.99

16 NFL Monday Showcase ABC 13.64 17 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition ABC 12.97 18 Close to Home CBS 12.80 19 Las Vegas (9 p.m.) NBC 12.61 20 Numb3rs CBS 12.53

21 Law & Order NBC 12.13 22 Ghost Whisperer CBS 11.53 23 Crossing Jordan NBC 11.40 24 Apprentice 4 NBC 11.27 25 Amazing Race 8 CBS 11.16

26 Out of Practice CBS 11.01 27 Lost ABC 10.99 28 Law & Order: Criminal Intent (Sun.) NBC 10.43 29 The Simpsons FOX 10.30 30 Commander in Chief ABC 10.08

31 CSI: NY CBS 10.03 32 Office NBC 9.74 33 Boston Legal ABC 9.54 34 E-Ring NBC 9.36 35 King of Queens CBS 9.26

36 America’s Funniest Home Videos (Sun.) ABC 9.17 37 Medium NBC 8.90 38 “Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show” CBS 8.86 39 Will & Grace NBC 8.79 40 How I Met Your Mother CBS 8.72

41 “I Want a Dog for Christmas” ABC 8.60 42 Family Guy FOX 8.39 43 Las Vegas (8 p.m.) NBC 8.33 44 Fear Factor NBC 8.20 45 The West Wing NBC 8.13

46 George Lopez ABC 8.08 47 48 Hours Mystery CBS 7.96 48 Dateline: NBC (Fri.) NBC 7.92 49 Joey NBC 7.77 50 War at Home FOX 7.68

51 Dateline: NBC (Sun.) NBC 7.62 52 Trading Spouses FOX 7.54 53 Freddie ABC 7.44 54 Cops (8:30 p.m.) FOX 7.36 55 Law & Order: Criminal Intent (Fri.) NBC 7.34

56 American Dad FOX 7.25 57 Wife Swap ABC 7.10 58 King of the Hill (7:52 p.m.) FOX 7.04 59 “Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas” ABC 6.94 60 20/20 ABC 6.92

61 America’s Most Wanted FOX 6.90 62 That ‘70s Show FOX 6.82 63 Apprentice: Martha NBC 6.64 64 America’s Next Top Model 5 (Wed.) UPN 6.44 65 Alias ABC 6.40

66 Cops FOX 6.38 “Billboard Music Awards” FOX 6.38 68 Primetime ABC 6.31 69 Three Wishes NBC 6.28 70 “Pope John Paul II,” Part 2 CBS 6.17

71 “Ice Wars: 2005” CBS 6.04 72 Hope and Faith ABC 5.99 73 “It’s a Wonderful Life” NBC 5.90 74 The O.C. FOX 5.88 75 Nanny 911 FOX 5.54

76 “Head of State” ABC 5.40 77 Smallville WB 5.37 78 Stacked FOX 5.07 Funniest Home Videos (Sat.) ABC 5.07 80 Hot Properties ABC 4.75

81 WWE Smackdown! UPN 4.54 82 Everybody Hates Chris UPN 4.43 83 Reba (9 p.m.) WB 4.25 84 Arrested Development FOX 4.08 85 King of the Hill (7:30 p.m.) FOX 4.03

86 Everwood WB 3.91 87 7th Heaven WB 3.86 88 Reunion FOX 3.79 89 Malcolm in the Middle (Fri.) FOX 3.54 90 “Grandma Got Run Over” WB 3.43

91 Veronica Mars UPN 3.42 92 Reba (8:30 p.m.) WB 3.33 One Tree Hill WB 3.33 94 Gilmore Girls WB 3.15 95 Kitchen Confidential FOX 3.14

96 Malcolm in the Middle (Sun.) FOX 3.13 97 Bernie Mac FOX 3.08 98 What I Like About You WB 3.05 99 All of Us UPN 3.03 100 Supernatural (Tue.) WB 2.98

America’s Next Top Model 4 UPN 2.98 102 Girlfriends UPN 2.88 103 Twins WB 2.84 104 One on One UPN 2.83 “Dear Santa 2005” FOX 2.83

106 America’s Next Top Model 5 (Tue.) UPN 2.68 107 Love Inc. UPN 2.62 108 “Family TV Awards” WB 2.45 109 Half and Half UPN 2.37 110 Eve UPN 2.28

111 Related (Wed.) WB 1.89 Cuts UPN 1.89 113 Related (Mon.) WB 1.85 114 Supernatural (Sun.) WB 1.61

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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 13.95 13.47

ABC 9.55 10.98

NBC 9.37 9.42

FOX 5.73 8.25

UPN 3.58 3.61

WB 3.12 3.51

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