‘Medium’ and ‘Numb3rs’ are strong for NBC, CBS

In a TV season already notable for some surprise scripted hits, NBC’s “Medium” and CBS’ “Numb3rs” have the early look of winners too.

“Medium,” in which Patricia Arquette plays a crime-solving psychic, joined Nielsen Media Research’s top 10 last week. It beat “CSI: Miami” in the time slot, although the CBS show was a repeat. NBC has already announced that “Medium” will be back next year.

“Numb3rs” benefited from following the American Football Conference championship game for its premiere, but also reached a solid 15.5 million people for its first Friday showing, a night when viewership tends to be light. Further success may doom time slot competitor “Medical Investigation” on NBC, which had only 6.8 million viewers last week.

The new shows aren’t at the level of “Lost” and “Desperate Housewives” for ABC, but those are promising starts -- particularly for NBC, which can use a hit.

The network competition has become even more heated than usual now that Fox, out of the race during the season’s first half, has climbed back in thanks to “American Idol.”

Fox won the week among the viewers aged 18 to 49 that advertisers seek.

Among all viewers, CBS led with a 12.7 million average in prime time last week (8.4 rating, 13 share), NBC averaged 10.7 million viewers (7.1, 11), Fox had 10.4 million (6.2, 10), ABC 9.4 million (6.1, 10), the WB 3.6 million (2.4, 4), UPN 2.9 million (2.0, 3) and Pax TV 670,000 (0.5, 1).

NBC’s “Nightly News” won the evening news ratings race, averaging 10.8 million viewers (7.5, 14). ABC’s “World News Tonight” had 10.1 million viewers (7.2, 13) and the “CBS Evening News” 7.8 million (5.6, 10).

A ratings point represents 1,096,000 households, or 1% of the nation’s estimated 109.6 million TV homes. The share is the percentage of in-use televisions tuned to a given show.

For the week of Jan. 24-30, the top 10 shows, their networks and viewerships: “American Idol” (Tuesday), Fox, 28.1 million; “American Idol” (Wednesday), Fox, 26.6 million; “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation,” CBS, 21.8 million; “ER,” NBC, 19.8 million; “CBS Sunday Movie: The Magic of Ordinary Days,” CBS, 18.7 million; “CSI: New York,” CBS, 17.6 million; “Cold Case,” CBS, 16.7 million; “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition,” ABC, 16.2 million; “Medium,” NBC, 15.8 million; “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” special, ABC, 15.5 million.

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Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (Jan. 24-30) 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 American Idol (Tue.) FOX 28.06 2 American Idol (Wed.) FOX 26.57 3 CSI CBS 21.82 4 ER NBC 19.75 5 “Magic of Ordinary Days’ CBS 18.67

6 CSI: NY CBS 17.56 7 Cold Case CBS 16.69 8 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition ABC 16.16 9 Medium NBC 15.78 10 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (9 p.m.) ABC 15.52

11 Numb3rs CBS 15.46 12 Apprentice 3 NBC 15.41 13 CSI: Miami CBS 14.96 14 Everybody Loves Raymond CBS 14.79 15 Without a Trace CBS 14.55

16 60 Minutes CBS 14.43 17 Law & Order: Criminal Intent NBC 14.26 18 Law & Order: SVU NBC 14.19 19 Two and a Half Men CBS 13.58 20 Simple Life 3 FOX 13.32

21 Desperate Housewives ABC 12.84 22 CSI (Fri.) CBS 12.57 23 Crossing Jordan NBC 12.53 24 Las Vegas NBC 12.38 25 House FOX 12.37

26 24 FOX 12.20 27 Amazing Race: 6 CBS 12.03 28 Lost ABC 12.01 29 Alias ABC 11.68 30 Judging Amy CBS 11.41

31 Fear Factor NBC 11.31 32 NCIS CBS 11.28 33 King of Queens CBS 11.23 34 According to Jim ABC 10.80 35 Dateline: NBC (Fri.) NBC 10.77

36 King of Queens (9:30 p.m.) CBS 10.75 37 The West Wing NBC 10.69 38 America’s Funniest Home Videos ABC 10.66 39 Law & Order: SVU (Sat.) NBC 10.29 40 Without a Trace (8 p.m.) CBS 10.28

41 Joey NBC 10.24 42 The Simpsons FOX 9.97 43 Rodney ABC 9.75 44 20/20 ABC 9.53 45 NYPD Blue ABC 9.41

46 Supernanny ABC 9.25 47 Dateline: Katie Couric NBC 9.22 48 60 Minutes Wednesday CBS 9.14 49 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition How’d They Do That? ABC 8.95 50 Still Standing CBS 8.91

51 “Snow Dogs” ABC 8.75 52 Joan of Arcadia CBS 8.71 53 Listen Up CBS 8.18 54 The O.C. FOX 8.11 Law & Order (Sat.) NBC 8.11

56 The Bachelorette ABC 8.02 57 7th Heaven WB 7.99 58 Trading Spouses FOX 7.89 8 Simple Rules ABC 7.89 60 “In Style: Celebrity Weddings” ABC 7.87

61 Law & Order: Criminal Intent (Sat.) NBC 7.80 62 8 Simple Rules (8:30 p.m.) ABC 7.74 63 Hope & Faith ABC 7.40 64 Most Outrageous Moments on Live TV NBC 7.38 65 Cops (8:30 p.m.) FOX 7.29

66 American Dreams NBC 7.22 67 Dateline: NBC (Sun.) NBC 7.16 68 America’s Most Wanted FOX 7.11 69 Cops FOX 7.03 70 Scrubs NBC 7.02

71 Arrested Development FOX 6.96 72 George Lopez ABC 6.92 73 Medical Investigation NBC 6.84 74 Wife Swap ABC 6.79 75 Primetime Live ABC 6.65

76 The Simpsons (9:30 p.m.) FOX 6.63 77 My Wife and Kids ABC 6.56 78 Less Than Perfect ABC 6.55 79 Extreme Makeover ABC 6.47 80 48 Hours Mystery CBS 6.46

81 Committed NBC 6.17 82 Family Guy FOX 6.09 83 Crimetime Saturday CBS 5.96 84 Malcolm in the Middle FOX 5.93 85 Desperate Housewives (Sat.) ABC 5.88

86 King of the Hill FOX 5.21 87 WWE Smackdown! UPN 5.10 88 Gilmore Girls WB 5.05 89 Point Pleasant FOX 4.54 90 Everwood WB 4.40

91 Bernie Mac FOX 4.34 92 Wickedly Perfect CBS 4.23 93 Smallville WB 4.21 Sports Illustrated: Model Search NBC 4.21 95 Bernie Mac (8:30 p.m.) FOX 4.14

96 One Tree Hill WB 4.07 97 Reba WB 4.02 98 Charmed WB 3.97 99 Girlfriends UPN 3.47 100 One on One UPN 3.37

101 Blue Collar TV WB 3.34 Jonny Zero FOX 3.34 103 Half and Half UPN 3.08 104 Second Time Around UPN 2.87 105 Steve Harvey’s Big Time WB 2.85

106 “Home Fries” WB 2.63 107 Grounded for Life WB 2.56 108 Enterprise UPN 2.53 109 Kevin Hill UPN 2.46 110 Road to Stardom UPN 2.24

111 All of Us UPN 2.18 112 What I Like About You WB 2.17 113 Eve UPN 2.14 114 Veronica Mars UPN 1.98 115 Jack & Bobby WB 1.83

116 Summerland WB 1.36 117 Road to Stardom UPN 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 12.67 13.04

NBC 10.69 10.10

FOX 10.36 8.86

ABC 9.42 10.44

WB 3.62 3.47

UPN 2.92 3.42

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