For NBC, it wasn’t a super week

A week dominated by Fox’s airing of the Super Bowl also resulted in a historic low for NBC.

NBC dropped to fourth place this season among viewers ages 18 to 49, the first time it has ever been so low this late in a TV season. That’s the demographic NBC most cares about because it’s the audience that the bulk of TV advertisers pay to reach.

NBC has won among this group for four years in a row, and eight of the last nine years, and as a result earns more than its rivals every spring when advertisers lock in commercial space for the upcoming season.

It’s very close, but so far this season CBS leads among these young viewers and has a commanding lead among viewers of all ages. ABC is second, and Fox moved past NBC this week on the strength of the Super Bowl.

Among all viewers, NBC is a close third to ABC.

“It’s parity among the networks now, and that’s what you’re seeing playing out,” said NBC spokeswoman Rebecca Marks. She noted that NBC has a strong new hit in “Medium” and is optimistic about such future series as “Law & Order: Trial by Jury” and “The Office.”

Without an unexpected hit, NBC could have trouble climbing out of fourth. CBS has the most dominant day-to-day schedule, ABC has the Academy Awards and buzzed-about hits like “Desperate Housewives,” and Fox has four months worth of “American Idol” episodes to run.

Besides the football game, last week was a good week for the Fonz and friends: ABC’s 30th anniversary special for “Happy Days” was seen by nearly 20 million people. Fox is also seeing some promising numbers for the medical drama “House,” seen by more people last week than the more-heralded “24.”

NBC’s “Nightly News” won the evening news ratings race.

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Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (Jan. 31-Feb. 6) 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 Super Bowl XXXIX FOX 86.07 2 Super Bowl Postgame FOX 50.10 3 American Idol (Tue.) FOX 28.50 4 American Idol (Wed.) FOX 26.17 5 CSI CBS 24.95

6 The Simpsons FOX 23.07 7 “Happy Days 30th Anniversary Reunion” ABC 19.92 8 Without a Trace CBS 19.33 9 ER NBC 18.09 10 Everybody Loves Raymond CBS 17.57

11 Two and a Half Men CBS 17.01 12 Medium NBC 15.85 13 “American Dad” FOX 15.15 14 CSI: Miami CBS 15.13 15 Apprentice 3 NBC 14.80

16 House FOX 12.75 17 Amazing Race: 6 CBS 12.01 18 Numb3rs CBS 11.55 19 24 FOX 11.52 20 NCIS CBS 11.48

21 Fear Factor NBC 11.29 22 CSI (8 p.m.) CBS 11.25 23 Judging Amy CBS 11.20 24 Las Vegas NBC 10.87 25 Supernanny ABC 10.75

26 NYPD Blue ABC 10.62 27 Law & Order: SVU (Sat.) NBC 10.45 28 Law & Order: SVU NBC 10.34 29 Still Standing CBS 10.22 30 JAG CBS 10.10

According to Jim ABC 10.10 32 Lost ABC 10.05 33 Will & Grace NBC 9.99 34 Joey NBC 9.96 35 Third Watch NBC 9.87

36 Listen Up CBS 9.74 37 Rodney ABC 9.54 38 Desperate Housewives ABC 9.34 39 “Great Commercials ...” CBS 9.22 40 The Bachelorette ABC 8.98

41 Primetime Live ABC 8.83 42 Medical Investigation NBC 8.75 43 20/20 ABC 8.61 44 Trading Spouses FOX 8.40 “Presidential Address Analysis” NBC 8.40

46 Hope & Faith ABC 8.37 47 8 Simple Rules ABC 8.30 48 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition ABC 8.15 49 Law & Order: Criminal Intent (Sat.) NBC 8.11 50 Dateline: NBC (Fri.) NBC 8.06

51 Scrubs NBC 8.04 52 8 Simple Rules (8:30 p.m.) ABC 7.95 53 Law & Order (Sat.) NBC 7.89 54 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition: How’d They Do That? ABC 7.86 55 Less Than Perfect ABC 7.76

56 Without a Trace (Sun.) CBS 7.59 57 Desperate Housewives (Sat., 10 p.m.) ABC 7.49 58 Law & Order: Criminal Intent NBC 7.47 Cops (8:30 p.m.) FOX 7.47 60 The O.C. FOX 7.25

61 “State of the Union Analysis 2” ABC 7.23 62 Cold Case CBS 7.21 63 Most Outrageous Moments on Live TV NBC 6.99 64 America’s Most Wanted FOX 6.90 65 60 Minutes Wednesday CBS 6.84

Committed NBC 6.84 67 My Wife and Kids ABC 6.82 68 America’s Funniest Home Videos (Sat.) ABC 6.70 69 48 Hours Mystery CBS 6.68 70 America’s Funniest Home Videos (Sun., 8 p.m.) ABC 6.67

71 George Lopez ABC 6.66 72 7th Heaven WB 6.64 73 “State of the Union Analysis” FOX 6.36 74 Cops FOX 6.27 75 Desperate Housewives (Sat., 9 p.m.) ABC 6.19

76 Law & Order (Sun.) NBC 5.95 77 NCIS (Sun.) CBS 5.91 78 “Presidential Address Analysis” NBC 5.86 79 “State of the Union Analysis” CBS 5.70 80 Crimetime Saturday CBS 5.66

81 Law & Order: Criminal Intent (Sun.) NBC 5.31 82 Reba WB 5.13 83 Smallville WB 4.78 84 WWE Smackdown! UPN 4.73 85 “State of the Union Analysis” ABC 4.70

86 Gilmore Girls WB 4.68 87 “Child Prodigies” CBS 4.67 88 “Democratic Response” CBS 4.42 89 Everwood WB 4.25 90 Sports Illustrated: Model Search NBC 4.17

91 Bernie Mac FOX 4.13 One Tree Hill WB 4.13 93 Bernie Mac (8:30 p.m.) FOX 4.05 94 Dateline: NBC (Sun.) NBC 4.04 95 America’s Funniest Home Videos (Sun., 7 p.m.) ABC 3.81

Wickedly Perfect CBS 3.81 97 Blue Collar TV WB 3.59 98 Jonny Zero FOX 3.43 99 Point Pleasant FOX 3.32 100 Reba (8:30 p.m.) WB 3.27

101 Half and Half UPN 3.15 102 Jack & Bobby WB 3.12 103 “Road to Stardom” (Mon.) UPN 3.05 104 One on One UPN 2.95 105 Enterprise UPN 2.81

106 What I Like About You WB 2.78 107 “Dr. Doolittle” WB 2.53 108 All of Us UPN 2.43 109 Veronica Mars UPN 2.31 110 Eve UPN 2.25

111 Road to Stardom (Wed.) UPN 2.13 112 Kevin Hill UPN 2.07 113 Road to Stardom (Fri.) UPN 1.40 Summerland WB 1.40 115 Summerland (9 p.m.) WB 1.26

116 Summerland (7 p.m.) WB 1.11

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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 FOX 28.83 9.83

CBS 10.47 12.92

ABC 9.19 10.38

NBC 9.19 10.05

WB 3.37 3.47

UPN 2.86 3.39

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