Bowl games draw young adults to ABC

Helped along by college bowl games, not to mention Regis Philbin, ABC scored with young adults in last week’s holiday-impacted prime-time TV ratings. CBS, relying heavily on repeats of regular series such as “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation,” narrowly won among total viewers.

ABC’s Fiesta Bowl between Utah and Pittsburgh dominated prime time on New Year’s Day, with an average of 12.2 million viewers, according to figures from Nielsen Media Research. The telecast was clearly boosted by its lead-in, the Rose Bowl between Texas and Michigan (20.5 million), which dribbled over into prime time in the Eastern and Central time zones. Still, the Fiesta Bowl slipped 11% in total viewers compared to the Jan. 2, 2004, Fiesta matchup between Kansas State and Ohio State (13.7 million).

On Friday, Philbin stepped in for the ailing Dick Clark on ABC’s “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve” (7.9 million). The program delivered its biggest audience in three years, while NBC fizzled with its rival program, “New Year’s Eve With Carson Daly” (4.5 million).

Even with the bowl games luring football fans, TV viewing levels were predictably low because of the holidays. For the week overall, CBS led among total viewers (10.2 million), trailed by ABC (9.7 million), NBC (8.5 million) and Fox (5.5 million). Among young adults, ABC took the crown for the second straight week, winning five nights (Tuesday was a tie with CBS).

Tsunami coverage lifted NBC’s “Dateline” to its best Sunday ratings in a year (12.8 million viewers), while ABC bombed with its made-for-TV movie, “Dynasty: The Making of a Guilty Pleasure” (5.5 million).

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Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (Dec. 27-Jan. 2) 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 CSI CBS 18.32 2 60 Minutes CBS 16.44 3 Monday Night Football ABC 16.36 4 Law & Order: Criminal Intent (Sun.) NBC 14.85 5 Everybody Loves Raymond CBS 14.76

6 Without a Trace CBS 14.33 7 NFL Monday Showcase ABC 14.17 8 Crossing Jordan NBC 14.13 9 Two and a Half Men CBS 13.53 10 CSI: Miami CBS 13.40

11 Dateline: NBC (Sun.) NBC 12.82 12 Cold Case CBS 12.75 13 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition ABC 12.39 14 NCIS CBS 12.34 15 Fiesta Bowl ABC 12.22

16 Law & Order: SVU NBC 11.59 17 Law & Order: SVU (Sat.) NBC 11.33 18 Cold Case (Thu.) CBS 10.57 19 Primetime Special Edition (Wed.) ABC 10.30 20 According to Jim ABC 10.25

21 CSI: NY CBS 10.18 22 Amazing Race: 6 CBS 10.14 23 Law & Order NBC 9.55 24 Law & Order: Criminal Intent (Wed.) NBC 9.26 25 Still Standing CBS 9.03

26 “Behind Enemy Lines” CBS 8.87 27 Law & Order: Criminal Intent (Sat.) NBC 8.76 28 King of Queens CBS 8.50 29 Lost (9 p.m.) ABC 8.47 30 60 Minutes (Wed.) CBS 8.43

31 Listen Up CBS 8.39 32 Lost ABC 8.31 33 Without a Trace (Fri.) CBS 8.28 34 American Dreams NBC 8.25 35 Rodney ABC 8.21

36 George Lopez ABC 8.18 37 Law & Order (Sat.) NBC 8.17 38 My Wife and Kids ABC 8.13 39 “ESPN Blunderful World of Sports” ABC 8.00 40 “New Year’s Rockin’ Eve ‘05” ABC 7.92

41 The West Wing NBC 7.90 42 Fear Factor NBC 7.78 43 ER NBC 7.55 44 Judging Amy CBS 7.47 45 “My Best Friend’s Wedding” ABC 7.43

46 48 Hours Mystery CBS 7.40 Center of the Universe CBS 7.40 48 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (7 p.m.) ABC 7.24 49 Dateline: NBC (Fri.) NBC 7.15 50 Las Vegas NBC 7.12

51 America’s Most Wanted FOX 7.06 52 “True Lies” FOX 7.04 53 Crimetime Saturday CBS 6.92 54 House (Tue.) FOX 6.90 55 Crossing Jordan (Mon.) NBC 6.88

56 20/20 ABC 6.85 57 Cops (8:30 p.m.) FOX 6.71 58 Nanny 911 FOX 6.59 59 Joey NBC 6.39 60 Joey (8:30 p.m.) NBC 6.35

61 Primetime Live ABC 6.21 62 Joey (9 p.m.) NBC 6.10 63 Cops FOX 6.03 64 Will & Grace NBC 5.79 65 8 Simple Rules ABC 5.76

66 “Andy Griffith Show Reunion” CBS 5.59 67 “Dynasty: Making of a Guilty Pleasure” ABC 5.52 68 That ‘70s Show FOX 5.51 69 JAG CBS 5.48 70 Scrubs NBC 5.32

71 Father of the Pride NBC 5.21 72 Quintuplets FOX 4.92 73 Hope & Faith ABC 4.86 74 Father of the Pride (9 p.m.) NBC 4.71 75 Father of the Pride (8:30 p.m.) NBC 4.68

76 Joan of Arcadia CBS 4.65 77 Less Than Perfect ABC 4.60 78 House (Mon., 8 p.m.) FOX 4.55 79 “New Year’s Eve With Carson Daly” NBC 4.49 80 WWE Smackdown! UPN 4.47

81 Complete Savages ABC 4.44 82 “Bait” FOX 4.30 83 House (Mon., 9 p.m.) FOX 4.25 84 The O.C. FOX 3.90 85 The O.C. (9 p.m.) FOX 3.78

86 Rebel Billionaire FOX 3.76 87 7th Heaven WB 3.70 88 Gilmore Girls WB 3.34 89 Smallville WB 3.04 90 “Vibe Awards” UPN 2.85

91 High School Reunion WB 2.70 92 Girlfriends UPN 2.65 93 Half and Half UPN 2.49 94 Steve Harvey’s Big Time WB 2.38 95 Reba WB 2.35

96 Everwood WB 2.33 97 One on One UPN 2.25 98 Blue Collar WB 2.19 99 Second Time Around UPN 2.12 Eve UPN 2.12

101 All of Us UPN 2.03 “The Best Man” UPN 2.03 103 What I Like WB 1.95 104 Charmed WB 1.94 105 Veronica Mars UPN 1.89

106 Grounded WB 1.73 107 BMOC WB 1.69 108 “Heathers” WB 1.46 109 Mountain WB 1.36

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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 10.22 12.85

ABC 9.65 10.14

NBC 8.50 9.86

FOX 5.47 8.52

UPN 2.74 3.48

WB 2.27 3.58

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