ABC scores a viewership touchdown

Buoyed by football and its suddenly potent Sunday lineup, ABC was the nation’s most popular network for the first time this season and had its best ratings week in four years.

A gripping National Football League playoff game between the New York Jets and San Diego Chargers drew 25.8 million viewers Saturday, normally a night of light TV viewing. And though the game was a blowout, the USC-Oklahoma national college football championship Tuesday was seen by 21.4 million, according to Nielsen Media Research.

“Desperate Housewives” (25.2 million) returned with an original episode and helped the shows before and after it. “Boston Legal” scored a series high with Candice Bergen’s addition to the cast, and “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” has blossomed into a top 10 show.

The heavily promoted “Alias” hit the top 20 with its season premiere, and “Lost” drew 21.6 million viewers, Nielsen said.

There were some mixed results for other midseason entries. NBC’s supernatural “Medium” did well, with 16.1 million viewers for its debut, while the comedy “Committed” was far less impressive.

Normally sure CBS had two missteps. The search for a “new Martha Stewart” on “Wickedly Perfect” had only 9.4 million viewers, less than half of what “Survivor” usually drew in the same Thursday time slot. Another reality show, “The Will,” had a paltry 4.2 million viewers Saturday.

Sunday night offered good news for Fox: “24” had its biggest audience ever for its season opener.

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Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (Jan. 3-9) 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 28.86 2 AFC-NFC Playoffs: NY-San Diego ABC 25.76 3 Desperate Housewives ABC 25.20 4 Without a Trace CBS 23.76 5 “AFC-NFC Showcase” ABC 23.00

6 Lost ABC 21.59 7 Orange Bowl ABC 21.42 8 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition ABC 19.97 9 “NFC Wildcard Post-Game” FOX 19.45 10 Everybody Loves Raymond CBS 18.84

11 CSI: Miami CBS 18.49 12 Orange Bowl Pre-Game ABC 18.04 13 Two and a Half Men CBS 18.03 14 Medium NBC 16.09 15 Dateline: NBC (Tue.) NBC 15.97

16 Alias ABC 15.76 17 Cold Case CBS 15.57 18 24 (8 p.m.) FOX 15.31 19 Crossing Jordan NBC 15.28 20 Boston Legal ABC 14.35

21 24 (9 p.m.) FOX 14.34 22 Law & Order NBC 14.28 23 Sugar Bowl ABC 14.20 24 Law & Order: Criminal Intent NBC 13.23 25 Las Vegas NBC 13.10

26 Joey NBC 12.51 27 Sugar Bowl: Pre-Game ABC 12.27 28 CSI: NY CBS 12.15 29 60 Minutes CBS 12.13 30 The West Wing NBC 11.74

31 Committed (Thu.) NBC 11.65 32 Still Standing CBS 11.37 33 Biggest Loser NBC 11.34 34 Listen Up CBS 11.18 35 Fear Factor NBC 11.01

36 60 Minutes (Wed.) CBS 10.81 37 Amazing Race: 6 CBS 10.66 38 JAG CBS 10.58 39 King of Queens CBS 10.23 40 Committed (Tue.) NBC 10.11

41 Will & Grace NBC 10.10 42 Cold Case (Fri.) CBS 9.98 43 America’s Funniest Home Videos ABC 9.97 44 “People’s Choice Awards” CBS 9.89 45 Medical Investigation NBC 9.67

46 Dateline: NBC (Fri.) NBC 9.58 47 Wickedly Perfect CBS 9.36 48 Medium NBC 9.29 49 Third Watch NBC 9.24 50 Will & Grace (9:30 p.m.) NBC 9.21

51 Nanny 911 FOX 9.17 52 Center of the Universe CBS 8.94 53 Hope & Faith ABC 8.82 54 Primetime Live ABC 8.72 55 48 Hours Mystery CBS 8.70

56 Judging Amy CBS 8.44 57 8 Simple Rules (8:30 p.m.) ABC 8.39 58 Joan of Arcadia CBS 8.35 59 “Red Carpet Confidential” CBS 8.15 60 Cops (8:30 p.m.) FOX 7.90

61 8 Simple Rules ABC 7.82 62 Dateline: NBC (Sun.) NBC 7.78 63 America’s Most Wanted FOX 7.67 64 The O.C. FOX 7.65 65 20/20 (Fri.) ABC 7.49

66 Cops FOX 6.99 American Dreams NBC 6.99 68 Less Than Perfect ABC 6.91 69 Sports Illustrated: Model Search NBC 6.78 70 “Who’s Your Daddy?” FOX 6.30

71 That ‘70s Show FOX 6.24 72 Extreme Makeover ABC 5.94 73 Quintuplets FOX 5.78 74 WWE Smackdown! UPN 5.46 75 House FOX 5.45

76 48 Hours Mystery (9:30 p.m.) CBS 4.88 77 “Black Knight” FOX 4.84 78 “Battlestar Galactica” NBC 4.75 79 The Will CBS 4.24 80 Rebel Billionaire FOX 4.20

81 Life As We Know It ABC 4.15 82 That ‘70s Show (Mon.) FOX 4.14 83 North Shore FOX 4.13 84 Reba WB 3.85 85 Gilmore Girls WB 3.82

86 Girlfriends UPN 3.74 87 Half and Half UPN 3.62 88 Smallville WB 3.46 89 7th Heaven WB 3.44 90 One on One UPN 3.36

91 Blue Collar TV WB 3.23 92 Eve UPN 3.19 93 Second Time Around UPN 3.13 94 All of Us UPN 3.06 95 Road to Stardom UPN 3.01

96 “There’s Something About Mary” WB 2.90 97 “Summer Catch” WB 2.88 98 Veronica Mars UPN 2.84 99 What I Like About You WB 2.74 100 Grounded for Life WB 2.52

101 Kevin Hill UPN 2.32 102 Everwood WB 2.28 103 High School Reunion WB 2.20 104 Steve Harvey’s Big Time WB 2.15 105 Enterprise UPN 1.57

106 BMOC WB 1.45 107 Road to Stardom UPN 1.32

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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 ABC 15.94 10.51

CBS 12.00 12.80

NBC 10.37 9.89

FOX 8.73 8.53

UPN 3.20 3.47

WB 2.84 3.53

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