CBS reclaims its prime-time lead

After relinquishing its crown to ABC the week before, CBS was back on top in prime-time viewers last week. It claimed nine of the week’s Top 20 shows, including the No. 1 entry, “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation,” according to Nielsen Media Research.

In the first 17 weeks of the season, CBS has been first in viewers 15 times.

But there was good news too for NBC, the week’s runner-up.

Although its “Golden Globe Awards” broadcast was beaten by ABC’s “Desperate Housewives” (second-ranked for the week) and “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” (in seventh place), the Globes cracked the Top 10. And the NBC drama “Medium,” in its second week on the air, took the No. 12 slot.

Not quite so promising, however, was the performance of NBC’s new sitcom “Committed.” In two airings last week, it ranked Nos. 35 and 43.

On Wednesday as well as Sunday, ABC glowed. Kicking off the night with its freshman hit “Lost” (ranked No. 6), ABC won its sixth consecutive Wednesday.

For the week, CBS averaged 13.9 million viewers. NBC had 12.3 million viewers, while ABC had 10.7 million and Fox 9.8 million. UPN had 3.4 million, the WB 2.7 million and Pax TV 650,000 viewers.

ABC’s “Desperate Housewives” was the most-watched show among viewers ages 18 to 34 for the 10th consecutive broadcast. It was also the most-watched program among viewers ages 18 to 49 and 25 to 54, key demographic groups for many advertisers.

ABC’s “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” was the most-watched program among viewers ages 2 to 11 and 12 to 17.

NBC’s “Nightly News” handily won the evening news ratings race, averaging 11.4 million viewers. ABC’s “World News Tonight” had 10.6 million viewers, and “The CBS Evening News” had 8.3 million.

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Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (Jan. 10-16) 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.

*--* Program Network Viewers 1 CSI CBS 27.55 2 Desperate Housewives ABC 24.09 3 NFC Playoff: Rams-Falcons FOX 23.70 4 AFC Playoff: Colts-Patriots CBS 23.63 5 “NFC Playoff Kickoff” (Sat.) FOX 21.39

6 Lost ABC 20.81 7 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition ABC 20.41 8 Without a Trace CBS 18.77 9 ER NBC 18.42 10 Golden Globe Awards NBC 16.84

11 60 Minutes CBS 16.52 12 Medium NBC 16.34 13 Law & Order: SVU NBC 15.94 14 Everybody Loves Raymond CBS 15.73 15 Cold Case CBS 15.67

16 NCIS CBS 15.40 17 Law & Order NBC 14.69 18 CSI: NY (Sun.) CBS 14.00 19 CSI: Miami CBS 13.98 20 Alias ABC 13.90

21 Boston Legal ABC 13.88 Two and a Half Men CBS 13.88 23 Biggest Loser NBC 13.71 24 CSI: NY CBS 13.66 25 24 FOX 13.34

26 Las Vegas NBC 12.63 27 Joey NBC 12.26 28 24 (8 p.m.) FOX 11.91 29 The West Wing NBC 11.88 30 Extreme Makeover: How’d They Do That? ABC 11.56

31 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (7 p.m.) ABC 11.39 32 According to Jim ABC 11.14 33 Amazing Race: 6 CBS 11.07 34 King of Queens CBS 11.04 35 Committed NBC 10.91

36 Judging Amy CBS 10.78 37 Fear Factor NBC 10.67 38 CSI: Miami (Fri.) CBS 10.39 39 60 Minutes (Wed.) CBS 10.22 40 Cold Case (Sat.) CBS 10.13

41 Crimetime Saturday CBS 10.04 42 JAG CBS 9.95 43 Committed NBC 9.94 44 Nanny 911 FOX 9.83 45 Still Standing CBS 9.80

46 Rodney ABC 9.75 47 Will & Grace NBC 9.68 48 20/20 (Fri.) ABC 9.65 49 NYPD Blue ABC 9.61 50 Wife Swap ABC 9.56

51 Medical Investigation NBC 9.29 52 Wickedly Perfect CBS 9.16 53 George Lopez ABC 9.14 54 The Bachelorette ABC 9.12 55 My Wife and Kids ABC 9.10

56 48 Hours Mystery CBS 9.05 57 Center of the Universe CBS 9.03 58 Will & Grace (9:30 p.m.) NBC 9.02 59 Listen Up CBS 8.98 60 Third Watch NBC 8.91

61 Hope & Faith ABC 8.74 62 Joan of Arcadia CBS 8.68 63 “Golden Globes Arrival Special” NBC 8.61 64 8 Simple Rules ABC 8.43 65 The Simpsons FOX 8.11

66 Dateline: NBC (Fri.) NBC 7.95 67 The O.C. FOX 7.46 68 Law & Order: Criminal Intent (Sat.) NBC 7.26 69 Less Than Perfect ABC 6.94 70 Complete Savages ABC 6.92

71 U.S. Figure Skating Championships ABC 6.82 72 Primetime Live ABC 6.30 73 That ‘70s Show FOX 6.27 74 Sports Illustrated: Model Search NBC 5.99 75 WWE Smackdown! UPN 5.95

76 Extreme Makeover ABC 5.94 77 Arrested Development FOX 5.78 78 Family Guy (9:30 p.m.) FOX 5.69 79 Family Guy FOX 5.66 80 Bernie Mac (8:30 p.m.) FOX 5.55

81 Malcolm in the Middle FOX 5.35 82 Jonny Zero FOX 5.21 83 Quintuplets FOX 5.06 84 Bernie Mac FOX 4.81 85 Reba WB 4.56

86 King of the Hill FOX 4.38 87 Blue Collar TV WB 4.01 88 North Shore FOX 3.98 89 Life as We Know It ABC 3.89 90 Rebel Billionaire FOX 3.70

91 Eve UPN 3.62 92 Charmed WB 3.52 93 Girlfriends UPN 3.36 Road to Stardom UPN 3.36 95 All of Us UPN 3.35

96 Half and Half UPN 3.05 97 Enterprise UPN 3.03 98 Steve Harvey’s Big Time WB 2.93 “Love and Basketball” WB 2.93 100 Veronica Mars UPN 2.91

101 Second Time Around UPN 2.88 102 Gilmore Girls WB 2.87 103 Smallville WB 2.85 104 One on One UPN 2.80 105 Grounded for Life WB 2.77

106 What I Like About You WB 2.74 107 Critic’s Choice Awards WB 2.70 108 Kevin Hill UPN 2.12 109 High School Reunion WB 1.91 110 Summerland WB 1.34

111 Road to Stardom UPN 1.34 112 BMOC WB 1.25

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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 13.92 12.86

NBC 12.28 10.02

ABC 10.71 10.52

FOX 9.79 8.61

UPN 3.42 3.47

WB 2.72 3.49

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