Football and ‘Numb3rs’ help CBS win again; Fox is second

Another week, another ratings win for CBS, which drew more than 44 million viewers for its AFC Championship game Sunday night, then got a big audience for its new drama, “Numb3rs,” which followed.

The football game, pitting the New England Patriots against the Pittsburgh Steelers, was the most-watched broadcast of the season. “Numb3rs” (which this week moves to its regular Friday slot) was the season’s most-watched premiere.

In the first 18 weeks of the season, CBS has been first in overall prime-time viewers 16 times.

But Fox also had plenty to smile about, with the return of “American Idol.” Tuesday’s season premiere (with 33.6 million viewers) ranked second and Wednesday’s edition was third. Together, they helped lift Fox to runner-up status for the week’s viewers overall, according to Nielsen Media Research.

Meanwhile, NBC was shut out of the week’s top 10 shows, with the third-season return of “The Apprentice” ranking 14th.

ABC was represented in the top 10 by its freshman dramas “Desperate Housewives” (No. 4) and “Lost” (No. 8).

For the week, CBS averaged 16.3 million viewers per prime-time hour, while Fox had 12 million viewers. NBC averaged 10.8 million viewers and ABC 10 million viewers. The WB had 3.13 million viewers, UPN 3.05 million viewers and Pax TV 700,000 viewers.

NBC’s “Nightly News” took another win in the evening news race, averaging 11.5 million viewers. ABC’s “World News Tonight” had 10.4 million viewers and “The CBS Evening News” 8 million viewers.

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Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (Jan. 17-23) 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. age 2 and older. Viewership is listed in millions.

*--* 1 “AFC Championship: Patriots-Steelers” CBS 44.33 2 American Idol (Tue.) FOX 33.57 3 American Idol (Wed.) FOX 26.71 4 Desperate Housewives ABC 25.95 5 “AFC Post-Game” CBS 25.75

6 Numb3rs CBS 24.92 7 CSI: Miami CBS 22.04 8 Lost ABC 19.69 9 Everybody Loves Raymond CBS 19.24 10 CSI CBS 19.03

11 ER NBC 18.82 12 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition ABC 18.29 13 Two and a Half Men CBS 18.14 14 Apprentice 3 NBC 15.55 15 Law & Order: SVU NBC 15.34

Boston Legal ABC 15.34 17 Law & Order NBC 15.12 18 NCIS CBS 14.53 19 Medium NBC 14.44 20 Without a Trace CBS 13.62

21 Alias ABC 13.21 22 Las Vegas NBC 12.64 23 Joey NBC 12.54 24 King of Queens CBS 12.12 25 CSI (Fri.) CBS 11.83

26 Fear Factor NBC 11.57 27 Judging Amy CBS 11.53 28 24 FOX 11.51 29 Dateline: NBC (Fri.) NBC 11.36 30 Point Pleasant (Wed.) FOX 11.32

31 Law & Order: SVU (Sat.) NBC 11.22 32 Dateline: NBC (Sun.) NBC 11.09 33 Still Standing CBS 11.08 34 West Wing NBC 10.92 35 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition: How’d They Do That? ABC 10.72

36 Amazing Race: 6 CBS 10.61 37 CSI: NY CBS 10.49 38 Listen Up CBS 10.07 39 Supernanny ABC 9.97 40 Third Watch NBC 9.91

41 Wife Swap ABC 9.77 42 Law & Order: (Sat.) NBC 9.51 43 Law & Order: Criminal Intent (Sat.) NBC 9.34 44 Center of the Universe CBS 9.32 45 According to Jim ABC 9.11

46 NYPD Blue ABC 9.00 47 JAG CBS 8.60 48 America’s Funniest Home Videos ABC 8.41 49 20/20 (Fri.) ABC 8.39 50 The Bachelorette ABC 8.33

51 Biggest Loser NBC 8.26 52 The O.C. FOX 7.87 The Simpsons FOX 7.87 54 Hope & Faith ABC 7.86 55 America’s Most Wanted FOX 7.80

56 60 Minutes Wednesday CBS 7.78 57 Wickedly Perfect CBS 7.76 58 Trading Spouses FOX 7.67 59 Crimetime Saturday CBS 7.62 60 Rodney ABC 7.55

61 8 Simple Rules ABC 7.49 62 Cops (8:30 p.m.) FOX 7.47 63 American Dreams NBC 7.38 64 Less Than Perfect ABC 7.22 65 Medical Investigation NBC 7.19

66 Cops FOX 6.88 67 “Aladdin” ABC 6.56 68 Scrubs NBC 6.52 69 Desperate Housewives (Sat.) ABC 6.47 70 “Bridget Jones’s Diary” NBC 6.40

71 My Wife and Kids ABC 6.26 72 Complete Savages ABC 6.13 73 The Simpsons (9:30 p.m.) FOX 6.06 74 George Lopez ABC 6.02 75 48 Hours Mystery (Sat.) CBS 5.93

76 WWE Smackdown! UPN 5.74 77 Joan of Arcadia CBS 5.73 78 Committed NBC 5.67 79 Primetime Live ABC 5.56 80 Point Pleasant (Thu.) ABC 5.55

81 48 Hours Mystery CBS 5.48 82 King of the Hill FOX 5.24 Malcolm in the Middle FOX 5.24 84 Arrested Development FOX 5.20 85 Family Guy FOX 5.17

86 Reba WB 5.03 87 Extreme Makeover ABC 5.00 88 Bernie Mac (8:30 p.m.) FOX 4.88 89 Bernie Mac FOX 4.69 90 7th Heaven WB 4.44

91 Jonny Zero FOX 4.29 92 Everwood WB 4.03 93 “Bring It On” WB 3.95 94 Sports Illustrated: Model Search NBC 3.88 95 Blue-Collar TV WB 3.66

96 Charmed WB 3.56 97 Life As We Know It ABC 3.40 98 Girlfriends UPN 3.39 99 Smallville WB 3.27 100 One on One UPN 3.08

101 Grounded For Life WB 2.96 102 Gilmore Girls WB 2.83 103 What I Like About You WB 2.79 104 Half and Half UPN 2.76 Enterprise UPN 2.76

106 Second Time Around UPN 2.62 107 Steve Harvey’s Big Time WB 2.51 108 All of Us UPN 2.36 109 Road to Stardom UPN 2.31 110 Kevin Hill UPN 2.23

111 Eve UPN 2.11 112 High School Reunion WB 1.98 113 Veronica Mars UPN 1.92 114 BMOC WB 1.76 115 Road to Stardom UPN 1.63

116 Summerland WB 1.14

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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 16.31 13.06

FOX 11.95 8.78

NBC 10.75 10.06

ABC 10.01 10.50

WB 3.13 3.47

UPN 3.05 3.44

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