ABC dances to ratings pinnacle

More than 22 million people tuned in to see soap star Kelly Monaco hoof it over former “Seinfeld” supporting player John O’Hurley last week in the finale of ABC’s “Dancing With the Stars.”

It was the most-watched episode of a summertime series since the last night of Fox’s first “American Idol” in 2002 and, overall, the most popular summer series since the first “Survivor” on CBS in 2000, according to Nielsen Media Research.

The wholesome fun of the dance competition made it a series that entire families could comfortably enjoy together.

ABC hasn’t announced a second version of the series, although it’s likely.

VH1 also was pleased, announcing that Hulk Hogan’s reality series “Hogan Knows Best” recorded the highest ratings of any premiere in its history.

Despite “Dancing,” CBS’ strong rerun schedule enabled it to win the week, averaging 7.4 million viewers. ABC had 6.1 million viewers, NBC 5.8 million and Fox 4.4 million.

NBC’s “Nightly News” won the evening news ratings race, averaging 8.7 million viewers. ABC’s “World News Tonight” had 8.2 million viewers and the “CBS Evening News” 6.8 million.

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Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (July 4-10) as compiled by Nielsen Media Research. They are based on the average number or 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 Dancing With the Stars (9 p.m.) ABC 22.36 2 CSI CBS 14.90 3 Without a Trace CBS 12.33 4 Dancing With the Stars (8 p.m.) ABC 10.27 5 CSI: NY CBS 9.75

6 60 Minutes CBS 9.52 7 Law & Order: Criminal Intent NBC 8.67 8 Law & Order: SVU NBC 8.55 9 Big Brother 6 CBS 8.47 10 Crossing Jordan NBC 7.81

11 Dateline: NBC (Sun.) NBC 7.72 12 “Boston Pops Fireworks” CBS 7.71 13 “Open House” CBS 7.63 14 House FOX 7.59 15 Law & Order (9 p.m.) NBC 7.58

16 48 Hours Mystery (Tue.) CBS 7.47 17 Cold Case CBS 7.40 18 CSI: Miami CBS 7.08 19 Lost ABC 7.06 20 “Macy’s 4th of July Fireworks” NBC 6.99

21 48 Hours Mystery (Sat., 10 p.m.) CBS 6.95 22 Dateline: NBC (Wed.) NBC 6.90 23 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (8 p.m.) ABC 6.80 24 Two and a Half Men CBS 6.71 25 20/20 ABC 6.70

26 Law & Order (8 p.m.) NBC 6.62 27 Family Guy (9:30 p.m.) FOX 6.51 28 According to Jim ABC 6.47 29 Everybody Loves Raymond CBS 6.44 30 Dateline: NBC (Fri.) NBC 6.38

31 Primetime Live ABC 6.35 32 Fire Me Please CBS 6.25 33 Numb3rs CBS 6.19 34 Crimetime Saturday CBS 6.17 35 Family Guy (9 p.m.) FOX 6.12

36 Medium NBC 6.05 37 My Wife and Kids ABC 6.04 38 “ET: Celebrity Weddings” CBS 5.93 39 America’s Most Wanted FOX 5.82 40 Law & Order: Trial by Jury NBC 5.72

The Simpsons FOX 5.72 42 George Lopez ABC 5.63 43 America’s Funniest Home Videos ABC 5.51 44 Rodney ABC 5.47 45 48 Hours Mystery (Sat., 8 p.m.) CBS 5.39

46 WWE Smackdown! UPN 5.32 47 Desperate Housewives ABC 5.29 48 Empire ABC 5.22 49 “Big Fat Liar” ABC 5.17 50 JAG CBS 5.02

Cops (8:30 p.m.) FOX 5.02 52 I Want to Be a Hilton NBC 4.96 53 Princes of Malibu FOX 4.95 54 Grey’s Anatomy ABC 4.90 Average Joe 4 NBC 4.90

56 60 Minutes II CBS 4.86 57 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (7 p.m.) ABC 4.79 58 Will & Grace (9 p.m.) NBC 4.72 59 Will & Grace (9:30 p.m.) NBC 4.71 60 ER NBC 4.69

61 King of Queens CBS 4.63 62 Hope and Faith (8:30 p.m.) ABC 4.49 63 Trading Spouses FOX 4.43 64 8 Simple Rules ABC 4.40 65 Yes, Dear CBS 4.38

66 Joey (8 p.m.) NBC 4.34 67 Cops FOX 4.33 68 Hope and Faith (9 p.m.) ABC 4.30 69 That ‘70s Show (Thu., 8:30 p.m.) FOX 4.28 70 Beauty and the Geek (Wed.) WB 4.27

71 Joey (8:30 p.m.) NBC 4.23 72 “An American Celebration at Ford’s Theatre” ABC 4.16 73 Wonderful World Of Disney ABC 4.08 74 The Inside (9 p.m.) FOX 4.07 75 The Cut CBS 4.00

76 Less Than Perfect ABC 3.96 77 Nanny 911 (8 p.m.) FOX 3.89 78 Nanny 911 (9 p.m.) FOX 3.86 79 That ‘70s Show (8 p.m.) FOX 3.79 80 The Inside (8 p.m.) FOX 3.67

81 “Joy Ride” FOX 3.45 82 King of the Hill FOX 3.33 83 “Nick and Jessica’s Tour of Duty” ABC 3.17 84 Fear Factor NBC 3.16 85 Malcolm in the Middle FOX 2.83

86 Blue Collar (Thu., 8:30 p.m.) WB 2.48 87 Battlestar Galactica (9 p.m.) NBC 2.38 The O.C. FOX 2.38 89 Beauty and the Geek (Thu.) WB 2.32 Girlfriends (Tue.) UPN 2.32

91 Reba WB 2.23 92 All of Us (Tue.) UPN 2.19 Blue Collar TV (Thu., 8 p.m.) WB 2.19 94 Battlestar Galactica (8 p.m.) NBC 2.16 95 Half and Half (Tue.) UPN 2.09

96 Gilmore Girls WB 2.01 97 “Summer Catch” WB 1.99 98 Bad Girls Guide UPN 1.92 99 Eve (8:30 p.m.) UPN 1.77 100 Smallville WB 1.75

101 Eve (8 p.m.) UPN 1.65 102 Living with Fran WB 1.64 103 What I Like About You WB 1.56 104 Blue Collar TV (Fri.) WB 1.55 105 Girlfriends (Mon.) UPN 1.46

106 All of Us (Mon.) UPN 1.44 107 One on One UPN 1.39 One Tree Hill WB 1.39 109 Charmed WB 1.32 110 7th Heaven WB 1.27

Veronica Mars UPN 1.27 112 Half and Half (Mon.) UPN 1.25 “Rock Star” UPN 1.25 114 Summerland WB 0.96

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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 7.35 12.10

ABC 6.13 9.48

NBC 5.78 9.22

FOX 4.41 9.26

UPN 2.31 3.24

WB 1.93 3.16

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