‘Dance’ debut has Fox waltzing

Fox proved that TV viewers’ summer infatuation with dance may not be just a passing fancy.

The network’s debut of “So You Think You Can Dance,” an “American Idol”-like competition for hoofers, pulled in 10.3 million viewers last week, according to Nielsen Media Research.

While relatively modest, it was still the week’s third most-watched show, second among young viewers.

It comes on the heels of the summer’s biggest success, ABC’s now-concluded “Dancing With the Stars.”

ABC’s “Brat Camp,” following troubled teens being shocked into shape, is another top 10 success. But elsewhere, the shows that made ABC a surprise success during the TV season are having the opposite effect during summer.

A “Desperate Housewives” rerun drew only 5.3 million viewers last week, while a “Lost” repeat had 4.5 million. These serials traditionally do poorly in reruns, a truism that pulled ABC into fourth place last week.

Dramas in which the stories are resolved in one episode do better in repeats. That’s why seven of Nielsen’s top 15 shows last week were episodes of either the “CSI” or “Law & Order” franchises. Three other police-procedural dramas also made the top 15.

For the week, CBS averaged 7.3 million viewers. Fox had 5.8 million and won among the 18-to-49-year-old demographic.

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Prime-Time TV Ratings

Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (July 18-24) 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. age 2 and older. Viewership is listed in millions.

*--* 1 CSI CBS 14.64 2 Without a Trace CBS 12.68 3 So You Think You Can Dance FOX 10.30 4 Two and a Half Men CBS 9.75 5 Law & Order: Criminal Intent NBC 9.70

6 NCIS CBS 9.39 7 Brat Camp (9 p.m.) ABC 9.36 8 Law & Order: SVU NBC 9.19 9 Law & Order (10 p.m.) NBC 8.99 10 CSI: Miami CBS 8.89

11 60 Minutes CBS 8.74 12 Everybody Loves Raymond CBS 8.55 13 Cold Case CBS 8.36 14 Law & Order (9 p.m.) NBC 8.30 15 CSI: NY CBS 8.24

16 Big Brother 6 (Tue.) CBS 8.12 17 Most Outrageous Moments on Live TV NBC 8.08 18 Big Brother 6 (Thu.) CBS 7.85 Crossing Jordan NBC 7.85 20 King of Queens (Mon.) CBS 7.39

21 48 Hours Mystery CBS 7.33 22 Family Guy FOX 7.04 23 House FOX 6.96 24 20/20 ABC 6.87 25 The Simpsons (8:30 p.m.) FOX 6.81

26 Hell’s Kitchen FOX 6.70 27 Primetime Live ABC 6.69 28 Crimetime Saturday CBS 6.42 29 American Dad FOX 6.36 30 Dateline: NBC (Sun.) NBC 6.25

31 Medium NBC 6.23 32 Rock Star: INXS (Tue.) CBS 6.22 33 Brat Camp (8 p.m.) ABC 6.19 34 America’s Most Wanted FOX 6.10 35 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition ABC 6.06

36 Las Vegas NBC 5.88 37 The Simpsons (8 p.m.) FOX 5.83 38 Cops (8:30 p.m.) FOX 5.79 39 Law & Order: Trial By Jury NBC 5.78 40 America’s Funniest Home Videos ABC 5.72

41 Numb3rs CBS 5.69 42 Rock Star: INXS (Mon.) CBS 5.53 43 “Martin and Lewis” CBS 5.36 44 Desperate Housewives ABC 5.34 45 “28 Days” ABC 5.32

My Wife and Kids ABC 5.32 47 60 Minutes II CBS 5.31 48 48 Hours Mystery (Fri.) CBS 5.28 49 George Lopez ABC 5.26 50 Dateline: NBC (Fri.) NBC 5.25

51 Extreme Makeover ABC 5.22 52 Nanny 911 FOX 5.18 53 WWE Smackdown! UPN 5.01 54 Big Brother 6 (Sat.) CBS 4.93 55 According To Jim ABC 4.91

56 Cops FOX 4.86 57 Empire ABC 4.82 58 Rodney ABC 4.78 59 Grey’s Anatomy ABC 4.77 60 Hooking Up ABC 4.72

61 Fear Factor NBC 4.66 62 “Notting Hill” ABC 4.64 63 Joey (9 p.m.) NBC 4.56 64 Lost ABC 4.53 65 Average Joe 4 NBC 4.49

66 Joey (8 p.m.) NBC 4.40 67 Will & Grace (10:30 p.m.) NBC 4.36 68 Will & Grace (10 p.m.) NBC 4.27 69 That ‘70s Show (8 p.m.) FOX 4.25 70 Joey (8:30 p.m.) NBC 4.22

71 “Barbershop” FOX 4.20 72 That ‘70s Show (8:30 p.m.) FOX 4.16 73 8 Simple Rules ABC 4.06 74 The Scholar ABC 3.99 75 Trading Spouses FOX 3.93

76 Will & Grace (9:30 p.m.) NBC 3.92 77 Hope and Faith (8:30 p.m.) ABC 3.72 78 King of the Hill FOX 3.63 79 The Cut CBS 3.47 I Want to Be a Hilton NBC 3.47

81 King of Queens (Wed.) CBS 3.40 82 Less Than Perfect ABC 3.35 83 Rock Star: INXS (Wed.) CBS 3.30 84 Malcolm in the Middle FOX 3.04 85 “Devil’s Pond” UPN 2.59

86 Girlfriends (Tue.) UPN 2.52 87 Summerland WB 2.50 88 The O.C. FOX 2.43 89 One on One UPN 2.42 90 Girlfriends (Mon.) UPN 2.40

91 All of Us (Mon.) UPN 2.36 92 Half and Half (Tue.) UPN 2.14 93 Half and Half (Mon.) UPN 2.13 All of Us (Tue.) UPN 2.13 95 “Tuck Everlasting” WB 2.02

96 Smallville (Thu.) WB 1.91 97 Eve (8 p.m.) UPN 1.88 98 Reba WB 1.87 99 Gilmore Girls WB 1.86 Revelations NBC 1.86

101 The West Wing (8 p.m.) NBC 1.72 102 One on One UPN 1.70 103 Smallville (Wed.) WB 1.69 104 Veronica Mars UPN 1.66 Eve (8:30 p.m.) UPN 1.66

106 7th Heaven WB 1.64 107 Living With Fran WB 1.57 108 Blue Collar TV WB 1.50 109 West Wing (9 p.m.) NBC 1.42 110 Everwood WB 1.34

111 Charmed WB 1.32 112 One Tree Hill (Wed.) WB 1.25 113 One Tree Hill (Tue.) WB 1.23 114 What I Like About You WB 1.19

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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 7.33 11.86

FOX 5.75 9.11

NBC 5.63 9.07

ABC 5.29 9.31

UPN 2.75 3.21

WB 1.68 3.10

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