ABC scores with NBA, but CBS wins

ABC had last week’s three most-watched programs -- led by Game 7 of the NBA Finals -- but viewers continued to flock to CBS’ reruns, making it the most-watched network, according to figures released Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research.

The San Antonio Spurs’ 81-74 Game 7 victory over the Detroit Pistons on Thursday was seen by more than 19 million people, Nielsen reported. It was the second-most-watched NBA Finals’ concluding game over the last five years, trailing only last year’s finale of the Lakers-Pistons series.

Detroit’s 95-86 Game 6 victory was the third-most-watched program between June 20 and Sunday, with nearly 13.5 million viewers.

Although the average viewership for the series -- more than 12.5 million -- was the second-lowest since such figures began being kept in 1987 and the 8.2 household rating was the second-lowest since 1982, an ABC spokesman expressed satisfaction with the NBA performance.

“We’re thrilled,” Mark Mandel said. “The NBA did great numbers for us. It let us win every night it was on. In sports and in television, the objective is to beat your competition, and that’s what the NBA did for ABC.”

Comparable ratings for most forms of programming have dropped over the years because of increased competition from cable television, the Internet, video games and DVDs.

Despite ABC’s success with basketball and its hit summer series “Dancing With the Stars,” CBS had six of the top 10 programs and eight of the top 16 to finish first for the fourth consecutive week.

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Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (June 20-26) 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 NBA Finals: Game 7 ABC 19.00 2 Dancing With the Stars ABC 15.52 3 NBA Finals: Game 6 ABC 13.47 4 CSI CBS 12.28 5 Two and a Half Men CBS 10.85

6 CSI: Miami CBS 10.42 7 Without a Trace CBS 10.26 8 Everybody Loves Raymond CBS 10.06 9 Law & Order NBC 9.47 10 60 Minutes CBS 9.03

11 “AFI: 100 Years ... 100 Movie Quotes” CBS 9.00 12 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition ABC 8.89 13 “Dateline: Katie Couric Special” NBC 8.69 14 Law & Order: SVU NBC 8.45 15 House FOX 8.38

16 Cold Case CBS 8.27 17 20/20 (Fri.) ABC 7.77 18 Law & Order (9 p.m.) NBC 7.71 19 Law & Order: Criminal Intent NBC 7.63 20 Crossing Jordan NBC 7.57

21 “NBA Gametime: Game 7” ABC 7.51 22 CSI: NY CBS 7.42 23 Still Standing CBS 7.40 24 Medium NBC 7.35 25 Family Guy FOX 7.34

26 48 Hours Mystery CBS 6.98 27 Hell’s Kitchen FOX 6.93 28 The Simpsons (8:30 p.m.) FOX 6.92 29 I Want to be a Hilton NBC 6.75 30 “Changing Lanes” CBS 6.72

31 60 Minutes Wednesday CBS 6.55 32 Supernanny ABC 6.51 33 Numb3rs CBS 6.47 34 Still Standing CBS 6.45 35 The Simpsons FOX 6.42

36 American Dad FOX 6.39 37 Extreme: Makeover: Home Edition ABC 6.29 38 Las Vegas NBC 6.21 39 America’s Most Wanted FOX 6.11 40 Nanny 911 FOX 5.85

41 Desperate Housewives ABC 5.84 42 Lost ABC 5.83 43 Cops (8:30 p.m.) FOX 5.77 44 Crimetime Saturday CBS 5.75 45 Psychic Detectives NBC 5.70

46 Dateline: NBC (Sun.) NBC 5.67 47 America’s Funniest Home Videos ABC 5.61 48 Law & Order: Trial by Jury NBC 5.57 49 “NBA Gametime: Game 6” ABC 5.49 50 WWE Smackdown! UPN 5.44

51 King of Queens CBS 5.42 52 My Wife and Kids ABC 5.13 53 Hit Me Baby One More Time NBC 5.04 54 Cops FOX 4.98 55 Dateline: NBC (Fri.) NBC 4.96

56 48 Hours Mystery (Sat.) CBS 4.90 Joey (8:30 p.m.) NBC 4.90 58 Yes, Dear CBS 4.86 59 JAG (9 p.m.) CBS 4.85 60 Fear Factor NBC 4.78

61 Malcolm in the Middle FOX 4.76 62 America’s Funniest Home Videos (Sat.) ABC 4.74 63 The Cut CBS 4.67 64 “Patch Adams” ABC 4.54 65 JAG CBS 4.51

66 Trading Spouses FOX 4.50 King of the Hill FOX 4.50 68 ER NBC 4.48 69 Joey NBC 4.47 70 My Wife and Kids ABC 4.44

Dateline: NBC (Sat.) NBC 4.44 72 Hope & Faith ABC 3.87 73 The Inside FOX 3.86 74 Beauty and the Geek (Wed.) WB 3.85 Less Than Perfect ABC 3.85

76 The Scholar ABC 3.59 77 That ‘70s Show FOX 3.54 78 Hope & Faith (8:30 p.m.) ABC 3.45 79 8 Simple Rules ABC 3.38 80 “End of Days” NBC 3.35

81 Wonderful World of Disney ABC 3.07 82 Blue Collar TV (8:30 p.m.) WB 3.00 83 “The One” FOX 2.95 84 Stacked FOX 2.93 85 Girlfriends UPN 2.66

86 Blue Collar TV WB 2.64 87 Beauty and the Geek (Thu.) WB 2.60 88 Half and Half (Mon.) UPN 2.52 89 All of Us UPN 2.48 90 7th Heaven WB 2.41

91 Summerland WB 2.40 92 The O.C. (9 p.m.) FOX 2.24 93 The O.C. FOX 2.23 94 Reba WB 2.22 95 One on One UPN 2.18

96 Girlfriends UPN 2.17 97 Gilmore Girls WB 2.11 98 Smallville WB 2.06 99 Eve (8:30 p.m.) UPN 1.99 100 Steve Harvey’s Big Time WB 1.95

101 Living With Fran WB 1.91 102 Eve UPN 1.87 103 Half and Half (Tue.) UPN 1.86 104 “3,000 Miles to Graceland” UPN 1.77 105 What I Like About You (8:30 p.m.) WB 1.70

Bad Girls Guide UPN 1.70 107 All of Us UPN 1.69 Veronica Mars UPN 1.69 109 Charmed (8 p.m.) WB 1.58 110 What I Like About You WB 1.55

111 Charmed WB 1.32 112 One Tree Hill WB 1.30

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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 7.51 12.34

ABC 7.19 9.65

NBC 6.02 9.39

FOX 4.85 9.50

UPN 2.67 3.28

WB 2.16 3.22

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Los Angeles Times