NBC is unable to shake slump

February ended with double milestones in television: the first sweeps month victory among all viewers for Fox, and the first fourth-place finish for once mighty NBC.

Last week’s rankings, released Tuesday, illustrated NBC’s problems. It had only two programs ranked among Nielsen’s top 15 most popular shows -- “ER” and “Law & Order” -- and both of those dramas are more than a decade old.

Fueled by the Oscars, ABC was a clear winner last week with an average of 14 million viewers. Fox was second with 12.1 million viewers, followed by CBS at 11.8 million, NBC at 10.1 million, the WB at 3.5 million and UPN at 3.3 million.

ABC’s Peter Jennings took some ribbing for his news special on UFOs -- one newspaper ran a “picture” of Jennings with a space alien -- but its strong showing of 11.6 million viewers eclipsed NBC’s Thursday night comedies.

NBC has particularly struggled on Thursdays, a night it once dominated. The network’s viewership in February was down 15% compared to February 2004, Nielsen said.

NBC’s “Nightly News” won the evening news rankings race, averaging 10.6 million viewers.

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Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (Feb. 21-27) 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.

*--* Program Network Viewers 1 Academy Awards ABC 42.14 2 American Idol (Tue.) FOX 28.25 3 CSI CBS 28.11 4 “Oscar Countdown 2004” ABC 27.71 5 American Idol (Wed.) FOX 26.66

6 American Idol (Mon.) FOX 23.47 7 Survivor: Palau CBS 21.64 8 Without a Trace CBS 21.37 9 Lost ABC 19.49 10 CSI: Miami CBS 19.47

11 Two and a Half Men CBS 17.50 12 ER NBC 16.03 13 House FOX 15.53 14 Law & Order (Wed.) NBC 14.54 15 CSI: NY CBS 14.30

16 Apprentice 3 NBC 14.15 17 Law & Order: SVU (Tue.) NBC 14.03 18 Medium NBC 13.77 19 NCIS CBS 13.59 20 24 FOX 13.16

21 Barbara Walters Special ABC 12.50 22 Las Vegas NBC 12.14 23 Peter Jennings Reports ABC 11.62 24 Law & Order: SVU (Sun.) NBC 11.54 25 Numb3ers CBS 11.46

26 Judging Amy CBS 10.86 27 Law & Order: SVU (Sat.) NBC 10.74 28 NYPD Blue ABC 10.60 29 Law & Order (Sun.) NBC 10.51 30 According to Jim ABC 10.45

31 JAG CBS 10.30 32 Joey NBC 9.96 33 The West Wing NBC 9.93 34 Will & Grace NBC 9.91 35 Alias ABC 9.74

36 Supernanny ABC 9.71 37 Still Standing CBS 9.51 38 King of Queens CBS 9.48 39 America’s Funniest Home Videos ABC 9.46 40 60 Minutes Wednesday CBS 9.44

41 “One Day at a Time Reunion” CBS 9.32 42 “Independence Day” FOX 9.23 43 20/20 (Fri.) ABC 9.13 44 Listen Up CBS 9.12 45 60 Minutes CBS 9.02

46 Yes, Dear CBS 9.00 47 The Bachelorette ABC 8.95 Fear Factor NBC 8.95 49 Cold Case CBS 8.89 50 Dateline NBC (Sun.) NBC 8.73

51 Third Watch NBC 8.66 52 “Forrest Gump” ABC 8.64 53 Law & Order: Criminal Intent (Sat.) NBC 8.53 54 Dateline NBC (Fri.) NBC 8.51 55 George Lopez ABC 8.47

56 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition: How’d They ABC 8.29 Do That? Medical Investigation NBC 8.29 58 America’s Most Wanted FOX 8.28 59 That ‘70s Show FOX 8.27 60 Wife Swap ABC 8.22

61 Cops (8:30 p.m.) FOX 8.17 Simple Life 3 FOX 8.17 63 Joan of Arcadia CBS 7.96 64 Scrubs NBC 7.65 65 Law & Order (Sat.) NBC 7.62

66 Cops FOX 7.40 67 “Stars Without Makeup” FOX 7.36 68 Law & Order: Criminal Intent (Sun.) NBC 7.30 69 O.C. FOX 7.23 70 My Wife and Kids ABC 6.80

71 Crossing Jordan NBC 6.66 72 Primetime Live ABC 6.54 73 48 Hours Mystery CBS 6.33 74 Committed NBC 6.11 75 Law & Order: Criminal Intent (Tue.) NBC 6.08

76 “Collateral Damage” CBS 5.69 77 Crimetime Saturday CBS 5.67 78 7th Heaven WB 5.50 79 Reba WB 5.45 WWE Smackdown! UPN 5.45

81 Smallville WB 5.26 82 Gilmore Girls WB 5.25 83 Everwood WB 5.20 84 Bernie Mac (8:30 p.m.) FOX 4.32 85 One Tree Hill WB 4.25

86 Bernie Mac FOX 4.20 87 Blue Collar TV WB 4.07 88 Girlfriends UPN 3.87 89 Wickedly Perfect CBS 3.59 90 Reba (8:30 p.m.) WB 3.54

91 Half and Half UPN 3.53 92 Road to Stardom UPN 3.31 93 Jonny Zero FOX 3.27 94 What I like About You WB 3.26 95 Cuts UPN 3.23

96 Enterprise UPN 2.96 97 One on One UPN 2.81 98 Kevin Hill UPN 2.41 99 “Ever After” WB 2.40 100 Veronica Mars UPN 2.34

101 All of Us UPN 2.34 102 Eve UPN 2.31 103 Jack & Bobby WB 2.13 104 Summerland (7 p.m.) WB 1.95 105 Summerland (8 p.m.) WB 1.94

106 Summerland (9 p.m.) WB 1.61 107 Road to Stardom (Fri.) UPN 1.52

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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 ABC 14.01 10.53

FOX 12.08 9.96

CBS 11.80 12.91

NBC 10.14 10.10

WB 3.54 3.48

UPN 3.25 3.37

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