‘Eyes’ is top movie since ’99

Powered by star Halle Berry and executive producer Oprah Winfrey, ABC’s “Their Eyes Were Watching God” drew 24.6 million viewers Sunday, according to Nielsen Media Research.

The movie -- the most-watched made-for-TV movie since CBS’ “One Special Night” in November 1999 -- still couldn’t lift ABC above third place last week in an extremely competitive prime-time rankings race.

Fox’s Tuesday edition of “American Idol” was the week’s most-watched program, drawing nearly 26.9 million viewers. It also led among viewers ages 2-11, 12-17, 18-34, 18-49 and 25-54.

The debut of NBC’s “Law & Order: Trial by Jury” was seen by 17.3 million viewers Thursday, a strong start for the franchise’s fourth installment.

Meanwhile, 16.1 million people watched the final night of ABC’s “NYPD Blue” after 12 years.

For the week, CBS averaged 11.7 million viewers, the 20th time in the season’s 24 weeks it has finished first. CBS also finished first among viewers 55 and older and women 25-54 and tied ABC for the lead among viewers 35-49.

NBC averaged 11.1 million viewers and ABC had 10.7 million. Fox was fourth with 10.4 million viewers, but first among the 18-to-49-year-old demographic. UPN averaged 3.9 million, the WB had 3.1 million and Pax TV had 590,000 viewers.

NBC’s “Nightly News” won the evening-news race, averaging 10.5 million viewers. ABC’s “World News Tonight” was close behind with 10.3 million viewers and the “CBS Evening News” had 7.4 million in Dan Rather’s last full week.

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Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (Feb. 28-March 6) 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 American Idol (Tue.) FOX 26.90 2 CSI CBS 25.20 3 “Their Eyes Were Watching God” ABC 24.59 4 American Idol (Wed.) FOX 24.29 5 American Idol (Mon.) FOX 23.58

6 Survivor: Palau CBS 21.68 7 Lost ABC 18.85 8 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition ABC 17.88 9 Law & Order: Trial by Jury (Thu.) NBC 17.29 10 NYPD Blue ABC 16.08

11 Cold Case CBS 15.77 12 House FOX 15.63 13 Medium NBC 15.28 14 Everybody Loves Raymond CBS 14.95 15 Apprentice 3 NBC 14.83

16 Law & Order NBC 14.66 17 24 FOX 14.55 18 Law & Order: Trial by Jury (Fri.) NBC 14.52 19 Two and a Half Men CBS 14.46 20 Without a Trace CBS 14.36

21 CSI: Miami CBS 14.01 22 NCIS CBS 13.68 23 CSI: NY CBS 13.62 24 “NYPD Blue: A Final Tribute” ABC 13.34 25 Simple Life 3 FOX 12.81

26 Law & Order: SVU NBC 12.29 27 60 Minutes CBS 11.99 28 Amazing Race: 7 CBS 11.76 29 CSI: Miami (Sun.) CBS 11.72 30 “Bachelorette: After the Final Rose” ABC 11.33

31 Law & Order: SVU (Fri.) NBC 11.29 32 Fear Factor NBC 11.15 33 Law & Order: Criminal Intent NBC 10.91 Dateline: NBC (Wed.) NBC 10.91 35 Law & Order: SVU (Sat.) NBC 10.72

36 The West Wing NBC 10.66 37 CSI: NY (Sun.) CBS 10.30 38 Dateline: NBC (Sun.) NBC 10.14 39 Dateline: NBC (Fri.) NBC 10.01 40 Yes, Dear CBS 9.93

41 Alias ABC 9.69 42 America’s Funniest Home Videos ABC 9.57 43 Numb3rs CBS 9.48 44 King of Queens CBS 9.47 45 CSI (Fri.) CBS 9.30

46 Joey NBC 9.24 47 The Simpsons FOX 9.15 48 Law & Order: Criminal Intent (Sat.) NBC 9.07 49 Will & Grace NBC 8.90 50 Crossing Jordan NBC 8.39

51 The Bachelorette ABC 8.37 52 Still Standing CBS 8.33 53 That ‘70s Show (8:30 p.m.) FOX 8.32 54 20/20 (Fri.) ABC 8.19 55 Primetime Live ABC 8.17

56 Cops (8:30 p.m.) FOX 8.12 57 America’s Most Wanted FOX 8.05 58 Law & Order (Sat.) NBC 7.98 59 Listen Up CBS 7.90 Joan of Arcadia CBS 7.90

61 George Lopez ABC 7.66 62 That ‘70s Show FOX 7.54 63 60 Minutes Wednesday CBS 7.44 64 Wife Swap ABC 7.31 65 Scrubs NBC 7.15

66 My Wife and Kids ABC 6.95 67 8 Simple Rules ABC 6.91 68 Hope & Faith ABC 6.76 69 48 Hours Mystery CBS 6.64 70 Cops FOX 6.61

71 8 Simple Rules (8:30 p.m.) ABC 6.56 72 Arrested Development FOX 6.34 73 Less Than Perfect ABC 6.13 74 Law & Order: Criminal Intent (Tue.) NBC 6.04 75 Committed NBC 5.87

76 Extreme Makeover (9 p.m.) ABC 5.84 77 Arrested Development (9 p.m.) FOX 5.75 78 WWE Smackdown! UPN 5.71 79 7th Heaven WB 5.57 80 Gilmore Girls WB 5.51

81 The O.C. FOX 5.45 82 “Jerry Maguire” ABC 5.33 83 Malcolm in the Middle FOX 5.32 84 Extreme Makeover (8 p.m.) ABC 5.21 85 America’s Next Top Model 4 UPN 5.08

86 The Simpsons (9:30 p.m.) FOX 4.92 87 Smallville WB 4.51 88 King of the Hill FOX 4.48 89 “Wickedly Perfect Finale” CBS 4.38 90 Road to Stardom UPN 4.31

91 Reba WB 4.22 92 The O.C. (9 p.m.) FOX 4.21 93 Summerland WB 3.98 94 Girlfriends UPN 3.96 95 One Tree Hill WB 3.95

96 America’s Next Top Model 3 UPN 3.86 97 Half and Half UPN 3.83 98 Cuts UPN 3.52 99 Wickedly Perfect CBS 3.45 100 Blue Collar TV WB 3.35

101 One on One UPN 3.30 102 Bernie Mac FOX 2.83 103 “Assembling Robots” FOX 2.70 104 Eve UPN 2.67 105 What I Like About You (8:30 p.m.) WB 2.52

106 What I Like About You WB 2.37 All of Us UPN 2.37 108 Jonny Zero FOX 2.25 109 America’s Next Top Model 4 (Fri.) UPN 2.22 110 Steve Harvey’s Big Time WB 2.13

111 America’s Next Top Model 3 (Fri.) UPN 2.02 112 Jack & Bobby WB 1.89 113 Charmed WB 1.87 114 Starlet WB 1.69 115 Summerland (9 p.m.) WB 1.50

116 Summerland WB 1.37

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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 11.69 12.86

NBC 11.05 10.14

ABC 10.68 10.54

FOX 10.35 9.98

UPN 3.87 3.39

WB 3.09 3.47

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