Prime-Time TV Rankings

Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (April 25-May 1) 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.

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*--* 1 Desperate Housewives ABC 25.68 2 American Idol (Tue.) FOX 25.52 3 American Idol (Wed.) FOX 24.42 4 CSI CBS 23.68 5 Survivor: Palau CBS 21.21

6 Grey’s Anatomy ABC 17.88 7 House FOX 16.45 8 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition ABC 16.36 9 Cold Case CBS 16.28 10 Everybody Loves Raymond CBS 15.79

11 CSI: Miami CBS 15.69 12 “Riding on the Bus With My Sister” CBS 14.98 13 Two and a Half Men CBS 14.93 14 CSI: NY CBS 14.84 15 ER NBC 14.52

16 Medium NBC 14.42 17 JAG CBS 13.98 18 Lost ABC 13.75 19 NCIS CBS 13.67 20 Amazing Race: 7 CBS 13.27

21 Apprentice 3 NBC 12.42 22 60 Minutes CBS 12.22 23 The Simpsons (8:30 p.m.) FOX 11.92 24 Las Vegas NBC 11.88 25 Family Guy FOX 11.87

26 CSI (Wed.) CBS 11.78 27 Law & Order: Criminal Intent NBC 11.60 28 Judging Amy CBS 11.53 29 Stacked FOX 11.16 30 24 FOX 11.03

31 Crossing Jordan NBC 10.90 32 Numb3rs CBS 10.80 33 The Simpsons FOX 10.79 34 Law & Order: SVU NBC 10.42 35 CSI (Fri.) CBS 10.12

36 Fear Factor NBC 9.74 37 Law & Order (Sat.) NBC 9.63 38 Law & Order NBC 9.59 Law & Order: Trial By Jury NBC 9.59 40 20/20 ABC 9.48

41 American Dad FOX 9.32 42 Revelations NBC 9.14 43 60 Minutes Wednesday CBS 9.02 44 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (7 p.m.) ABC 8.99 45 Listen Up CBS 8.77

46 Yes, Dear (Mon.) CBS 8.74 47 Crimetime Saturday CBS 8.48 48 Third Watch NBC 8.38 49 Alias ABC 8.19 50 Rodney ABC 8.14

51 According to Jim ABC 8.13 52 The Bachelor ABC 8.08 53 Dateline: NBC (Sun.) NBC 7.73 54 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition: How’d They Do That? ABC 7.58 55 Supernanny ABC 7.47

56 Dateline: NBC (Fri.) NBC 7.42 57 Cops (9:30 p.m.) FOX 7.23 Blind Justice ABC 7.23 59 Nanny 911 FOX 7.18 60 That ‘70s Show FOX 7.09

61 Malcolm in the Middle FOX 6.84 62 America’s Funniest Home Videos ABC 6.76 63 Cops (9 p.m.) FOX 6.72 64 Life on a Stock FOX 6.59 65 Primetime Live ABC 6.48

66 Dateline: NBC (Wed.) NBC 6.45 67 Without a Trace (Sat.) CBS 6.43 68 Cops (8:30 p.m.) FOX 6.40 69 Contender NBC 6.31 70 Eyes ABC 6.29

71 Hope & Faith ABC 6.15 72 48 Hours Mystery CBS 6.06 73 Hope & Faith (9:30 p.m.) ABC 6.03 74 Scrubs NBC 5.96 75 “Spiderman” FOX 5.84

76 Law & Order: SVU (Sat.) NBC 5.77 77 King of the Hill FOX 5.71 78 “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” ABC 5.65 79 Gilmore Girls WB 5.51 80 “Most Outrageous Moments on Live TV” NBC 5.50

81 7th Heaven WB 5.35 82 My Wife and Kids ABC 5.28 83 America’s Next Top Model 4 UPN 4.91 84 WWE Smackdown! UPN 4.84

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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 13.02 12.83

FOX 10.06 9.91

ABC 9.34 10.09

NBC 9.09 9.83

WB 3.67 3.33

UPN 3.38 3.35

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