CBS starts sweeps strong

CBS led through the first four days of the November ratings sweeps, winning the first three nights to overcome ABC’s customary Sunday victory, according to Nielsen Media Research figures released Tuesday.

CBS was the most-watched network Thursday, Friday and Saturday, and ABC maintained its streak by finishing first for all seven Sundays this season, as “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition,” “Desperate Housewives” and “Grey’s Anatomy” all ranked among the top seven programs of the week, overcoming sweeps-oriented programming.

NBC and CBS also registered successes Sunday. “The West Wing” drew a season-high 9.6 million viewers for its presidential debate between Arnold Vinick (Alan Alda) and Matt Santos (Jimmy Smits), but NBC finished third in the 8 to 9 p.m. slot behind “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition,” which had 17.7 million, and CBS’ “Cold Case,” which had 16.6 million.

The first part of the miniseries “Category 7: The End of the World” finished second from 9 to 11 p.m. Sunday behind ABC with 14.2 million viewers, a season high for the “CBS Sunday Movie,” and 57% more than its season average.

CBS continued its streak of winning each week of the season, averaging 13.4 million viewers between Oct. 31 and Sunday, becoming the first network to win each of the first seven weeks of a season since NBC did so in 1988.

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Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (Oct. 31-Nov. 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 280.5 million potential viewers in the U.S. age 2 and older. Viewership is listed in millions.

*--* Program Network Viewers 1 CSI CBS 28.72 2 Desperate Housewives ABC 23.92 3 Without a Trace CBS 20.44 4 Survivor: Guatemala CBS 18.27 5 Grey’s Anatomy ABC 18.12

6 NCIS CBS 18.07 7 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition ABC 17.65 8 Cold Case CBS 16.62 9 Monday Night Football ABC 16.51 10 Criminal Minds CBS 16.21

11 CSI: NY CBS 15.70 12 60 Minutes CBS 15.61 13 Law & Order: SVU NBC 15.20 14 NFL Postgame Show CBS 15.07 15 Commander in Chief ABC 14.64

16 “Category 7: End of the World” CBS 14.31 17 ER NBC 14.28 18 Law & Order: Criminal Intent NBC 14.27 19 House FOX 13.44 20 CSI: Miami CBS 13.30

21 NFL Monday Showcase ABC 13.04 22 Two and a Half Men CBS 12.81 23 Ghost Whisperer CBS 12.75 24 Law & Order NBC 12.56 25 My Name Is Earl NBC 12.18

26 The Simpsons FOX 11.65 27 Extreme Makeover (7 p.m.) ABC 11.36 28 Boston Legal ABC 11.15 29 Numb3rs CBS 11.13 30 Apprentice 4 NBC 11.01

31 Amazing Race 8 CBS 10.89 32 E-Ring NBC 9.81 33 Out of Practice CBS 9.74 34 The West Wing NBC 9.58 35 Close to Home CBS 9.52

36 King of Queens CBS 9.46 37 Biggest Loser 2 NBC 9.03 38 Prison Break FOX 9.01 39 Medium NBC 8.97 40 Trading Spouses FOX 8.85

41 Family Guy FOX 8.58 42 “Pirates of Caribbean: Curse of Black Pearl” ABC 8.42 43 20/20 ABC 8.29 44 Crimetime Saturday CBS 8.28 45 Lost ABC 8.27

46 Dateline NBC (Fri.) NBC 8.26 47 How I Met Your Mother CBS 8.14 48 Three Wishes NBC 8.12 49 Threshold CBS 8.05 50 Bones FOX 7.99

Medium (9 p.m.) NBC 7.99 52 Law & Order: Criminal Intent (Fri.) NBC 7.95 53 Office NBC 7.93 Will & Grace NBC 7.93 55 That ‘70s Show FOX 7.85

56 Joey NBC 7.70 57 King of the Hill FOX 7.69 58 The Simpsons (7:30 p.m.) FOX 7.62 59 Yes, Dear CBS 7.61 60 Law & Order (Sat.) NBC 7.59

61 Medium (Mon., 8 p.m.) NBC 7.51 62 War at Home FOX 7.39 63 George Lopez ABC 7.34 64 American Dad FOX 7.29 65 According to Jim ABC 7.24

66 “Catch Me If You Can” ABC 7.18 67 Crimetime Saturday (8 p.m.) CBS 7.17 68 Rodney ABC 7.16 69 Freddie ABC 6.96 Apprentice: Martha Stewart NBC 6.96

71 48 Hours Mystery CBS 6.84 72 Still Standing CBS 6.78 73 Hope & Faith ABC 6.65 The O.C. FOX 6.65 75 Dateline NBC (Sun.) NBC 6.64

76 America’s Most Wanted FOX 6.34 77 Wife Swap ABC 6.32 78 Supernanny ABC 5.88 79 Cops (8:30 p.m.) FOX 5.85 80 Hot Properties ABC 5.84

81 Smallville WB 5.41 82 Prison Break (Mon.) FOX 5.38 83 Cops FOX 5.30 84 7th Heaven WB 5.29 85 Everybody Hates Chris UPN 5.24

86 Law & Order: SVU (Sat.) NBC 5.15 87 Invasion ABC 4.81 88 “Most Outrageous Moments on Live TV” NBC 4.73 89 America’s Next Top Model UPN 4.65 90 Killer Instinct FOX 4.48

91 Gilmore Girls WB 3.99 92 WWE Smackdown! UPN 3.90 93 Charmed WB 3.85 Bernie Mac FOX 3.85 95 Reba WB 3.65

96 Everwood WB 3.59 97 Reunion FOX 3.57 98 Malcolm in the Middle FOX 3.53 99 The Simpsons (7 p.m.) FOX 3.27 100 Everybody Hates Chris (9:30 p.m.) UPN 3.26

101 One Tree Hill WB 3.03 102 Love, Inc. UPN 2.98 103 Everybody Hates Chris (9 p.m.) UPN 2.94 104 Reba: The Beginning (Sun.) WB 2.89 105 America’s Next Top Model (Tue.) UPN 2.88

106 Twins WB 2.87 107 Supernatural WB 2.81 108 Related WB 2.53 What I Like About You WB 2.52 110 Cuts UPN 2.46

111 Eve UPN 2.44 112 One on One UPN 2.37 113 Girlfriends UPN 2.32 114 All of Us UPN 2.31 115 Veronica Mars UPN 2.24

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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 13.39 12.96

ABC 10.55 10.76

NBC 9.52 9.40

FOX 7.21 8.89

WB 3.25 3.59

UPN 3.17 3.56

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