First week of ‘sweeps’ goes to CBS

CBS won the first full week of the November “sweeps” period, while No. 2 ABC’s ratings renaissance -- guided by “Desperate Housewives,” “Lost” and “Grey’s Anatomy” -- continued to amaze.

CBS’ “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” was the most-watched program for the week ending Sunday, with 29.6 million viewers, according to figures released Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research. CBS had six of the top 10 programs, including “Without a Trace,” “CSI: New York” and “Survivor: Guatemala.” Overall, CBS ran away with the prime-time crown, averaging 14.5 million viewers, with ABC next at 11.4 million.

CBS also eked out a narrow victory over ABC in the crucial 18-49 demographic. But ABC is the only network that has shown growth in that category this season, with ratings up 5% compared with the same period a year ago. CBS is flat, while NBC and Fox are each down 15%. And ABC is currently tied with CBS for first place season-to-date in that demographic -- a feat few thought possible a year ago.

The week wasn’t kind to NBC, whose 18-49 ratings have plummeted a whopping 24% compared with the November 2004 sweeps. The network’s most-watched program was No. 14-ranked “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” (with 15.8 million viewers). Although the new comedy “My Name Is Earl” (11.6 million) provided some help, it wasn’t enough to counteract weak performers such as “Surface” (9.3 million) and the now-canceled “The Apprentice: Martha Stewart” (6.4 million).

On basic cable, ESPN was the week’s most-watched network in prime time (averaging 3.3 million viewers versus USA’s 2.8 million). The most-watched program was ESPN’s Browns-Steelers NFL matchup Sunday (9.8 million).

-- Scott Collins

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*--* Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (Nov. 7 to 13) 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 280.50 million potential viewers in the U.S. ages 2 and older. Viewership is listed in millions. Program Net- work View- ers Program Net- work View- ers

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*--* 1 CSI CBS 29.55 2 Desperate Housewives ABC 25.93 3 Monday Night Football ABC 21.86 4 Without a Trace CBS 20.78 5 Lost ABC 20.01

6 Grey’s Anatomy ABC 19.74 7 CSI: NY CBS 19.22 8 Survivor: Guatemala CBS 18.98 9 CSI: Miami CBS 18.39 10 NCIS CBS 17.79

11 Cold Case CBS 17.42 12 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition ABC 16.69 13 NFL Monday Showcase ABC 16.30 14 Two and a Half Men CBS 16.19 15 Law & Order: SVU NBC 15.76

16 ER NBC 15.44 17 Criminal Minds CBS 15.09 18 Commander in Chief ABC 14.78 19 60 Minutes CBS 14.46 20 House FOX 14.15

21 “Category 7: The End of the World,” Part 2 CBS 13.86 22 “NFL Post-Game” FOX 13.39 23 Numb3rs CBS 12.36 24 Out of Practice CBS 12.17 25 Close to Home CBS 11.87

26 Boston Legal ABC 11.75 27 Medium NBC 11.61 28 My Name Is Earl (Tue.) NBC 11.57 29 Ghost Whisperer CBS 11.41 The Simpsons FOX 11.41

31 King of Queens CBS 11.23 32 Apprentice 4 NBC 11.11 33 Crimetime Saturday (9 p.m.) CBS 11.01 34 Law & Order NBC 10.86 35 Amazing Race 8 CBS 10.84

36 Las Vegas NBC 10.81 37 How I Met Your Mother CBS 10.55 38 The OT (football post-game) FOX 10.38 39 Biggest Loser 2 NBC 10.15 40 48 Hours Mystery CBS 10.11

41 E-Ring NBC 9.87 42 Invasion ABC 9.76 43 America’s Funniest Home Videos (Sun.) ABC 9.43 44 Surface NBC 9.28 45 Family Guy FOX 9.20

46 Will & Grace NBC 8.85 47 Wife Swap ABC 8.84 48 Yes, Dear CBS 8.78 49 Crimetime Saturday (8 p.m.) CBS 8.60 50 Freddie ABC 8.36

51 Law & Order: Criminal Intent (Fri.) NBC 8.27 52 War at Home FOX 8.25 53 Trading Spouses FOX 8.24 54 Dateline: NBC (Fri.) NBC 8.20 55 Joey NBC 8.07

56 Prison Break FOX 8.05 57 20/20 ABC 8.02 58 “Saturday Night Live in the ‘80s: Lost and Found” NBC 7.95 59 George Lopez ABC 7.92 60 According to Jim ABC 7.83

61 Still Standing CBS 7.79 62 Three Wishes NBC 7.76 63 American Dad FOX 7.74 64 Rodney ABC 7.49 65 Office NBC 7.46

66 Supernanny ABC 7.34 67 That ‘70s Show FOX 6.98 68 Hope and Faith ABC 6.95 69 Bones FOX 6.86 70 America’s Most Wanted FOX 6.70

71 Cops (8:30 p.m.) FOX 6.53 72 Alias ABC 6.43 73 Apprentice: Martha NBC 6.37 74 Hot Properties ABC 6.29 75 Primetime ABC 6.14

76 Cops (8 p.m.) FOX 5.84 Gilmore Girls WB 5.84 78 The O.C. FOX 5.76 79 “Penn and Teller: Off the Deep End” NBC 5.74 80 7th Heaven WB 5.62

81 America’s Next Top Model 5 (Wed.) UPN 5.54 82 Smallville WB 5.51 83 Everybody Hates Chris UPN 5.33 84 My Name Is Earl (Sat., 10 p.m.) NBC 5.16 85 “Most Outrageous Moments on Live TV” NBC 5.15

86 My Name Is Earl (Sat., 10:30 p.m.) NBC 5.12 America’s Funniest Home Videos (Sat.) ABC 5.12 88 Stacked FOX 5.05 89 “Old School” ABC 5.01 90 My Name Is Earl (Sat., 9 p.m.) NBC 4.67

91 My Name Is Earl (Sat., 9 p.m.) NBC 4.57 92 Supernatural (Tue.) WB 4.47 93 Charmed WB 4.38 94 WWE Smackdown! UPN 4.22 95 Arrested Development (8 p.m.) FOX 4.19

96 Girlfriends UPN 4.17 97 Reunion FOX 4.01 98 Arrested Development (8:30 p.m.) FOX 3.94 99 Night Stalker ABC 3.90 100 Bernie Mac FOX 3.88

101 Killer Instinct FOX 3.86 102 Half and Half UPN 3.72 103 Everwood WB 3.68 104 All of Us UPN 3.66 105 Malcolm in the Middle FOX 3.65

106 One Tree Hill WB 3.42 107 Reba (Fri., 9 p.m.) WB 3.30 108 “Patti Labelle: Salute” UPN 3.23 109 One on One UPN 3.09 110 Veronica Mars UPN 3.07

111 Reba (Sun., 7:30 p.m.) WB 3.04 112 Eve UPN 2.79 Love Inc. UPN 2.79 114 Cuts UPN 2.69 115 Related (Mon.) WB 2.62

116 Twins WB 2.48 America’s Next Top Model 5 (Tue.) UPN 2.48 118 Reba (Sun. 7 p.m.) WB 2.47 119 Reba (Fri., 8:30 p.m.) WB 2.46 120 What I Like About You WB 2.22

121 Related (Wed.) WB 1.88 122 Supernatural (Sun.) WB 1.84

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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 14.54 13.16

ABC 11.40 10.84

NBC 8.91 9.33

FOX 7.53 8.74

UPN 3.69 3.58

WB 3.63 3.59

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