‘Commander’ is lone new series to crack the top 10

For the second consecutive week, “Commander in Chief” was the only new series to crack the prime-time top 10 and the first in the 3-week-old season to gain viewers from its premiere.

The second episode of the ABC drama, starring Geena Davis as the first female president, attracted 16.9 million viewers, a 3% increase from its premiere, to finish eighth among the 117 programs broadcast on the six major networks from Oct. 3 through Sunday, according to figures released Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research.

But “Commander in Chief” didn’t fare as well among viewers ages 18 to 49, the group targeted by ABC, Fox and NBC, tying for 14th in the group with “Las Vegas” and “Two and a Half Men.”

While “Commander in Chief” was bucking the trend of new shows losing viewership from its premieres, ABC’s “Night Stalker” was continuing it, falling 17% to 5.9 million, finishing 75th for the week.

The premiere of the ABC Friday comedy “Hot Properties” attracted 6.1 million viewers, 5% more than the programming preceding it, “Hope & Faith,” tying for 72nd with a Saturday rebroadcast of NBC’s “My Name Is Earl.”

CBS’ legal drama “Close to Home” was third in its Tuesday 10-11 p.m. time slot in its premiere with 10.4 million viewers, trailing NBC’s “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” with 16.2 million and ABC’s “Boston Legal” with 11.8 million.

Although Fox was fourth both among total viewers and viewers ages 18 to 49, its four telecasts of major league baseball’s divisional series through Sunday averaged 9 million viewers, a 15% increase from last season’s 7.8 million.

For the third consecutive week, CBS was the most-watched network, while ABC was first among viewers ages 18 to 49.

With three of the five most-watched programs, including “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation,” the week’s most-watched program with 28.8 million viewers, CBS averaged 12.8 million viewers for the week. ABC was second with 10.8 million.

CBS’ margin over ABC came from having 60% more viewers 55 and older.

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Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (Oct. 3-9) as compiled by Nielsen Media Research. They are based on the average number or 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 Network Viewers 1 CSI CBS 28.85 2 Desperate Housewives (Sun.) ABC 26.06 3 Lost (Wed.) ABC 22.38 4 Without a Trace CBS 21.25 5 CSI: Miami CBS 18.67

6 Grey’s Anatomy ABC 18.12 7 Survivor: Guatemala CBS 17.92 8 Commander in Chief ABC 16.94 9 NCIS CBS 16.87 10 Law & Order: SVU NBC 16.24

11 Cold Case CBS 15.88 12 Monday Night Football ABC 15.61 13 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition ABC 15.31 14 Fox NFL Sunday, Postgame FOX 14.94 15 CSI: NY CBS 14.57

16 Two and a Half Men CBS 14.21 17 ER NBC 14.15 18 Las Vegas NBC 13.64 19 My Name Is Earl (Tue.) NBC 13.23 20 Crossing Jordan NBC 12.90

21 Medium NBC 12.89 Law & Order: Criminal Intent (Sun.) NBC 12.89 23 Law & Order NBC 12.59 24 AL Division Playoff: Game 4: Angels-Yankees FOX 12.56 25 NFL Monday Showcase ABC 12.16

26 Criminal Minds CBS 11.98 27 Boston Legal ABC 11.76 28 Out of Practice CBS 11.73 29 Numb3rs CBS 11.40 30 Invasion (Wed.) ABC 11.38

31 60 Minutes CBS 11.27 32 Amazing Race 8 CBS 11.25 33 The OT (football postgame) FOX 11.11 34 Ghost Whisperer CBS 11.07 35 How I Met Your Mother CBS 10.44

36 Close to Home CBS 10.43 37 King of Queens CBS 10.31 38 Crimetime Saturday (9 p.m.) CBS 9.95 39 Apprentice 4 NBC 9.90 40 Surface NBC 9.50

41 Prison Break FOX 9.48 42 George Lopez ABC 9.13 43 AL Division Playoff: Game 1: Angels-Yankees FOX 8.98 44 America’s Funniest Home Videos ABC 8.97 45 48 Hours Mystery CBS 8.68

46 20/20 ABC 8.54 47 E-Ring NBC 8.51 48 Will & Grace NBC 8.44 49 Biggest Loser 2 NBC 8.36 50 Office NBC 8.27

51 Threshold CBS 8.25 52 So You Think You Can Dance FOX 8.20 53 “Hunt for the BTK Killer” CBS 8.04 54 According to Jim ABC 8.03 55 Law & Order: SVU (Sat.) NBC 8.01

56 West Wing NBC 7.95 57 Dateline NBC (Sun.) NBC 7.78 58 NL Division Playoff: Game 2: Astros-Braves FOX 7.67 59 Rodney ABC 7.49 60 Nanny 911 FOX 7.44

61 Alias ABC 7.39 62 Law & Order: Criminal Intent (Fri.) NBC 7.19 63 Joey NBC 7.18 64 Wife Swap ABC 7.14 65 Still Standing CBS 6.98

66 Three Wishes NBC 6.89 Crimetime Saturday (8 p.m) CBS 6.89 68 “Yes, Dear” CBS 6.79 69 NL Division Playoff: Game 3: Astros-Braves FOX 6.41 70 Apprentice: Martha NBC 6.34

71 My Name Is Earl (Sat., 9:30 p.m.) NBC 6.24 72 Hot Properties ABC 6.05 73 My Name Is Earl (Sat., 9 p.m.) NBC 6.00 74 Gilmore Girls WB 5.96

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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 12.80 12.74

ABC 10.85 11.39

NBC 9.67 9.55

FOX 8.40 7.52

WB 3.84 3.53

UPN 3.32 3.64

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