Viewers flock to Katrina news

Television news ratings soared last week as the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina unfolded on the air, with NBC’s Brian Williams a prime beneficiary.

The Williams-narrated “Dateline NBC” midweek special was the most-watched program on prime-time television.

Three other prime-time network news specials on the hurricane on NBC, ABC and CBS were among Nielsen Media Research’s top 15 programs.

Williams spent the week in New Orleans, and his “Nightly News” averaged 10.6 million viewers. That was 31% more than the previous week, and enough to have put the nightly news in Nielsen’s top 10 if it had been a prime-time program.

ABC’s “World News Tonight” and the “CBS Evening News” also gained viewers from the previous week, 21% and 20% respectively.

But those broadcasts have yet to name permanent successors to Peter Jennings and Dan Rather, so not having the network’s clearly identified top newsperson on the scene might have hurt them competitively. NBC’s margin over second-place ABC was 1.1 million, for example, up from 300,000 the week before, Nielsen said.

Ratings for the cable news networks also spiked, typical for big events. Fox News Channel averaged 2.8 million viewers last week, up 184% from its average this year; CNN’s 2.1 million was up 325% and MSNBC’s 766,000 was up 250%.

In an otherwise lackluster week for prime time, CBS continued its summer domination with a 7.6-million viewership average. NBC had 6.1 million viewers, Fox 5.68 million viewers, ABC 5.67 million, UPN 2.4 million, the WB 1.9 million and Pax TV 640,000.

*

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (Aug. 29-Sept. 4) 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.

*--* Program Net- work View- ers Program Net- work View- ers

*--*

*--* 1 Dateline NBC (Wed.) NBC 12.18 2 CSI: Miami CBS 11.59 3 60 Minutes CBS 11.35 4 Two and a Half Men (9:30 p.m.) CBS 10.74 5 Dateline NBC (Fri.) NBC 10.72

6 Prison Break (Mon.) FOX 10.51 7 Two and a Half Men (9 p.m.) CBS 10.28 8 NCIS CBS 9.36 9 “ABC News Special” ABC 9.34 10 Law & Order NBC 9.21

11 CSI CBS 8.95 12 “Along Came a Spider” CBS 8.67 13 “NFL Preseason Football” ABC 8.63 14 California 500 NBC 8.45 15 48 Hours: Katrina’s Fury CBS 8.28

16 Big Brother 6 (Tue.) CBS 8.25 17 “Preseason Showcase” ABC 8.15 18 20/20 ABC 8.11 19 House (9 p.m.) FOX 8.01 20 Everybody Loves Raymond CBS 7.99

21 So You Think You Can Dance FOX 7.94 22 Cold Case CBS 7.91 23 Law & Order: SVU NBC 7.87 24 CSI: NY CBS 7.67 25 King of Queens CBS 7.54

26 Crimetime Saturday CBS 7.51 27 48 Hours Mystery CBS 7.28 28 Without a Trace CBS 6.91 29 Primetime ABC 6.83 30 Rock Star: INXS (Tue.) CBS 6.67

31 Big Brother 6 (Thu.) CBS 6.33 32 Rock Star: INXS (Wed.) CBS 6.32 33 Most Outrageous Moments (Tue.) NBC 6.05 34 Crossing Jordan NBC 6.04 35 So You Think You Can Dance Preshow FOX 5.87

Dateline: NBC (Thu.) NBC 5.87 37 Rodney ABC 5.83 38 George Lopez (8:30 p.m.) ABC 5.79 39 According to Jim (9 p.m.) ABC 5.78 40 George Lopez (8 p.m.) ABC 5.50

41 60 Minutes II CBS 5.48 42 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition ABC 5.45 43 House (8 p.m.) FOX 5.41 44 According to Jim (8 p.m.) ABC 5.38 45 Medium NBC 5.37

46 Cops (8:30 p.m.) FOX 5.23 47 Las Vegas NBC 5.20 48 Prison Break (Thu.) FOX 5.11 49 “NASCAR Tune-Up” NBC 5.08 50 American Dad FOX 5.04

51 Big Brother 6 (Sat.) CBS 4.94 Family Guy (9 p.m.) FOX 4.94 53 Boston Legal ABC 4.88 America’s Most Wanted FOX 4.88 55 Tommy Lee Goes to College NBC 4.81

56 Yes, Dear CBS 4.79 57 The Simpsons FOX 4.78 58 Family Guy (8:30 p.m.) FOX 4.71 59 “Shanghai Knights” ABC 4.64 60 Rodney ABC 4.61

61 Lost ABC 4.58 America’s Funniest Home Videos ABC 4.58 63 Bernie Mac (Wed.) FOX 4.50 64 Will & Grace NBC 4.49 65 ABC College Football ABC 4.45

66 Fear Factor NBC 4.44 67 Numb3rs CBS 4.22 68 Joey NBC 4.17 69 WWE Smackdown! UPN 4.13 70 Cops FOX 4.05

71 Desperate Housewives ABC 3.84 72 Supernanny ABC 3.77 73 Most Outrageous Moments (Sat.) NBC 3.68 74 Meet Mister Mom NBC 3.57 75 Scrubs NBC 3.52

76 California 300 NBC 3.41 77 Hope & Faith ABC 3.35 78 My Kind of Town ABC 3.28 79 Bernie Mac (Fri., 8:30 p.m.) FOX 3.05 80 The Cut CBS 3.04

Less Than Perfect ABC 3.04 82 King of the Hill FOX 2.96 83 Office NBC 2.93 84 R U The Girl: T-Boz & Chili (Wed.) UPN 2.81 Bernie Mac (Fri., 8 p.m.) FOX 2.81

86 Malcolm in the Middle FOX 2.78 87 Gilmore Girls (9 p.m.) WB 2.66 88 R U The Girl: T-Boz & Chilli (Tue.) UPN 2.58 89 Gilmore Girls (8 p.m.) WB 2.55 90 Eve UPN 2.49

91 7th Heaven WB 2.40 92 Arrested Development (9 p.m.) FOX 2.25 93 Girlfriends (Tue.) UPN 2.18 94 Smallville (Wed.) WB 2.13 95 Half and Half UPN 2.12

96 One on One UPN 2.11 Girlfriends (Mon.) UPN 2.11 “Final Destination 2” WB 2.11 99 All of Us UPN 2.02 100 Reba WB 1.98

101 Arrested Development (9:30 p.m.) FOX 1.95 102 Living With Fran WB 1.89 103 Veronica Mars UPN 1.74 104 Smallville (Thu.) WB 1.71 105 One Tree Hill WB 1.71

106 What I Like About You WB 1.67 107 Blue-Collar TV WB 1.52 108 Everwood WB 1.38 109 Summerland WB 1.25 110 Charmed WB 1.13

111 “The Real Cancun” UPN 1.05

*--*

*--* 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 7.55 11.33

NBC 6.11 8.68

FOX 5.68 8.65

ABC 5.65 8.87

UPN 2.40 3.14

WB 1.90 2.95

*--*