Hurricane benefit draws most viewers

Friday’s Hurricane Katrina benefit, “Shelter From the Storm: A Concert for the Gulf Coast,” was the most-watched prime-time program of the week, according to Nielsen Media Research, but it was seen by fewer than 24 million viewers, despite being shown on 29 channels. The program was not listed in the weekly rankings because Nielsen doesn’t rank shows without commercials.

The figure was less than one-third of the 89 million people who watched the benefit “America: A Tribute to Heroes,” which ran shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, according to Nielsen.

It’s also fewer than the number of people who typically tune in to a new episode of “American Idol” or “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.”

The concert, with Paul Simon, Mariah Carey, Kanye West and others, competed against a longer benefit on BET at the same time. BET got 1.2 million viewers, Nielsen said.

ABC took advantage of the start of the National Football League season and some attractive college football matchups to win the week, averaging 8.3 million viewers. Excluding “Shelter From the Storm,” its coverage of Thursday’s NFL season opener between the New England Patriots and the Oakland Raiders was listed as the most-watched program from Sept. 5 through Sunday.

The game attracted 18 million viewers, 7% more than the 16.9 million who watched the 2004 season opener between the Patriots and Indianapolis Colts.

CBS had about 7.5 million viewers, Fox had 7.4 million and NBC had 6.3 million. The WB and UPN both had 2.2 million, and Pax TV had 740,000.

Evening news ratings were still up for ABC and NBC but scaled back from last week’s intensive hurricane coverage. NBC’s “Nightly News” won, averaging 9.3 million viewers. ABC’s “World News Tonight” had 8.9 million viewers, and the “CBS Evening News” had 6.4 million.

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*--* Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (Sept. 5-11) 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

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*--* 1 “NFL Football” ABC 18.01 2 “2005 NFL Showcase” ABC 16.02 3 CSI CBS 12.85 4 60 Minutes CBS 11.68 5 “NFL Overtime” FOX 11.54

6 CSI: Miami CBS 11.34 7 Without a Trace CBS 11.22 Two and a Half Men (9:30 p.m.) CBS 11.22 9 The Simpsons FOX 11.10 10 Two and a Half Men CBS 10.46

11 Cold Case CBS 10.04 12 “College Football” (Sat.) ABC 9.93 13 “College Football (Mon.) ABC 9.66 14 Law & Order (9 p.m.) NBC 9.18 15 Family Guy FOX 9.13

16 The War at Home FOX 8.71 17 Law & Order (10 p.m.) NBC 8.65 18 Law & Order: SVU NBC 8.54 19 Prison Break (Mon.) FOX 8.49 20 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (9 p.m.) ABC 8.27

21 CSI: NY CBS 8.26 22 Crossing Jordan NBC 8.21 23 Dateline: NBC (Mon.) NBC 8.16 24 Big Brother 6 (Tue.) CBS 8.08 25 Law & Order: Criminal Intent NBC 8.05

26 Dateline: NBC (Fri.) NBC 7.99 27 “48 Hours: Disaster in the Delta” CBS 7.92 28 American Dad FOX 7.83 29 So You Think You Can Dance FOX 7.74 30 Everybody Loves Raymond CBS 7.62

31 The O.C. FOX 7.50 32 Big Brother 6 (Thu.) CBS 7.48 33 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (8 p.m.) ABC 7.41 34 “NFL Opening Kickoff 2005” ABC 7.32 35 Dateline: NBC (Tue.) NBC 7.01

36 “Ocean’s Eleven” CBS 6.93 37 Reunion (Thu.) FOX 6.63 38 King of Queens CBS 6.56 39 Rodney (9:30 p.m.) ABC 6.52 40 Desperate Housewives ABC 6.45

41 George Lopez (8:30 p.m.) ABC 6.40 42 According to Jim (9 p.m.) ABC 6.38 43 House FOX 6.26 44 America’s Funniest Home Videos ABC 6.23 45 20/20 ABC 6.22

46 George Lopez (8 p.m.) ABC 6.11 47 Prison Break (Tue.) FOX 6.04 48 Rock Star: INXS (Wed.) CBS 5.97 49 Rock Star: INXS (Tue.) CBS 5.95 50 Big Brother 6 (Sat.) CBS 5.83

Nanny 911 FOX 5.83 52 According to Jim (8 p.m.) ABC 5.82 53 America’s Most Wanted FOX 5.70 54 Dateline: NBC (Sun.) NBC 5.68 55 “Saturday Night Live: The First Five Years” NBC 5.52

56 “Most Outrageous Moments” NBC 5.44 57 Joey NBC 5.33 58 Will & Grace NBC 5.29 59 Rodney (8:30 p.m.) ABC 5.27 60 Boston Legal ABC 5.22

61 Medium NBC 5.18 62 Lost (9 p.m.) ABC 5.07 63 Cops 2 FOX 5.06 64 Lost (10 p.m.) ABC 5.04 65 Las Vegas NBC 5.00

66 Scrubs (9 p.m.) NBC 4.50 67 Bernie Mac FOX 4.49 68 ER NBC 4.48 69 Scrubs (9:30 p.m.) NBC 4.25 70 Cops FOX 4.19

71 Meet Mr. Mom NBC 4.08 72 “U.S. Open Tennis” (Sat.) CBS 4.06 73 “Fashion Rocks!” CBS 4.03 74 Tommy Lee Goes to College NBC 3.99 75 “Cut Finale” CBS 3.92

76 The West Wing NBC 3.35 77 Less Than Perfect ABC 3.34 78 Gilmore Girls (9 p.m.) WB 3.16 79 Hope & Faith ABC 3.10 80 Office NBC 2.95

81 WWE Smackdown! UPN 2.86 82 R U The Girl: T-Boz & Chilli (Wed.) UPN 2.76 83 Gilmore Girls (8 p.m.) WB 2.60 84 “Save the Last Dance” WB 2.54 85 R U The Girl: T-Boz & Chilli (Tue.) UPN 2.44

86 Half and Half (Tue.) UPN 2.39 87 7th Heaven (8 p.m.) WB 2.35 88 7th Heaven (9 p.m.) WB 2.31 89 Girlfriends (Tue.) UPN 2.29 90 Smallville (Thu.) WB 2.27

91 Veronica Mars UPN 2.15 92 Girlfriends (Mon.) UPN 2.05 93 Eve (8:30 p.m.) UPN 1.98 Eve (8 p.m.) UPN 1.98 95 Smallville (Wed.) WB 1.80

96 Half and Half (Mon.) UPN 1.78 97 Everwood WB 1.74 98 All of Us UPN 1.71 Reunion (Fri.) FOX 1.71 100 Reba WB 1.70

101 Cuts (9:30 p.m.) UPN 1.65 102 Cuts (9 p.m.) UPN 1.64 103 Charmed WB 1.58 104 One on One UPN 1.57 105 One Tree Hill WB 1.48

106 What I Like About You WB 1.45

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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 ABC 8.30 8.85

CBS 7.45 11.25

FOX 7.35 8.62

NBC 6.25 8.63

UPN 2.19 3.12

WB 2.16 2.93

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