CBS closes summer in top spot

The Emmys and the start of a new “Survivor” edition helped CBS end the summer in a familiar locale -- first place in the ratings.

TV’s fall season officially began Monday, although a few programs have jumped the gun.

For the second consecutive week, an ABC football telecast was the week’s most-watched program. The “Monday Night Football” game between the Atlanta Falcons and Philadelphia Eagles drew 19.6 million viewers.

Sunday’s 57th annual prime-time Emmy Awards on CBS attracted 18.7 million viewers, up 36% from last year to make it the most-watched Emmy telecast since 2002, when 20 million viewers tuned in.

Although it was the third most-watched show of the week, the start of a new “Survivor” edition had a slightly smaller audience than the series has reached lately.

Fox’s “Bones” was last week’s most-watched series premiere with 10.8 million viewers, good enough to make the Top 10.

The CBS science-fiction series “Threshold” also had a winning debut as Friday’s most-watched program with 8.6 million viewers, tying for 20th with CBS’ “NCIS.”

Most television executives are reserving judgment, however, until seeing how these early starters do against first-run competition.

NBC’s “Nightly News” won the evening news ratings race, averaging 9.3 million viewers. ABC’s “World News Tonight” had 8.9 million viewers and the “CBS Evening News” 6.4 million.

*

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Prime-time TV rankings

Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (Sept. 12-18) 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 Network Viewers 1 Monday Night Football ABC 19.59 2 Emmy Awards CBS 18.63 3 Survivor: Guatemala CBS 18.41 4 House FOX 15.90 5 NFL Monday Showcase ABC 14.92

6 CSI CBS 14.48 7 NFL Postgame Show CBS 14.36 8 CSI (10:30 p.m.) CBS 13.02 9 Two and a Half Men (9:30 p.m.) CBS 10.86 10 Bones FOX 10.78

11 CSI: Miami CBS 10.65 12 Law & Order: SVU NBC 10.54 13 Two and a Half Men CBS 10.50 14 The Simpsons FOX 9.99 15 Law & Order NBC 9.76

16 Family Guy FOX 9.59 17 Law & Order: Criminal Intent (Wed.) NBC 9.29 18 Prison Break FOX 9.14 19 War at Home FOX 8.61 20 Threshold CBS 8.60

NCIS CBS 8.60 22 American Dad FOX 8.59 23 Dateline NBC (Fri.) NBC 8.50 24 Dateline NBC (Sun.) NBC 8.41 25 Everybody Loves Raymond CBS 8.20

26 CSI: NY CBS 8.18 27 Law & Orders: SVU (Fri.) NBC 8.14 28 So You Think You Can Dance FOX 8.11 29 Big Brother 6 (Tue.) CBS 7.85 30 Biggest Loser 2 NBC 7.79

31 King of Queens CBS 7.78 32 Crossing Jordan NBC 7.62 33 Law & Order: Criminal Intent NBC 7.36 34 America’s Most Wanted FOX 7.24 35 Medium NBC 7.23

36 King of the Hill FOX 7.14 37 “Most Outrageous Moments on TV” NBC 7.02 Lost ABC 7.02 39 Big Brother 6 (Fri.) CBS 6.94 40 Primetime ABC 6.83

41 “Pearl Harbor” ABC 6.72 42 News Analysis ABC 6.68 Wife Swap ABC 6.68 44 Rock Star: INXS (Wed.) CBS 6.67 45 Cops (8:30 p.m.) FOX 6.58

46 Primetime (9:15 p.m.) ABC 6.49 47 College Football (Sat.) CBS 6.35 48 Head Cases FOX 6.23 49 Gilmore Girls WB 6.22 50 The O.C. FOX 6.21

51 Law & Order (Sat.) NBC 6.20 52 20/20 (Fri.) ABC 6.14 53 Las Vegas NBC 6.02 54 George Lopez (8:30 p.m.) ABC 5.81 55 Rock Star: INXS (Tue.) CBS 5.80

The Simpsons (7:30 p.m.) FOX 5.81 57 “Most Outrageous Moments on TV” (Mon.) NBC 5.78 58 Supernatural WB 5.68 59 “Armageddon” ABC 5.66 60 Cops FOX 5.46

61 According to Jim ABC 5.41 62 George Lopez ABC 5.26 63 Rodney (8:30 p.m.) ABC 5.24 64 Prison Break (Mon.) FOX 5.21 Joey NBC 5.21

66 World Music Awards ABC 5.17 67 Will & Grace NBC 4.69 68 “Most Outrageous Moments on TV (Sat.) NBC 4.55 69 CBS Sneak Peeks CBS 4.51 70 Tommy Lee Goes to College NBC 4.41

71 Supernanny ABC 4.35 72 ER NBC 4.30 73 Scrubbs (9:30 p.m.) NBC 4.29 74 Yes, Dear CBS 4.27 75 Reba WB 4.26

76 Bones (Fri.) FOX 4.22 77 The West Wing (Sun.) NBC 4.05 78 Biggest Loser 2 (Sat.) NBC 4.04 79 War at Home (Thu.) FOX 3.83 80 WWE Smackdown! UPN 3.46

81 Supernatural (Thu.) WB 3.37 82 “Lord of the Rings: Two Towers” WB 3.36 83 Twins WB 3.32 84 Living With Fran WB 3.27 85 The Simpsons (7 p.m.) FOX 3.24

86 Hope & Faith ABC 3.14 87 R U the Girl: Tboz and Chili UPN 2.98 88 Less Than Perfect ABC 2.95 89 Reunion (Fri.) FOX 2.91 90 What I Like About You WB 2.86

91 Girlfriends UPN 2.83 92 Smallville (Thu.) WB 2.81 93 Half and Half UPN 2.55 94 7th Heaven WB 2.53 95 All of Us UPN 2.50

96 7th Heaven (9 p.m.) UPN 2.46 97 One on One UPN 2.39 98 Girlfriends (Tue.) UPN 2.37 99 Cuts (Thu.) UPN 2.14 100 Eve UPN 2.11

Veronica Mars UPN 2.11 Cuts UPN 2.11 103 Smallville (Wed.) WB 2.07 104 Half and Half (Tue.) UPN 2.03 105 R U the Girl (Tue.) UPN 2.00

106 Eve (Thu.) UPN 1.98 107 One Tree Hill WB 1.50

*--*

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 10.49 11.24

ABC 7.31 8.83

FOX 7.49 8.60

NBC 6.89 8.60

WB 3.37 2.94

UPN 2.55 2.81

*--*