ABC leaps out of starting gate, but CBS leads

Viewers flocked to old favorites “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” and “Desperate Housewives” and tried out new fare “My Name Is Earl” and “Everybody Hates Chris” in the first week of television’s new season.

The season began like the old one left off: ABC is hot, NBC is not and CBS remains the nation’s most popular network.

Intense interest in “Desperate Housewives” (28.4 million viewers) and “Lost” (23.5 million) led ABC to its best first-week performance in five years. It was the first time since 1995 that ABC won the first week among the 18-to-49-year-old demographic most important to advertisers, according to figures released Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research.

ABC had five of the week’s 10 most popular programs.

CBS is still the top network, but, like NBC, its household ratings were down 7% compared with the first week of last year’s season. CBS’ Monday lineup lost potency with the end of “Everybody Loves Raymond,” while “Survivor” hasn’t started out as strong as in years past.

Analysts cautioned against reading too much into one week of numbers. “You can have all the buzz in the world, and all that is going to do is get viewers to episode one,” said Steve Sternberg, an analyst for the ad buying firm Magna Global. “Now a show is going to have to live and die on its own.”

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Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (Sept. 19-25) 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 CSI CBS 29.02 2 Desperate Housewives ABC 28.36 3 Lost ABC 23.47 4 Criminal Minds CBS 19.57 5 CSI: Miami CBS 19.21

6 Grey’s Anatomy ABC 18.98 7 Survivor: Guatemala CBS 16.98 8 Law & Order: SVU NBC 16.82 9 Invasion ABC 16.43 10 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (8 p.m.) ABC 16.41

11 60 Minutes CBS 16.35 12 Monday Night Football (6 p.m.) ABC 16.10 13 NCIS CBS 15.47 14 “Destination Lost” ABC 15.27 15 My Name Is Earl NBC 15.25

16 Two and a Half Men CBS 15.04 17 Monday Showcase ABC 14.83 18 ER NBC 14.37 19 Cold Case CBS 13.68 20 House FOX 13.64

21 Monday Night Football (4:30 p.m.) ABC 13.63 22 Out of Practice CBS 13.18 23 Crossing Jordan NBC 13.08 24 Law & Order NBC 13.03 25 Medium NBC 12.69

26 Las Vegas NBC 12.49 27 Ghost Whisperer CBS 11.25 28 Surface NBC 11.18 Numb3rs CBS 11.18 30 How I Met Your Mother CBS 10.94

31 “Dancing With the Stars: Dance-Off” ABC 10.91 32 CSI (Wed.) CBS 10.75 33 King of Queens CBS 10.74 34 Law & Order: Criminal Intent NBC 10.72 35 “Dancing With the Stars: Results” ABC 10.48

36 The Simpsons FOX 10.46 37 Apprentice 4 NBC 9.94 38 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (7 p.m.) ABC 9.37 39 E-Ring NBC 9.11 40 Office NBC 9.00

41 The West Wing NBC 8.90 42 Family Guy FOX 8.68 43 Threshold CBS 8.60 44 20/20 (Fri.) ABC 8.51 45 Crimetime Saturday CBS 8.50

46 Dateline: NBC (Fri.) NBC 8.49 47 Three Wishes NBC 8.40 48 War at Home FOX 8.17 49 Big Brother 6 (Tue.) CBS 8.15 50 According to Jim ABC 8.10

51 “Dancing With the Stars: Dance Special” ABC 8.02 52 Dateline: NBC (Sun.) NBC 7.97 53 Prison Break FOX 7.96 54 Biggest Loser 2 NBC 7.93 55 Rock Star: INXS (Tue.) CBS 7.83

56 Joey NBC 7.80 57 Everybody Hates Chris UPN 7.78 58 American Dad FOX 7.63 59 Primetime ABC 7.54 60 “Martha Behind Bars” CBS 7.49

61 48 Hours Mystery CBS 7.47 62 Law & Order: SVU (Sat.) NBC 7.41 63 Bones FOX 7.39 64 Crimetime Saturday (8 p.m.) CBS 7.21 65 Yes, Dear CBS 7.19

66 Apprentice: Martha NBC 7.06 67 Still Standing CBS 6.91 68 Wife Swap ABC 6.85 69 Supernanny (9 p.m.) ABC 6.62 70 The O.C. FOX 6.45

71 Inconceivable NBC 6.27 72 Cops (8:30) FOX 6.23 73 So You Think You Can Dance FOX 6.09 74 America’s Most Wanted FOX 6.07 75 “Shrek” NBC 5.92

76 Gilmore Girls WB 5.79 77 King of the Hill FOX 5.65 78 Supernanny (8 p.m.) ABC 5.49 79 7th Heaven WB 5.42 80 Cops FOX 5.32

81 Reunion FOX 5.19 82 Killer Instinct FOX 5.17 83 Supernatural WB 5.01 84 “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” ABC 4.86 85 America’s Next Top Model 5 UPN 4.77

86 Arrested Development FOX 4.62 87 Love Inc. UPN 4.61 88 Kitchen Confidential FOX 4.33 89 Charmed WB 4.27 90 All of Us UPN 4.25

91 Girlfriends UPN 4.19 92 “R U the Girl: Finale” UPN 4.09 93 Bernie Mac (8:30 p.m.) FOX 3.95 94 Reba (Fri.) WB 3.88 95 Half and Half UPN 3.86

96 The Simpsons (7 p.m.) FOX 3.80 97 WWE Smackdown! UPN 3.71 98 One on One UPN 3.52 99 Bernie Mac (8 p.m.) FOX 3.48 100 Just Legal (Mon.) WB 3.44

101 Eve UPN 3.43 102 America’s Next Top Model 4 UPN 3.21 103 Living With Fran WB 3.21 104 Head Cases FOX 3.07 105 Smallville WB 2.87

106 Cuts UPN 2.77 107 Blue Collar TV (9 p.m.) WB 2.53 108 Twins (Fri.) WB 2.48 109 Reba (Sun., 7:30 p.m.) WB 2.47 110 Blue Collar TV (9:30 p.m.) WB 2.32

111 What I Like About You WB 2.18 112 Reba (Sun., 7 p.m.) WB 1.91 113 Twins (Thu.) WB 1.67 114 Just Legal (Wed.) WB 1.57 115 One Tree Hill WB 1.54

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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 12.85 12.85

ABC 12.29 12.29

NBC 9.90 9.90

FOX 6.48 6.48

UPN 4.15 4.15

WB 3.28 3.28

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