CBS experiences March gladness

Less basketball meant more viewers and a third consecutive weekly ratings victory for CBS, according to figures released Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research.

With regular programming preempted just one night between March 27 and Sunday for coverage of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament, CBS averaged 12.91 million viewers. That’s 7% more than the 12.1 million it averaged the previous two weeks when regular programming was preempted three nights each week.

The gain was especially pronounced on Thursday when CBS averaged 20.03 million viewers with its regular lineup of “Survivor,” “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” and “Without a Trace” -- 76% more than the 11.37 million its basketball coverage averaged.

Thanks to 1-2 finishes for the Tuesday and Wednesday “American Idol” broadcasts and viewers staying tuned to “House” and “Unan1mous” afterward, Fox was second for the week, averaging 10.44 million viewers.

HBO’s “The Sopranos” was the week’s most-watched cable program with 8.83 million viewers, which would have put it 46th for the week among the programs on the six major broadcast networks.

Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (March 27-April 2) 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 Ameri FOX 31.71 can Idol (Tue. ) 2 American Idol (Wed.) FOX 27.66 3 CSI CBS 25.23 4 Grey’s Anatomy ABC 22.35 5 Desperate Housewives ABC 21.82

6 House FOX 21.44 7 Without a Trace CBS 18.48 8 CSI: Miami CBS 16.46 9 Survivor: Panama, Exile CBS 16.25 Island. 10 Deal or No Deal (Mon.) NBC 16.24

11 Deal or No Deal (Wed.) NBC 16.21 12 Lost (Wed.) ABC 16.20 13 The Unit CBS 16.08 14 CSI: NY (Wed.) CBS 14.81 15 Unan1mous FOX 14.59

16 24 FOX 14.50 17 Law & Order: SVU NBC 14.24 18 Two and a Half Men CBS 13.86 19 Extreme Makeover: Home ABC 13.48 Edition (8 p.m.) 20 Deal or No Deal (Fri.) NBC 13.38

21 NCIS CBS 13.35 22 “NCAA Basketball” (Sat.) CBS 13.14 23 “NCAA Post-Game” (Sat.) CBS 12.84 24 ER NBC 12.78 25 Criminal Minds CBS 12.54

26 Cold Case (8 p.m.) CBS 12.27 27 Numb3rs CBS 12.09 28 60 Minutes CBS 12.05 29 Old Christine CBS 11.96 30 Bones FOX 11.24

31 Close to Home CBS 10.35 32 Ghost Whisperer CBS 10.22 33 Prison Break FOX 10.07 34 Supernanny ABC 10.02 35 My Name Is Earl (9 p.m.) NBC 9.90

36 Apprentice 5 NBC 9.75 37 Boston Legal ABC 9.64 38 Cold Case (9 p.m.) CBS 9.50 39 Will & Grace NBC 9.38 40 Law & Order (Wed.) NBC 9.35

41 Las Vegas NBC 9.33 42 American Inventor ABC 9.29 43 Amazing Race 9 CBS 9.16 44 Wife Swap ABC 9.00 45 Law & Order: SVU (Sat.) NBC 8.87

46 Miracle Workers ABC 8.76 47 My Name Is Earl (8:30 NBC 8.25 p.m.) 48 King of Queens CBS 8.15 49 Extreme Makeover: Home ABC 7.86 Edition (7 p.m.) 50 The Office NBC 7.85

51 The Simpsons FOX 7.84 52 The Evidence ABC 7.71 53 How I Met Your Mother CBS 7.68 54 Dateline: NBC (Sat.) NBC 7.67 CSI: NY (Sun.) CBS 7.67

56 Conviction (Fri.) NBC 7.63 57 Crossing Jordan NBC 7.51 58 Law & Order: Criminal NBC 7.47 Intent 59 Extreme Makeover: After ABC 7.43 the Storm 60 Heist (Wed.) NBC 7.33

61 The West Wing NBC 7.27 62 20/20 ABC 6.91 63 Conviction (Sat.) NBC 6.76 64 Scrubs (9 p.m.) NBC 6.75 65 Teachers NBC 6.71

66 George Lopez ABC 6.63 67 Primetime ABC 6.49 68 Freddie ABC 6.43 69 Family Guy FOX 6.29 70 Cops (8:30 p.m.) FOX 6.28

71 America’s Funniest Home ABC 6.22 Videos (Fri.) 72 America’s Most Wanted FOX 6.10 73 Heist (Mon.) NBC 5.98 74 Courting Alex CBS 5.97 75 Out of Practice CBS 5.94

76 Dateline: NBC (Sun.) NBC 5.93 77 Hope and Faith ABC 5.86 78 According to Jim ABC 5.81 79 The Loop (Sun.) FOX 5.75 80 In Justice ABC 5.52

81 Cops (8 p.m.) FOX 5.51 82 The O.C. FOX 5.50 83 Trading Spouses FOX 5.33 84 Sons & Daughters (Tue.) ABC 4.89 85 Alborada (Thu.) UNI 4.87

86 America’s Next Top Model UPN 4.85 6 (Wed.) That ‘70s Show FOX 4.85 88 Smallville WB 4.78 89 Most Outrageous Moments NBC 4.74 90 Alborada (Wed.) UNI 4.70

91 Sons & Daughters (Thu.) ABC 4.63 Alborada (Tue.) UNI 4.63 93 Bailando por un Sueno UNI 4.56 94 King of the Hill FOX 4.45 95 Alborada (Mon.) UNI 4.44

96 Barrera de Amor (Wed.) UNI 4.27 97 Free Ride FOX 4.13 98 The Loop FOX 4.03 99 Barrera de Amor (Thu.) UNI 3.96 100 Scrubs (8:30 p.m.) NBC 3.87

101 WWE Smackdown! UPN 3.85 102 Barrera de Amor (Tue.) UNI 3.83 103 Barrera de Amor (Mon.) UNI 3.80 “Selena Vive” UNI 3.80 105 “Rocio Durcal UNI 3.77 Inolvidable”

106 Supernatural WB 3.76 107 Malcolm in the Middle FOX 3.74 108 Everwood (8 p.m.) WB 3.58 109 “The Ring” ABC 3.55 110 Girlfriends UPN 3.54

111 Everwood (9 p.m.) WB 3.52 112 Peregrina (Wed.) UNI 3.42 Peregrina (Mon.) UNI 3.42 114 Half and Half UPN 3.31 115 Peregrina (Tue.) UNI 3.29

116 Bernie Mac (8:30 p.m.) FOX 3.09 Don Francisco Presenta UNI 3.09 118 Bernie Mac (8 p.m.) FOX 3.08 119 All of Us UPN 3.07 120 Lost (Sat.) ABC 3.06

121 Peregrina (Thu.) UNI 3.03 122 Peregrina (Fri.) UNI 2.96 Aqui y Ahora (Thu.) UNI 2.96 124 Everybody Hates Chris UPN 2.89 125 Cristina (Mon.) UNI 2.87

126 One Tree Hill WB 2.83 127 One on One UPN 2.82 128 Reba (Fri.) WB 2.79 129 Sabado Gigante UNI 2.51 130 Gilmore Girls (8 p.m.) WB 2.48

131 Gilmore Girls (9 p.m.) WB 2.45 132 America’s Next Top Model UPN 2.37 6 (Tue.) 133 Veronica Mars (Wed.) UPN 2.15 Charmed (9 p.m.) WB 2.15 135 Reba (Sun, 7:30 p.m.) WB 2.14

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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 12.91 12.65

FOX 10.44 9.76

NBC 9.22 9.93

ABC 8.92 11.27

UNI 3.70 3.98

UPN 2.86 3.19

WB 2.77 3.17

TEL 0.93 1.04

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