CBS scores fourth straight win

Television’s split viewership pattern continued last week, with CBS finishing first among all viewers and Fox Broadcasting winning among young adults, according to figures released Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research.

CBS averaged 12.4 million viewers between April 3 and Sunday for its fourth consecutive weekly victory. Fox was second, with 9.92 million. Fox’s Tuesday and Wednesday “American Idol” had another 1-2 finish for the week, while its Peabody Award-winning medical drama “House” finished fourth for the week with a series-high 22.71 million viewers.

NBC became the first network to draw more viewers than CBS on the night of an NCAA men’s basketball championship game since Nielsen began using the People Meter in September 1987 to get more specific viewership figures.

A two-hour version of the game show “Deal or No Deal” averaged a record 17.75 million viewers and drew more viewers than the opening 45 minutes of CBS’ telecast of Florida’s victory over UCLA. The game was watched by an average of 17.54 million, the second lowest since figures began being kept in 1975.

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Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (April 3-9) 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 American Idol (Tue.) FOX 28.83 2 American Idol (Wed.) FOX 26.23 3 CSI CBS 23.33 4 House FOX 22.71 5 Deal or No Deal (Mon.) NBC 17.75

6 NCAA Basketball Championship Final CBS 17.54 7 Lost ABC 16.38 8 Survivor: Panama, Exile Island CBS 16.36 9 NCIS CBS 15.52 10 The Unit CBS 15.44

11 Law & Order: SVU NBC 15.36 12 Without a Trace CBS 15.24 13 60 Minutes CBS 14.17 14 Unan1mous FOX 14.01 15 Deal or No Deal (Wed.) NBC 14.00

16 Numb3rs CBS 13.69 17 Grey’s Anatomy ABC 13.57 18 Cold Case CBS 13.22 19 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition ABC 13.20 20 24 FOX 12.47

21 Crossing Jordan NBC 11.44 22 CSI: NY CBS 11.14 23 Close to Home CBS 10.85 24 Law & Order NBC 10.84 25 Ghost Whisperer CBS 10.69

26 Apprentice 5 NBC 10.21 My Name Is Earl (9 p.m.) NBC 10.21 28 Bones FOX 10.14 29 “Prelude to a Championship” CBS 10.02 30 Law & Order: Criminal Intent (Sun.) NBC 10.00

31 Two and a Half Men CBS 9.86 32 Criminal Minds CBS 9.49 33 Supernanny ABC 9.46 34 CSI: Miami CBS 9.43 35 American Inventor ABC 9.22

36 ER NBC 8.77 37 America’s Funniest Home Videos (Fri., 9 p.m.) ABC 8.61 38 Las Vegas NBC 8.52 39 Crimetime Saturday (9 p.m.) CBS 8.46 40 The West Wing NBC 8.39

41 48 Hours Mystery CBS 8.31 42 20/20 ABC 8.28 Old Christine CBS 8.28 44 America’s Funniest Home Videos (Fri., 8 p.m.) ABC 8.27 The Simpsons FOX 8.27

46 Primetime ABC 8.24 47 Will & Grace NBC 8.21 48 Amazing Race 9 CBS 8.15 49 Prison Break FOX 8.10 50 My Name Is Earl (8:30 p.m.) NBC 7.88

51 Family Guy FOX 7.83 52 America’s Funniest Home Videos (Sun.) ABC 7.79 53 The Evidence ABC 7.73 54 “Robert Ludlum’s Covert One,” Part 1 CBS 7.69 55 Teachers 4 (Thu.) NBC 7.40

56 Miracle Workers ABC 7.32 57 Dateline: NBC (Sun.) NBC 7.28 58 Dateline: NBC (Sat.) NBC 7.16 59 Wife Swap ABC 7.09 60 Extreme Makeover: After the Storm ABC 6.98

61 “Tim McGraw: Reflected” NBC 6.75 62 America’s Most Wanted FOX 6.65 63 Conviction (Fri.) NBC 6.62 64 Law & Order: Criminal Intent (Sat.) NBC 6.55 65 War at Home FOX 6.41

66 Boston Legal ABC 6.34 67 Scrubs (9 p.m.) NBC 6.23 68 Heist NBC 6.20 69 George Lopez ABC 6.06 70 Cops (8:30 p.m.) FOX 5.87

71 Freddie ABC 5.80 72 Crimetime Saturday (8 p.m.) CBS 5.75 73 Teachers (Tue.) NBC 5.61 74 America’s Next Top Model 6 (Wed.) UPN 5.10 75 Cops (8 p.m.) FOX 5.06

The O.C. FOX 5.06 77 Alborada (Mon.) UNI 4.83 78 Free Ride FOX 4.74 79 Most Outrageous Moments NBC 4.70 80 7th Heaven WB 4.61

81 According to Jim ABC 4.60 82 Bailando por un Sueno UNI 4.57 83 Alborada (Thu.) UNI 4.52 84 Alborada (Tue.) UNI 4.50 85 King of the Hill FOX 4.47

86 Gilmore Girls WB 4.46 87 Trading Spouses FOX 4.38 88 WWE Smackdown! UPN 4.30 89 Alborada (Wed.) UNI 4.28 90 Alborada (Fri.) UNI 4.25

91 Smallville WB 4.24 92 Hope and Faith ABC 4.19 93 That ‘70s Show FOX 4.15 94 Conviction (Sat.) NBC 4.01 95 Scrubs (8:30 p.m.) NBC 3.88

96 Everwood WB 3.77 97 Supernatural WB 3.67 Barrera de Amor (Mon.) UNI 3.67 99 “Minority Report” ABC 3.65 100 The Loop FOX 3.61

101 Barrera de Amor (Tue.) UNI 3.60 102 Malcolm in the Middle FOX 3.58 103 Peregrina (Mon.) UNI 3.57 104 Barrera de Amor (Wed.) UNI 3.37 105 Cristina (Mon.) UNI 3.36

106 Bernie Mac (8:30 p.m.) FOX 3.35 107 Aqui y Ahora (Thu.) UNI 3.31 Everybody Hates Chris UPN 3.31 109 Sons & Daughters (9 p.m.) ABC 3.28 110 Barrera de Amor (Fri.) UNI 3.24

111 Peregrina (Tue.) UNI 3.23 112 Bernie Mac (8 p.m.) FOX 3.21 All of Us UPN 3.21 114 Barrera de Amor (Thu.) UNI 3.20 115 Peregrina (Thu.) UNI 3.13

Sons & Daughters (9:30 p.m.) ABC 3.13 117 Peregrina (Fri.) UNI 3.11 118 Peregrina (Wed.) UNI 3.03 119 Girlfriends UPN 2.99 120 One Tree Hill WB 2.93 ul_dash> 121 Ver Para Creer UNI 2.89 122 Veronica Mars (Wed.) UPN 2.85 123 Reba (Sun., 7:30 p.m.) WB 2.78 124 Don Francisco Presenta UNI 2.75 125 Half and Half UPN 2.64

126 Pepper Dennis (Tue.) WB 2.61 127 Casos Vida UNI 2.56 128 One on One UPN 2.49 129 Charmed WB 2.38 130 Reba (Fri.) WB 2.37

131 Sabado Gigante UNI 2.34 132 Love Inc. UPN 2.22 133 Reba (Sun., 7 p.m) WB 2.10 134 Hora Pico UNI 2.05 135 Modern Men WB 1.80

136 Eve UPN 1.73 137 Cuts UPN 1.71 138 Bedford Diaries WB 1.69 139 Survival of the Richest WB 1.63 America’s Next Top Model 6 (Tue.) UPN 1.63

141 Pepper Dennis (Sun.) WB 1.59 142 Casos Familia UNI 1.29 143 Tierra de Pasiones (Tue.) TEL 1.19 144 Decisiones (Tue.) TEL 1.16 145 Tierra de Pasiones (Mon.) TEL 1.13

146 Tormenta (Mon.) TEL 1.11 147 Tierra de Pasiones (Thu.) TEL 1.08 148 Tierra de Pasiones (Wed.) TEL 1.05 Tormenta (Wed.) TEL 1.05 150 Decisiones (Fri.) TEL 1.02

151 Corazon Partido (Tue.) TEL 1.01 152 Veronica Mars (Tue.) UPN 0.99 153 Tormenta (Tue.) TEL 0.98 Decisiones (Mon.) TEL 0.98 155 Decisiones (Wed.) TEL 0.97

156 Tierra de Pasiones (Fri.) TEL 0.93 157 Tormenta (Fri.) TEL 0.92 158 Tormenta (Thu.) TEL 0.89 159 Decisiones Extra (Tue.) TEL 0.86 160 Corazon Partido (Wed.) TEL 0.82

161 Corazon Partido (Thu.) TEL 0.81 162 Corazon Partido (Mon.) TEL 0.76 163 Decisiones (Thu.) TEL 0.73

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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 12.40 12.64

FOX 9.92 9.77

NBC 9.32 9.91

ABC 8.08 11.16

UNI 3.52 3.95

UPN 2.93 3.18

WB 2.93 3.17

TEL 0.79 1.01

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