‘Commander in Chief’ sees its ratings support dwindle

“Commander in Chief’s” bid for a second term suffered a setback when its return to ABC last Thursday drew a series-low 8.21 million viewers, according to figures released Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research.

Viewership for the drama about the first female U.S. president did surpass the 7.3 million that “Primetime Live” had been averaging in the 10-11 p.m. Thursday period against CBS’ “Without a Trace,” the sixth-most-watched series this season. But it did slightly worse among viewers ages 18 to 49, the group targeted by ABC, with a 2.4 rating, compared with “Primetime Live’s” 2.5.

With each of its first four episodes drawing more than 16 million viewers, “Commander in Chief” seemed destined to be a hit. However, viewership began dropping in late October. The series is already on its third show runner, executive producer Dee Johnson.

No decision on “Commander in Chief’s” future is expected to be made until May, when ABC determines its 2006-07 schedule, a network executive said.

The premiere of ABC’s “What About Brian” also struggled, retaining just 62% of the “Desperate Housewives” audience of 20 million that preceded it, and finishing second in its 10 to 11 p.m. Sunday time period with 12.47 million viewers.

In a week with a heavy dose of reruns, CBS was the most-watched network, averaging 11.4 million viewers from April 10 to Sunday for its fifth consecutive weekly victory.

Fox led among viewers ages 18 to 49, the group it targets, for the eighth consecutive week, tying a record for the network.

With 7.94 million viewers, HBO’s “The Sopranos” was the week’s most-watched cable program, which would have put it 40th for the week among the programs on the six major broadcast networks.

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Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (April 10-16) 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 29.65 2 CSI (Thu.) CBS 24.42 3 American Idol (Wed.) FOX 22.64 4 House FOX 21.20 5 Desperate Housewives ABC 20.02

6 Without a Trace CBS 18.62 7 CSI: Miami CBS 17.16 8 Lost ABC 15.68 9 Survivor: Panama, Exile Island CBS 15.07 10 Deal or No Deal (Mon.) NBC 14.47

11 CSI: NY CBS 14.14 12 The Unit CBS 14.12 13 Two and a Half Men CBS 14.05 14 “The Ten Commandments,” Part 1 (Mon.) ABC 13.86 15 Cold Case CBS 13.64

16 Deal or No Deal (Wed.) NBC 13.12 17 Crossing Jordan NBC 12.61 18 24 FOX 12.49 19 CSI (Tue.) CBS 12.47 What About Brian ABC 12.47

21 Unan1mous FOX 12.22 22 “The Ten Commandments,” Part 2 (Tue.) ABC 12.02 23 Law & Order: Criminal Intent (Sun.) NBC 11.91 24 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition ABC 11.77 25 Criminal Minds CBS 11.76

26 Old Christine CBS 11.42 27 NCIS CBS 11.33 28 Deal or No Deal (Fri.) NBC 11.22 29 Numb3rs CBS 10.49 30 60 Minutes CBS 9.69

31 Apprentice 5 NBC 8.92 32 “The Ten Commandments” (Sat.) ABC 8.89 33 Close to Home CBS 8.61 34 Law & Order NBC 8.40 35 King of Queens CBS 8.35

36 The West Wing NBC 8.29 37 Commander in Chief ABC 8.20 38 Prison Break FOX 8.11 39 48 Hours Mystery CBS 8.00 40 How I Met Your Mother CBS 7.65

41 20/20 ABC 7.62 42 Amazing Race 9 CBS 7.54 43 Conviction 4 (Tue.) NBC 7.48 44 Crimetime Saturday (9 p.m.) CBS 7.37 45 Ghost Whisperer CBS 7.33

46 Wife Swap ABC 7.26 47 American Inventor (9 p.m.) ABC 7.20 48 Primetime ABC 7.04 49 My Name Is Earl (9 p.m.) NBC 6.93 50 America’s Funniest Home Videos ABC 6.90

51 George Lopez ABC 6.81 52 Las Vegas NBC 6.75 53 “Robert Ludlum’s Covert One,” Part 2 CBS 6.66 54 Conviction (Fri.) NBC 6.64 55 The Evidence ABC 6.42

56 Dateline: NBC (Sun.) NBC 6.33 57 Family Guy FOX 6.32 58 American Inventor (8 p.m.) ABC 6.23 59 My Name Is Earl (8:30 p.m.) NBC 6.14 60 America’s Most Wanted FOX 6.00

61 Scrubs (9 p.m.) NBC 5.92 62 Dateline: NBC (Sat.) NBC 5.90 63 ER NBC 5.85 64 Freddie ABC 5.84 65 The Simpsons FOX 5.77

66 Cops (8:30 p.m.) FOX 5.76 67 Law & Order: Criminal Intent (Sat.) NBC 5.72 68 Will & Grace NBC 5.69 69 “Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown” ABC 5.58 70 War at Home (9:30 p.m.) FOX 5.43

Office NBC 5.43 72 War at Home (8:30 p.m.) FOX 5.41 73 Heist NBC 5.27 74 The Loop (Wed.) FOX 5.20 75 Teachers NBC 5.19

76 7th Heaven WB 4.99 77 Hope and Faith ABC 4.90 Crimetime Saturday (8 p.m.) CBS 4.90 79 Alborada (Tue.) UNI 4.81 80 Alborada (Mon.) UNI 4.74

81 Most Outrageous Moments NBC 4.67 82 Cops (8 p.m.) FOX 4.60 83 Alborada (Thu.) UNI 4.54 84 Alborada (Wed.) UNI 4.50 85 America’s Next Top Model 6 UPN 4.40

86 The O.C. FOX 4.33 87 Bailando por un Sueno Sun UNI 4.15 88 Gilmore Girls WB 4.13 89 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition: After the Storm ABC 4.12 90 WWE Smackdown! UPN 4.06

91 Smallville WB 3.94 92 Trading Spouses FOX 3.82 93 That ‘70s Show FOX 3.72 94 Everwood WB 3.63 Barrera de Amor (Tue.) UNI 3.63

96 Supernatural WB 3.62 97 Barrera de Amor (Mon) UNI 3.59 98 Scrubs (8:30 p.m.) NBC 3.57 99 Cine Especial UNI 3.34 100 Aqui y Ahora (Thu.) UNI 3.31

101 Peregrina (Tue.) UNI 3.30 102 Barrera de Amor (Wed.) UNI 3.22 The Loop (Thu.) FOX 3.22 104 Peregrina (Mon.) UNI 3.20 105 King of the Hill FOX 3.19

106 Barrera de Amor (Thu.) UNI 3.17 107 Bernie Mac (8 p.m.) FOX 3.14 108 Bernie Mac (8:30 p.m.) FOX 3.13 109 Everybody Hates Chris UPN 3.10 110 Reba (Fri.) WB 3.03

111 Charmed WB 2.98 Don Francisco Presenta UNI 2.98 113 Malcolm in the Middle FOX 2.89 114 Peregrina (Wed.) UNI 2.87 115 Peregrina (Thu.) UNI 2.85

116 Cristina (Mon.) UNI 2.79 117 One Tree Hill WB 2.76 118 Ver Para Creer UNI 2.68 119 Half and Half UPN 2.63 120 Girlfriends UPN 2.58

121 Peregrina (Fri.) UNI 2.46 122 All of Us UPN 2.28 123 Pepper Dennis (Tue.) WB 2.24 124 Sabado Gigante UNI 2.18 125 Modern Men WB 2.06

126 Reba (Sun.) WB 2.01 127 America’s Next Top Model 6 (Tue.) UPN 1.96 128 One on One UPN 1.93 129 Love Inc. UPN 1.92 130 Chiquitibum UNI 1.86

131 Bedford Diaries WB 1.79 132 Veronica Mars (Tue.) UPN 1.76 133 Cuts UPN 1.73 134 Eve UPN 1.72 135 Survival of the Richest WB 1.65

136 Veronica Mars (Wed.) UPN 1.60 137 Hora Pico UNI 1.49 138 Pepper Dennis (Sun.) WB 1.26 139 Casos Familia UNI 1.18 140 Tierra de Pasiones (Tue.) TEL 1.05

141 Tormenta (Mon.) TEL 1.04 Tierra de Pasiones (Wed.) TEL 1.04 143 Tormenta (Tue.) TEL 1.03 144 Tierra de Pasiones (Mon.) TEL 1.01 145 Tierra de Pasiones (Fri.) TEL 1.00

146 Tierra de Pasiones (Thu.) TEL 0.97 147 Tormenta (Fri.) TEL 0.95 148 Tormenta (Thu.) TEL 0.92 149 Decisiones (Tue.) TEL 0.86

150 Tormenta (Wed.) TEL 0.84 151 Corazon Partido (Mon.) TEL 0.81 152 Decisiones (Wed.) TEL 0.80 Decisiones (Mon.) TEL 0.80 Corazon Partido (Fri.) TEL 0.80

155 Decisiones (Thu.) TEL 0.79 Corazon Partido (Thu.) TEL 0.79 Corazon Partido (Wed.) TEL 0.79 158 Decisiones (Fri.) TEL 0.77 159 Corazon Partido (Thu.) TEL 0.73

160 Decisiones Extra (Fri.) TEL 0.70 161 Decisiones Extra (Mon.) TEL 0.69 162 Decisiones Extra (Tue.) TEL 0.66

163 Decisiones Extra (Thu.) TEL 0.61 164 Cinemundo del Sabado TEL 0.60 165 Decisiones Extra (Wed.) TEL 0.58 166 Accion Extrema (Sun.) TEL 0.58

167 Cinemundo Premier TEL 0.47 168 Sin Fronteras TEL 0.47 169 Loteria TEL 0.31

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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 11.40 12.60

ABC 9.70 11.11

FOX 9.55 9.76

NBC 7.99 9.84

UNI 3.40 3.92

WB 2.89 3.16

UPN 2.68 3.17

TEL 0.74 0.99

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