Spanish-language telenovela dominates L.A. viewership

Network television is in a summer snooze, with six reruns, two talent competitions and an exhibition football game filling up Nielsen Media Research’s Top 10 last week.

Nothing has truly caught the public’s attention this summer. While NBC’s “America’s Got Talent” and Fox’s “So You Think You Can Dance” have consistently made the Top 10, as they did again last week, they generally reach about a third of the audience of their obvious model, “American Idol.”

The most impressive success story has been Univision’s Spanish-language telenovela, “La Fea Mas Bella.” The Thursday edition last week had a larger audience than any scripted entertainment program on ABC all week, with the exception of two “Grey’s Anatomy” reruns. The series also dominated the L.A. market, capturing four of the top five spots.

The return of the National Football League provided a bright spot for NBC. The network’s coverage of the Oakland Raiders’ 16-10 victory over the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday, its first NFL telecast since Super Bowl XXXII on Jan. 25, 1998, attracted 10.56 million viewers.

That put it in the No. 3 spot for the week overall; it was No. 1 among viewers ages 18 to 49, the group targeted by NBC, ABC and Fox. That helped NBC tie CBS for the lead for the week in that category, ending Fox’s six-week winning streak.

NBC’s “Nightly News” won the evening news ratings race, averaging 8.4 million viewers. ABC’s “World News” had 7.7 million viewers and the “CBS Evening News” 7.2 million.

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Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (July 31-Aug. 6) 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.

*--* 1 CSI: Miami CBS 11.21 2 Without a Trace (Thu.) CBS 10.66 3 “NFL Pre-Season Football” NBC 10.56 4 America’s Got Talent (Wed.) NBC 10.53 5 Two and a Half Men CBS 10.08

6 “NFL Pre-Season Pre-Game” NBC 9.88 7 CSI CBS 9.79 8 So You Think You Can Dance (Wed.) FOX 9.39 9 Without a Trace (Sun.) CBS 9.23 10 60 Minutes CBS 8.98

11 Law & Order: SVU NBC 8.92 12 Cold Case CBS 8.73 13 So You Think You Can Dance (Thu.) FOX 8.35 14 Criminal Minds CBS 8.07 15 How I Met Your Mother (9:30 p.m.) CBS 8.01

16 America’s Got Talent (Thu.) NBC 7.94 17 CSI: NY CBS 7.85 18 Hell’s Kitchen (9 p.m.) FOX 7.84 19 Law & Order (Wed.) NBC 7.68 20 48 Hours Mystery (Tue.) CBS 7.66

21 House (Tue.) FOX 7.63 22 Last Comic Standing 4 NBC 7.59 23 Big Brother 7 (Tue.) CBS 7.33 24 Primetime: Medical Mysteries ABC 7.23 25 Primetime ABC 7.04

26 Big Brother 7 (Thu.) CBS 6.96 27 Bones FOX 6.92 28 Dateline: NBC (Sun.) NBC 6.91 29 Grey’s Anatomy (Sun.) ABC 6.82 30 King of Queens CBS 6.76

31 Big Brother 7 (Sun.) CBS 6.73 32 How I Met Your Mother (8:30 p.m.) CBS 6.50 33 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition ABC 6.44 34 House (Wed.) FOX 6.43 35 NCIS CBS 6.40

36 Wife Swap ABC 6.33 37 Rockstar: Supernova (Tue.) CBS 6.28 38 Numb3rs CBS 6.14 39 Grey’s Anatomy (Thu., 9 p.m.) ABC 6.10 40 Dateline: NBC (Sat.) NBC 6.07

41 Fea Mas Bella (Thu.) UNI 5.90 42 America’s Funniest Home Videos (Sun.) ABC 5.86 Dateline: NBC (Fri.) NBC 5.86 44 Grey’s Anatomy (Thu., 8 p.m.) ABC 5.79 Supernanny ABC 5.79

46 Rock Star: Supernova (Wed.) CBS 5.76 47 My Name Is Earl NBC 5.52 48 48 Hours Mystery (Sat.) CBS 5.50 49 The Unit CBS 5.45 50 According to Jim (9 p.m.) ABC 5.43

Desperate Housewives ABC 5.43 52 Fea Mas Bella (Wed.) UNI 5.35 53 20/20 ABC 5.34 The Simpsons FOX 5.34 55 According to Jim (8:30 p.m.) ABC 5.32

56 Law & Order (Fri.) NBC 5.31 57 According to Jim (9:30 p.m.) ABC 5.20 America’s Funniest Home Videos (Fri.) ABC 5.20 59 Family Guy FOX 5.17 According to Jim (8 p.m.) ABC 5.17

61 Treasure Hunters NBC 5.13 62 Fear Factor NBC 5.03 63 Medium NBC 4.72 64 America’s Most Wanted FOX 4.64 65 American Dad FOX 4.57

66 Las Vegas NBC 4.48 67 George Lopez (9:30 p.m.) ABC 4.43 Cops (8:30 p.m.) FOX 4.43 69 The Office NBC 4.42 “The Recruit” ABC 4.42

Fea Mas Bella (Tue.) UNI 4.42 72 That ‘70s Show (8:30 p.m.) FOX 4.33 73 George Lopez (8 p.m.) ABC 4.30 74 George Lopez (9 p.m.) ABC 4.28 Fea Mas Bella (Fri.) UNI 4.28

76 Fea Mas Bella (Mon.) UNI 4.20 77 George Lopez (8:30 p.m.) ABC 4.17 78 Windfall NBC 4.07 79 “Bringing Down the House” FOX 4.04 80 War at Home FOX 3.93

81 Hell’s Kitchen (8 p.m.) FOX 3.92 Crossing Jordan NBC 3.92 83 Barrera de Amor (Thu.) UNI 3.88 84 Barrera de Amor (Wed.) UNI 3.85 85 Boston Legal ABC 3.79

86 “ABC’s 50th Anniversary Blooper Celebration” ABC 3.74 87 Cops (8 p.m.) FOX 3.70 88 Don Francisco Presenta UNI 3.64 89 Crimetime Saturday CBS 3.53 90 Barrera de Amor (Tue.) UNI 3.52

91 One Ocean View ABC 3.48 92 Barrera de Amor (Mon.) UNI 3.43 93 “Star Tomorrow” NBC 3.39 94 That ‘70s Show (8 p.m.) FOX 3.25 95 Aqui y Ahora UNI 3.23

96 Kyle Xy ABC 3.19 97 Heridas de Amor (Wed.) UNI 3.14 98 WWE Smackdown! UPN 3.13 99 Cristina UNI 3.08 King of the Hill FOX 3.08

101 Barrera de Amor (Fri.) UNI 3.01 102 Heridas de Amor (Tue.) UNI 2.92 103 Heridas de Amor (Thu.) UNI 2.78 Heridas de Amor (Mon.) UNI 2.78 105 Cantando por un Sueno UNI 2.66

106 Malcolm in the Middle FOX 2.56 107 Reba WB 2.47 Heridas de Amor (Fri.) UNI 2.47 109 Que Madre Tan Padre UNI 2.46 110 Everybody Hates Chris UPN 2.42

111 Casos Vida UNI 2.31 112 Blue Collar TV (8 p.m.) WB 2.22 113 Blue Collar TV 2 (8:30 p.m.) WB 2.14 114 Half and Half (Mon.) UPN 2.10 115 Sabado Gigante UNI 2.07

116 Girlfriends UPN 2.06 All of Us (Mon.) UPN 2.06 118 Gilmore Girls WB 1.99 Vecinos UNI 1.99 Living With Fran WB 1.99

121 Gilmore Girls WB 1.95 Smallville WB 1.95 123 One on One UPN 1.94 124 7th Heaven (8 p.m.) WB 1.91 125 7th Heaven (9 p.m.) WB 1.85

126 America’s Next Top Model 6 UPN 1.81 127 Hora Pico UNI 1.69 128 Charmed (9 p.m.) WB 1.68 129 Twins WB 1.58 What I Like About You WB 1.58

131 Charmed (8 p.m.) WB 1.52 132 Love Inc. UPN 1.48 133 Supernatural WB 1.44 134 Casos Familia UNI 1.41 135 Half and Half (Wed.) UPN 1.28

136 All of Us (Wed.) UPN 1.19 137 Veronica Mars (9 p.m.) UPN 1.12 Veronica Mars (8 p.m.) UPN 1.12 139 Cuts UPN 1.11 140 Tierra de Pasiones (Mon.) TEL 1.07

Eve UPN 1.07 142 Tierra de Pasiones (Tue.) TEL 1.02 143 One Tree Hill WB 1.01 144 Decisiones (Tue.) TEL 0.99 145 Decisiones (Fri.) TEL 0.97

Tierra de Pasiones (Wed.) TEL 0.97 147 Just Legal WB 0.96 148 Viuda de Blanco (Wed.) TEL 0.94 149 Decisiones (Wed.) TEL 0.90 Decisiones (Mon.) TEL 0.90

151 Cinemundo Premier TEL 0.88 152 Tierra de Pasiones (Thu.) TEL 0.86 Amores de Mercado (Wed.) TEL 0.86 Tierra de Pasiones (Fri.) TEL 0.86 155 Viuda de Blanco (Thu.) TEL 0.84

Amores de Mercado (Thu.) TEL 0.84 157 Viuda de Blanco (Tue.) TEL 0.83 Viuda de Blanco (Mon.) TEL 0.83 159 Amores de Mercado (Mon.) TEL 0.82 160 Viuda de Blanco (Fri.) TEL 0.79

161 Amores de Mercado (Fri.) TEL 0.77 Decisiones (Thu.) TEL 0.77 163 Amores de Mercado (Thu.) TEL 0.63

164 “Mundo Disney” TEL 0.56 165 Cinemundo del Sabado TEL 0.53 166 “Poker Con Lupillo” TEL 0.30 167 Loteria TEL 0.24

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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 7.43 11.39

NBC 6.85 8.90

FOX 5.56 9.12

ABC 5.25 9.51

UNI 3.30 3.57

UPN 1.87 2.86

WB 1.71 2.82

TEL 0.81 0.89

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