Thanks to dismal ratings, ABC still in summer slump

Despite posting its best numbers in seven weeks, ABC’s lackluster summer continued last week, with Thursday’s edition of the newsmagazine “Primetime” its only program among the top 22.

Compared with last summer, viewership on ABC is down 13% overall and 18% among viewers ages 18 to 49 -- the group that it, Fox and NBC target.

ABC has had double-digit percentage losses among all the key adult demographic groups, according to figures released Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research.

There are two reasons for the viewership decline: Not only was ABC unable to find a hit summer unscripted program as it did last summer with “Dancing With the Stars,” but the public also has resoundingly rejected its slate of new unscripted fare.

ABC’s most recent unscripted entry, “One Ocean View,” was dropped from the schedule after two episodes. What turned out to be its finale attracted 2.74 million viewers on Aug. 7, putting it 98th among the network programs broadcast between Aug. 7 and Sunday.

ABC has also suffered from low viewership for reruns of its serialized hits -- “Desperate Housewives,” “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Lost” -- continuing a pattern dating to the 1980s, when the prime-time soaps “Dallas,” “Dynasty” and “Knots Landing” were in their heydays.

ABC’s most-watched program of the week was Thursday’s “Primetime.” The newsmagazine’s reporting on the foiled alleged terror plot in Britain attracted 8.36 million viewers, putting it 13th for the week.

ABC edged Fox by 10,000 viewers to finish third for the week overall, averaging 5.46 million viewers for its prime-time programming. CBS continued its unblemished record for the summer, averaging 7.34 million viewers for its 11th consecutive weekly victory. NBC was second with 6.58 million viewers.

Sunday’s premiere of TNT’s made-for-television movie “The Ron Clark Story,” starring Matthew Perry, was the week’s most-watched cable program with 6.82 million viewers.

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Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (Aug. 7-13) 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 CSI: Miami CBS 11.42 2 Two and a Half Men (9 p.m.) CBS 10.40 3 So You Think You Can Dance FOX 10.10 4 CSI CBS 9.76 5 America’s Got Talent (Wed.) NBC 9.67

6 60 Minutes CBS 9.34 7 Without a Trace (Sun.) CBS 9.11 8 Without a Trace (Thu.) CBS 9.01 9 CSI: NY CBS 8.83 10 “NFL Preseason Football” (Sun.) NBC 8.74

11 America’s Got Talent (Thu.) NBC 8.53 12 Law & Order: SVU NBC 8.49 13 Primetime ABC 8.36 14 Two and a Half Men (8 p.m.) CBS 8.25 15 Hell’s Kitchen (9 p.m.) FOX 8.13

16 Cold Case CBS 8.12 17 Criminal Minds CBS 8.04 18 Old Christine CBS 7.95 19 Last Comic Standing 4 (Tue.) NBC 7.74 20 Last Comic Standing 4 (Wed.) NBC 7.65

21 “NFL Pre-Game” NBC 7.57 22 Big Brother 7 (Tue.) CBS 7.48 23 20/20 ABC 7.46 24 Primetime: Medical Mysteries (10 p.m.) ABC 7.34 25 Big Brother 7 (Sun.) CBS 7.30

26 How I Met Your Mother CBS 7.25 27 Big Brother 7 (Thu.) CBS 7.21 28 House (Tue.) FOX 7.14 29 Grey’s Anatomy (Thu., 9 p.m.) ABC 7.04 30 48 Hours Mystery (Tue.) CBS 6.96

31 Dateline: (NBC Sun.) NBC 6.83 32 House (Wed.) FOX 6.67 33 Wife Swap ABC 6.66 34 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition ABC 6.62 35 Bones FOX 6.52

36 Grey’s Anatomy (Sun.) ABC 6.42 37 Rockstar: Supernova (Tue.) CBS 6.28 38 Supernanny ABC 6.04 39 Law & Order NBC 6.01 40 Dateline: NBC (Fri.) NBC 5.97

41 Grey’s Anatomy (Thu., 8 p.m.) ABC 5.91 42 America’s Funniest Home Videos (Sun.) ABC 5.88 43 Primetime: Medical Mysteries (9 p.m.) ABC 5.72 Rock Star: Supernova (Wed.) CBS 5.72 45 “NFL Preseason Football” FOX 5.60

46 48 Hours Mystery (Sat.) CBS 5.57 Family Guy FOX 5.57 48 My Name Is Earl NBC 5.56 49 Dateline: NBC (Sat.) NBC 5.49 50 America’s Funniest Home Videos (Fri.) ABC 5.41

51 According to Jim (8:30 p.m.) ABC 5.37 52 Medium NBC 5.31 53 Crimetime Saturday (9 p.m.) CBS 5.22 54 According to Jim (8 p.m.) ABC 5.11 “NFL Preseason Football” (Fri.) CBS 5.11

56 According to Jim (9:30 p.m.) ABC 5.10 57 Fear Factor NBC 5.04 58 Desperate Housewives ABC 5.01 59 Treasure Hunters NBC 4.97 60 According to Jim (9 p.m.) ABC 4.90

The Simpsons FOX 4.90 62 Crossing Jordan NBC 4.85 63 La Fea Mas Bella (Tue.) UNI 4.72 64 La Fea Mas Bella (Wed.) UNI 4.63 Cops 2 (8:30 p.m.) FOX 4.63

66 America’s Most Wanted FOX 4.62 67 La Fea Mas Bella (Mon.) UNI 4.60 68 Las Vegas NBC 4.58 69 The Office NBC 4.55 70 La Fea Mas Bella (Thu.) UNI 4.54

71 Hell’s Kitchen (8 p.m.) FOX 4.53 72 American Dad (8:30 p.m.) FOX 4.39 73 Windfall NBC 4.30 74 George Lopez (8 p.m.) ABC 4.23 75 War at Home FOX 4.17

76 Crimetime Saturday (8 p.m.) CBS 4.15 77 George Lopez (8:30 p.m.) ABC 4.08 78 Psych NBC 3.99 79 Boston Legal ABC 3.97 80 Kyle XY ABC 3.94

81 “Coyote Ugly” ABC 3.89 82 Barrera de Amor (Tue.) UNI 3.86 83 La Fea Mas Bella (Fri.) UNI 3.83 84 Barrera de Amor (Wed.) UNI 3.81 85 Barrera de Amor (Thu.) UNI 3.79

86 Cops (8 p.m.) FOX 3.59 87 Don Francisco Presenta UNI 3.52 88 Barrera de Amor (Mon.) UNI 3.46 “ABC 50th Anniversary Blooper Celebration” ABC 3.46 90 WWE Smackdown! UPN 3.42

91 “Austin Powers in Goldmember” FOX 3.35 92 Barrera de Amor (Fri.) UNI 2.99 93 Heridas de Amor (Tue.) UNI 2.95 94 Heridas de Amor (Thu.) UNI 2.89 95 Heridas de Amor (Wed.) UNI 2.88

96 Heridas de Amor (Mon.) UNI 2.87 97 Cristina UNI 2.80 98 One Ocean View ABC 2.74 99 Reba WB 2.72 100 Aqui y Ahora (Thu.) UNI 2.71

101 King of the Hill FOX 2.69 102 Que Madre Tan Padre UNI 2.65 103 Cantando por un Sueno UNI 2.54 Everybody Hates Chris UPN 2.54 105 Smallville WB 2.25

106 Girlfriends UPN 2.22 107 Heridas de Amor (Fri.) UNI 2.21 108 Casos Vida UNI 2.17 109 Living With Fran WB 2.14 110 Half and Half (Mon.) UPN 2.11

111 Sabado Gigante UNI 2.03 112 “Fox Fall Preview 2006” FOX 2.02 113 Blue Collar TV (8 p.m.) WB 2.00 114 Vecinos UNI 1.99 115 Blue Collar TV (8:30 p.m.) WB 1.97

Gilmore Girls (8 p.m.) WB 1.97 117 Love Inc. UPN 1.92 118 Gilmore Girls (9 p.m.) WB 1.90 119 All of Us (Mon.) UPN 1.87 120 Supernatural WB 1.86 dash> 121 America’s Next Top Model 6 UPN 1.85 122 Hora Pico UNI 1.83 123 7th Heaven (8 p.m.) WB 1.81 124 7th Heaven (9 p.m.) WB 1.69 125 Eve UPN 1.67

Charmed (8 p.m.) WB 1.67 127 One on One UPN 1.64 128 Charmed (9 p.m.) WB 1.58 129 Twins WB 1.53 Cuts UPN 1.53

131 Just Legal WB 1.51 132 What I Like About You WB 1.50 133 Casos Familia UNI 1.40 134 One Tree Hill WB 1.38 135 Veronica Mars (9 p.m.) UPN 1.37

All of Us (Wed.) UPN 1.37 137 Half and Half (Wed.) UPN 1.36 138 Veronica Mars (8 p.m.) UPN 1.14 139 Decisiones (Tue.) TEL 1.07 140 Tierra de Pasiones (Mon.) TEL 1.04

141 Decisiones (Mon.) TEL 0.99 142 Tierra de Pasiones (Wed.) TEL 0.96 Viuda de Blanco (Mon.) TEL 0.96 144 Viuda de Blanco (Thu.) TEL 0.95 145 Viuda de Blanco (Wed.) TEL 0.93

146 Tierra de Pasiones (Thu.) TEL 0.92 147 Decisiones (Wed.) TEL 0.91 148 Decisiones (Thu.) TEL 0.90 149 Cinemundo Premier TEL 0.88 150 Tierra de Pasiones (Tue.) TEL 0.86

151 Amores de Mercado (Mon.) TEL 0.85 152 Amores de Mercado (Thu.) TEL 0.77 153 Cinemundo del Sabado TEL 0.75 Tierra de Pasiones (Fri.) TEL 0.75 155 Decisiones (Fri.) TEL 0.73

156 Viuda de Blanco (Tue.) TEL 0.70 Viuda de Blanco (Fri.) TEL 0.70 158 Amores de Mercado (Tue.) TEL 0.69 Cinemundo Premier TEL 0.69 160 Amores de Mercado (Wed.) TEL 0.69

161 Amores de Mercado (Fri.) TEL 0.64 162 Loteria TEL 0.42 163 Accion Extrema TEL 0.38

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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 7.34 11.31

NBC 6.58 8.85

ABC 5.46 9.42

FOX 5.45 9.04

UNI 3.16 3.56

UPN 2.03 2.85

WB 1.81 2.80

TEL 0.82 0.89

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