Reality series’ finales rule

The finales of unscripted series dominated TV viewing last week, capturing four of the top nine spots, including a 1-2 finish by “America’s Got Talent,” according to figures released Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research.

Thursday’s finale of the NBC talent show was the most-watched show between Aug. 14 and Sunday, with 12.05 million viewers, and its final performance show the night before was second with 11.63 million. They were the most-watched prime-time programs since Fox’s coverage of baseball’s All-Star Game drew 14.42 million viewers July 11.

Fox’s two-hour finale of “So You Think You Can Dance” Wednesday was divided into two hourlong segments for advertising and ratings purposes, and the final hour attracted 10.65 million viewers.

The last hour of the Aug. 14 finale of Fox’s competitive cooking show “Hell’s Kitchen” drew a series-high 9.55 million viewers, putting it ninth for the week.

CBS won the ratings race for the 12th consecutive week, thanks to reruns of its crime dramas and “60 Minutes.”

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Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (Aug. 14-20) 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 America’s Got Talent (Thu.) NBC 12.05 2 America’s Got Talent (Wed.) NBC 11.63 3 60 Minutes CBS 11.50 4 CSI: Miami CBS 10.71 5 So You Think You Can Dance (Wed., 9 p.m.) FOX 10.65

6 CSI CBS 10.40 7 House (9 p.m.) FOX 10.30 8 Without a Trace (Thu.) CBS 9.71 9 Hell’s Kitchen (9 p.m.) FOX 9.54 10 Without a Trace (Sun.) CBS 9.39

11 Cold Case CBS 9.34 12 Two and a Half Men (9 p.m.) CBS 9.18 13 Primetime ABC 8.88 14 CSI: NY CBS 8.78 15 Big Brother 7 (Sun.) CBS 8.33

16 Law & Order (Wed.) NBC 8.28 17 “NFL Preseason Football” NBC 8.18 18 Two and a Half Men (8 p.m.) CBS 8.08 19 So You Think You Can Dance (Wed., 8 p.m.) FOX 8.03 20 Law & Order: SVU NBC 7.92

21 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition ABC 7.80 22 House (8 p.m.) FOX 7.79 23 Big Brother 7 (Tue.) CBS 7.77 24 Big Brother 7 (Thu.) CBS 7.72 25 Hell’s Kitchen (8 p.m.) FOX 7.63

26 Old Christine CBS 7.50 27 America’s Funniest Home Videos (Sun.). ABC 7.46 28 Criminal Minds CBS 7.44 29 Grey’s Anatomy (Thu., 9 p.m.) ABC 7.33 30 48 Hours Mystery (Tue.) CBS 7.24

31 Primetime: Medical Mysteries ABC 7.07 32 Grey’s Anatomy (Sun.) ABC 6.84 33 How I Met Your Mother CBS 6.76 34 Rockstar: Supernova (Tue.) CBS 6.51 35 20/20 ABC 6.20

36 Grey’s Anatomy (Thu., 8 p.m.) ABC 6.04 37 48 Hours Mystery (Sat.) CBS 5.98 38 Law & Order (Fri.) NBC 5.91 39 Wife Swap (9 p.m.) ABC 5.79 40 “NFL Preseason Football” FOX 5.75

41 “Miss Teen USA” NBC 5.72 42 “NFL Pregame” NBC 5.68 43 My Name Is Earl NBC 5.64 44 According to Jim (9:30 p.m.) ABC 5.59 45 Primetime: The Outsiders ABC 5.58

46 America’s Funniest Home Videos (Fri.) ABC 5.56 47 Rock Star: Supernova (Wed.) CBS 5.53 48 Windfall NBC 5.45 49 Dateline: NBC (Fri.) NBC 5.42 50 Crimetime Saturday (9 p.m.) CBS 5.38

51 Wife Swap (8 p.m.) ABC 5.37 52 The Office NBC 5.33 53 Desperate Housewives ABC 5.18 54 La Fea Mas Bella (Wed.) UNI 5.15 55 Cops (8:30 p.m.) FOX 5.05

56 According to Jim (9 p.m.) ABC 4.98 57 Dateline: NBC (Sat.) NBC 4.92 58 Supernanny ABC 4.88 59 America’s Most Wanted FOX 4.87 60 La Fea Mas Bella (Tue.) UNI 4.79

61 Treasure Hunters NBC 4.76 62 “2006 Teen Choice Awards” FOX 4.75 63 “Cast Away” ABC 4.74 64 “NFL Preseason Football” CBS 4.73 65 La Fea Mas Bella (Thu.) UNI 4.69

66 Medium NBC 4.66 67 George Lopez (9:30 p.m.) ABC 4.65 68 According to Jim (8:30 p.m.) ABC 4.60 69 George Lopez (8:30 p.m.) ABC 4.59 70 La Fea Mas Bella (Mon.) UNI 4.58

71 George Lopez (9 p.m.) ABC 4.48 72 La Fea Mas Bella (Fri.) UNI 4.45 73 “Spider-Man” FOX 4.38 74 Las Vegas NBC 4.29 75 George Lopez (8 p.m.) ABC 4.27

76 Cops (8 p.m.) FOX 4.20 According to Jim (8 p.m.) ABC 4.20 78 “U.S. Gymnastics Championships” (Sun.) NBC 4.11 79 Barrera de Amor (Thu.) UNI 4.05 Barrera de Amor (Wed.) UNI 4.05

81 Kyle XY ABC 3.91 82 Psych NBC 3.81 83 Barrera de Amor (Tue.) UNI 3.79 84 Crimetime Saturday (8 p.m.) CBS 3.77 85 The Simpsons FOX 3.59

86 Barrera de Amor (Mon.) UNI 3.44 87 WWE Smackdown! UPN 3.43 88 Barrera de Amor (Fri.) UNI 3.32 89 Cristina UNI 3.30 90 Dateline: NBC (Sat.) NBC 3.28

91 Aqui y Ahora UNI 3.21 92 “U.S. Gymnastics Championships” (Sat.) NBC 3.18 93 Heridas de Amor (Mon.) UNI 2.98 94 Don Francisco Presenta UNI 2.91 95 Heridas de Amor (Wed.) UNI 2.89

96 Cantando por un Sueno UNI 2.84 97 Heridas de Amor (Thu.) UNI 2.76 98 Heridas de Amor (Fri.) UNI 2.54 99 Reba WB 2.53 100 Heridas de Amor (Tue.) UNI 2.50

101 Casos Vida UNI 2.49 102 “2006 Teen Choice Red Carpet Pre-Show” FOX 2.31 103 Everybody Hates Chris UPN 2.29 104 Que Madre Tan Padre UNI 2.21 105 Blue Collar TV (8 p.m.) WB 2.20

106 Smallville WB 2.17 107 Sabado Gigante UNI 2.06 108 Charmed (8 p.m.) WB 1.98 109 Living With Fran WB 1.93 110 Blue Collar TV 2 (8:30 p.m.) WB 1.88

111 7th Heaven (9 p.m.) WB 1.81 Charmed (9 p.m.) WB 1.81 113 Girlfriends UPN 1.80 114 Supernatural WB 1.79 115 All of Us (Mon.) UPN 1.77

116 Hora Pico UNI 1.74 117 Love Inc. UPN 1.70 118 Half and Half (Mon.) UPN 1.60 119 Just Legal WB 1.59 120 One on One UPN 1.57

121 Eve UPN 1.56 122 7th Heaven (8 p.m.) WB 1.50 123 What I Like About You WB 1.48 124 Gilmore Girls (9 p.m.) WB 1.46 125 Gilmore Girls (8 p.m.) WB 1.45

126 Twins WB 1.37 127 Cuts UPN 1.34 128 Casos Familia UNI 1.30 129 America’s Next Top Model 6 UPN 1.28 130 Decisiones (Wed.) TEL 1.17

131 Veronica Mars (9 p.m.) UPN 1.16 132 All of Us (Wed.) UPN 1.13 Decisiones (Tue.) TEL 1.13 134 One Tree Hill WB 1.09 135 Veronica Mars (8 p.m.) UPN 1.08

136 Decisiones (Thu.) TEL 1.02 137 Amores de Mercado (Thu.) TEL 0.95 138 Amores de Mercado (Tue.) TEL 0.94 139 Tierra de Pasiones (Thu.) TEL 0.93 140 Tierra de Pasiones (Tue.) TEL 0.91

141 Decisiones (Mon.) TEL 0.90 142 Amores de Mercado (Wed.) TEL 0.88 Viuda de Blanco (Thu.) TEL 0.88 144 Tierra de Pasiones (Fri.) TEL 0.87 Half and Half (Wed.) UPN 0.87

146 Amores de Mercado (Fri.) TEL 0.85 Tierra de Pasiones (Mon.) TEL 0.85 Decisiones (Fri.) TEL 0.85 149 Tierra de Pasiones (Wed.) TEL 0.83 150 Amores de Mercado (Mon.) TEL 0.79

151 Viuda de Blanco (Tue.) TEL 0.78 152 Cinemundo del Sabado TEL 0.76 153 Cinemundo Premier TEL 0.74 154 Viuda de Blanco (Mon.) TEL 0.72 155 Viuda de Blanco (Fri.) TEL 0.71

156 Viuda de Blanco (Wed.) TEL 0.69 157 Cinemundo Premier TEL 0.42 158 Loteria TEL 0.39 159 “Quinceanera Pre-Show” 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 7.53 11.23

NBC 6.48 8.80

FOX 6.32 8.98

ABC 5.76 9.35

UNI 3.33 3.55

UPN 1.82 2.83

WB 1.72 2.77

TEL 0.83 0.89

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