Emmy ratings are tepid, but good enough for No. 1

The audience for NBC’s Emmy Awards was nothing to brag about compared with past years, but at least the Emmycast can claim a consolation prize: most-watched program of the week.

Sunday’s 58th annual ceremony from the Shrine Auditorium averaged 16.18 million viewers, Nielsen Media Research reported Tuesday. Though it was the second least-watched Emmy telecast since 1991, it attracted the most viewers for any prime-time program since June 5, when 18.2 million tuned in for the season finale of NBC’s game show “Deal or No Deal.”

The 2005 Emmy show, which aired on CBS, averaged 18.68 million viewers.

One possible reason for the decline in viewership was the ceremony’s move to August, when more people are vacationing. NBC and the TV academy agreed to move it this year so it wouldn’t conflict with the network’s new Sunday night football franchise.

Another factor could have been tougher counterprogramming, including the original “Pirates of the Caribbean” movie on ABC, which ranked fifth for the week, and first-run episodes of the CBS unscripted series “Big Brother,” 15th for the week, and HBO’s “Entourage.”

The week brought good news for Fox as it began unfurling its fall lineup: the season premiere of “Prison Break” broke into eighth place, while the fall’s first new series, “Vanished,” debuted in 11th place.

Overall, CBS recorded its 13th consecutive weekly prime-time win, with an average of 7.34 million viewers.

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Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (Aug. 21-27) 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 283.5 million potential viewers in the U.S. ages 2 and older. Viewership is listed in millions.

*--* 1 “Emmy Awards” NBC 16.18 2 60 Minutes CBS 11.94 3 CSI CBS 11.58 4 CSI: Miami CBS 10.56 5 “Pirates of the Caribbean” ABC 9.99

6 Without a Trace (Thu.) CBS 9.95 7 Law & Order: SVU NBC 9.59 8 Prison Break (Mon.) FOX 9.37 9 House FOX 9.00 10 CSI: NY CBS 8.90

11 Vanished (Mon.) FOX 8.65 12 Two and a Half Men (9 p.m.) CBS 8.42 13 Criminal Minds CBS 8.33 14 Big Brother 7 (Thu.) CBS 8.27 15 Big Brother 7 (Sun.) CBS 8.16

16 Big Brother 7 (Tue.) CBS 8.00 17 Without a Trace (Sun.) CBS 7.97 18 Grey’s Anatomy (Thu., 9 p.m.) ABC 7.85 19 Cold Case CBS 7.70 20 “Emmy Red Carpet Special” NBC 7.18

21 Two and a Half Men (8 p.m.) CBS 7.07 22 Law & Order: Criminal Intent (Tue.) NBC 7.06 23 Primetime: Medical Mysteries ABC 6.94 24 Vanished (Tue.) FOX 6.88 25 Old Christine CBS 6.78

26 Wife Swap (9 p.m.) ABC 6.70 Primetime: The Outsiders ABC 6.70 28 Most Outrageous Moments (8:30 p.m.) NBC 6.69 29 Law & Order (Wed.) NBC 6.48 30 “NFL Preseason Football” FOX 6.43

31 Primetime ABC 6.38 32 Grey’s Anatomy (Sun.) ABC 6.37 33 Rock Star: Supernova (Wed.) CBS 6.32 34 Grey’s Anatomy (Thu., 8 p.m.) ABC 6.22 35 How I Met Your Mother CBS 6.19 Rock Star: Supernova (Tue.) CBS 6.19

37 According to Jim (9:30 p.m.) ABC 6.16 38 Treasure Hunters (9 p.m.) NBC 6.02 39 Numb3rs CBS 5.99 40 Wife Swap (8 p.m.) ABC 5.95

41 Most Outrageous Moments (8 p.m.) NBC 5.78 42 20/20 ABC 5.73 43 According to Jim (9 p.m.) ABC 5.66 44 Bones FOX 5.46 45 “JCPenney JAM: The Concert for America’s Kids” CBS 5.45

46 La Fea Mas Bella (Tue.) UNI 5.39 47 Law & Order: Criminal Intent (Sat., 10 p.m.) NBC 5.29 48 My Name Is Earl NBC 5.27 49 According to Jim (8:30 p.m.) ABC 5.22 50 Dateline: NBC (Fri.) NBC 5.20

51 George Lopez (9:30 p.m.) ABC 5.16 52 Law & Order (Fri.) NBC 5.14 53 Fear Factor NBC 4.98 54 “Men in Black 2” FOX 4.96 55 Supernanny ABC 4.84

56 La Fea Mas Bella (Thu.) UNI 4.82 57 George Lopez (9 p.m.) ABC 4.80 America’s Most Wanted FOX 4.80 59 According to Jim (8 p.m.) ABC 4.78 60 Prison Break (Wed.) FOX 4.74

61 La Fea Mas Bella (Wed.) UNI 4.72 62 The Unit (9 p.m.) CBS 4.71 63 George Lopez (8:30 p.m.) ABC 4.60 64 America’s Funniest Home Videos ABC 4.59 65 Scrubs (9 p.m.) NBC 4.58

66 George Lopez (8 p.m.) ABC 4.51 67 Barrera de Amor (Thu.) UNI 4.45 The Unit (8 p.m.) CBS 4.45 Medium NBC 4.45 70 La Fea Mas Bella (Mon.) UNI 4.41

71 “Pearl Harbor” ABC 4.32 72 Cristina UNI 4.30 73 “NFL Preseason Football” CBS 4.27 74 The Office (9:30 p.m.) NBC 4.21 75 Scrubs (9:30 p.m.) NBC 4.20

76 Law &Order;: Criminal Intent (Sat., 9 p.m.) NBC 4.17 77 “Star Wars II: Attack of the Clones” FOX 4.16 Las Vegas NBC 4.16 79 The Office (8:30 p.m.) NBC 4.14 80 Barrera de Amor (Tue.) UNI 4.08

81 Windfall NBC 4.07 82 Treasure Hunters (8 p.m.) NBC 4.06 83 La Fea Mas Bella (Fri.) UNI 4.04 84 The Office (9 p.m.) NBC 3.99 Barrera de Amor (Wed.) UNI 3.99

86 Cops (8:30 p.m.) FOX 3.89 87 Barrera de Amor (Fri.) UNI 3.52 88 Don Francisco Presenta UNI 3.50 89 Barrera de Amor (Mon.) UNI 3.33 90 WWE Smackdown! UPN 3.29

91 Cops (8 p.m.) FOX 3.28 92 Dateline: NBC (Sat.) NBC 3.20 93 Kyle XY ABC 3.16 94 Heridas de Amor (Tue.) UNI 3.00 95 Aqui y Ahora (Thu.) UNI 2.94

96 Cantando por un Sueno UNI 2.84 97 Heridas de Amor (Thu.) UNI 2.78 98 Reba WB 2.59 99 Que Madre Tan Padre UNI 2.58 100 Heridas de Amor (Mon.) UNI 2.49

101 Smallville WB 2.46 102 Heridas de Amor (Wed.) UNI 2.42 103 Casos Vida UNI 2.40 104 Everybody Hates Chris UPN 2.36 105 Heridas de Amor (Fri.) UNI 2.35

106 Supernatural WB 2.13 Sabado Gigante UNI 2.13 108 Hora Pico UNI 2.06 109 Gilmore Girls (9 p.m.) WB 1.96 110 Living With Fran WB 1.95

111 Gilmore Girls (8 p.m.) WB 1.87 112 7th Heaven (8 p.m.) WB 1.85 113 7th Heaven (9 p.m.) WB 1.80 114 What I Like About You WB 1.73 115 Girlfriends UPN 1.68

116 Twins WB 1.64 117 America’s Next Top Model 6 UPN 1.63 118 Blue Collar TV (8 p.m.) WB 1.59 Blue Collar TV (8:30 p.m.) WB 1.59 Half and Half (Mon.) UPN 1.59

121 Love Inc. UPN 1.56 122 Eve UPN 1.55 123 All of Us (Mon.) UPN 1.50 124 All of Us (Wed.) UPN 1.39 125 One on One UPN 1.37

126 Casos Familia UNI 1.34 Cuts UPN 1.34 128 Charmed (8 p.m.) WB 1.33 129 Half and Half (Wed.) UPN 1.28 130 Charmed (9 p.m.) WB 1.20

131 One Tree Hill WB 1.15 132 Just Legal WB 1.12 133 Veronica Mars (9 p.m.) UPN 1.05 134 Decisiones (Thu.) TEL 1.04 135 Decisiones (Tue.) TEL 0.99

136 Viuda de Blanco (Thu.) TEL 0.98 137 Amores de Mercado (Mon.) TEL 0.96 138 Tierra de Pasiones (Mon.) TEL 0.93 139 Tierra de Pasiones (Fri.) TEL 0.92 Tierra de Pasiones (Tue.) TEL 0.92

141 Tierra de Pasiones (Wed.) TEL 0.91 142 Veronica Mars (8 p.m.) UPN 0.89 143 Decisiones (Mon.) TEL 0.88 144 Decisiones (Fri.) TEL 0.86

145 Decisiones (Wed.) TEL 0.85 146 Amores de Mercado (Wed.) TEL 0.83 147 Viuda de Blanco (Tue.) TEL 0.78 148 Viuda de Blanco (Wed.) TEL 0.77 Viuda de Blanco (Fri.) TEL 0.77

150 Amores de Mercado (Thu.) TEL 0.76 Amores de Mercado (Tue.) TEL 0.76 152 Viuda de Blanco (Mon.) TEL 0.75 153 Amores de Mercado (Fri.) TEL 0.70 154 Cinemundo Premier (9 p.m.) TEL 0.69

155 Cinemundo del Sabado TEL 0.68 156 Quinceanera TEL 0.46 Cinemundo Premier (7 p.m.) TEL 0.46

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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 11.15

NBC 6.77 8.76

ABC 6.13 9.28

FOX 5.89 8.91

UNI 3.44 3.55

UPN 1.79 2.81

WB 1.72 2.75

TEL 0.80 0.88

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