An ‘Idol’ threat, but CBS rules

Older viewers helped CBS regain its spot as television’s most-watched network last week, despite continued near-record viewership for “American Idol,” Nielsen Media Research figures showed Tuesday.

Thanks in large measure to “American Idol,” Fox Broadcasting finished first for the week between Jan. 23 and Sunday among every demographic group where figures are available -- except for viewers ages 55 and older.

CBS attracted more than 2 1/2 times more viewers among that group, enabling it to finish first for the 17th time in the season’s 19 weeks. CBS had six of the week’s 11 most-watched programs and averaged 13.34 million viewers for the week.

Tuesday’s two-hour “American Idol” episode was the week’s most-watched program with 34.96 million viewers, the series’ third-largest audience in its five-season history.

The episode was also the third most-watched prime-time program of the season, behind ABC’s coverage of the Jan. 4 Rose Bowl game, which drew 35.63 million viewers, and the “American Idol” season premiere Jan. 17, which drew 35.53 million.

Tuesday’s “American Idol” attracted more viewers than the combined total of all the programming on the other five major English-language networks.

The week’s only series premiere, the CBS comedy “Courting Alex,” was the week’s most-watched first-year series, finishing 13th with 14.9 million viewers. The show stars Jenna Elfman as a successful attorney with no personal life.

The week’s most-watched cable program was “WWE Raw” professional wrestling on USA with 5.65 million viewers, which would have put it 83rd among the programs on the six major English-language broadcast networks and the Spanish-language network Univision.

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Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (Jan. 23-29) 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 American Idol (Tue.) FOX 34.96 2 American Idol (Wed.) FOX 32.44 3 CSI (9 p.m.) CBS 25.86 4 Without a Trace CBS 22.30 5 CSI: Miami (Mon.) CBS 19.69

6 Dancing With the Stars ABC 19.37 7 Lost ABC 19.05 8 Grey’s Anatomy ABC 18.44 9 Two and a Half Men CBS 17.07 10 NCIS CBS 16.97

11 Cold Case CBS 16.50 12 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition ABC 16.16 13 Courting Alex CBS 14.90 14 CSI: NY CBS 14.89 15 Criminal Minds CBS 14.65

16 24 FOX 14.22 17 60 Minutes CBS 14.18 18 “Dancing With the Stars: Results” ABC 14.00 19 Desperate Housewives ABC 13.88 20 CSI (8 p.m.) CBS 13.55

21 Numb3rs CBS 13.22 22 Boston Legal ABC 12.87 23 CSI: Miami (Tue.) CBS 12.64 24 “The Water Is Wide” CBS 12.57 25 Ghost Whisperer CBS 11.62

26 Medium NBC 11.44 27 King of Queens CBS 11.38 28 Bones FOX 11.37 29 Crossing Jordan NBC 11.22 30 Law & Order (Wed.) NBC 10.88

31 America’s Funniest Home Videos ABC 10.87 32 Las Vegas NBC 10.86 Skating With Celebrities FOX 10.86 34 How I Met Your Mother CBS 10.82 35 Law & Order: Criminal Intent (Sun.) NBC 10.76

36 Close to Home CBS 10.74 37 Crumbs ABC 10.73 38 My Name Is Earl NBC 10.45 39 Commander in Chief ABC 10.38 40 Wife Swap ABC 10.15

41 Law & Order: SVU (Tue.) NBC 9.77 42 Invasion ABC 9.33 43 Family Guy FOX 9.08 44 The Simpsons FOX 8.97 45 Dateline: NBC (Sun.) NBC 8.96

46 Primetime ABC 8.70 47 The Office NBC 8.60 48 Law & Order: SVU (Sat.) NBC 8.47 49 Bachelor: Paris (10 p.m.) ABC 8.42 50 American Dad FOX 8.22

51 Biggest Loser NBC 8.16 52 E.R. NBC 7.92 53 Law & Order (Fri.) NBC 7.86 54 Surface NBC 7.82 55 Love Monkey CBS 7.68

56 In Justice ABC 7.56 57 Yes, Dear CBS 7.38 58 Bachelor: Paris (9 p.m.) ABC 7.37 59 America’s Most Wanted FOX 7.31 60 Cops (8:30 p.m.) FOX 7.26

61 War at Home FOX 7.20 62 Dateline: NBC (Fri.) NBC 7.19 63 20/20 ABC 7.11 64 Will & Grace NBC 6.91 65 Still Standing CBS 6.88

66 48 Hours Mystery CBS 6.64 67 “Jamie Foxx: Unpredictable” (Wed.) NBC 6.57 68 Crimetime Saturday (9 p.m.) CBS 6.55 69 Cops (8 p.m.) FOX 6.32 70 George Lopez ABC 6.31

71 Four Kings NBC 6.28 Smallville WB 6.28 73 Crimetime Sat., (8 p.m.) CBS 6.27 74 Law & Order: Criminal Intent (Sat.) NBC 6.25 75 Freddie ABC 6.05

76 “Road to Perdition” ABC 5.95 77 According to Jim ABC 5.94 78 Scrubs (9:30 p.m.) NBC 5.73 79 Law & Order (Sat., 8 p.m.) NBC 5.72 80 The O.C. FOX 5.70

81 That ‘70s Show (8:30 p.m.) FOX 5.69 82 That ‘70s Show (8 p.m.) FOX 5.68 83 Contra Viento y Marea (Mon.) UNI 5.53 84 Rodney ABC 5.52 85 Trading Spouses FOX 5.45

Scrubs (9 p.m.) NBC 5.45 87 Alborada (Mon.) UNI 5.39 88 Piel de Otono (Tue.) UNI 5.38 89 7th Heaven WB 5.21 90 Contra Viento y Marea (Tue.) UNI 5.20

91 Piel de Otono (Mon.) UNI 5.16 92 Alborada (Wed.) UNI 5.09 93 King of the Hill FOX 5.06 Contra Viento y Marea (Wed.) UNI 5.06 95 Alborada (Tue.) UNI 4.97

96 Bailando por un Sueno UNI 4.94 97 Piel de Otono (Wed.) UNI 4.86 98 Contra Viento y Marea (Thu.) UNI 4.77 99 Fear Factor NBC 4.65 100 WWE Smackdown! UPN 4.64

101 Piel de Otono (Thu.) UNI 4.62 102 Alborada (Thu.) UNI 4.60 103 Piel de Otono (Fri.) UNI 4.57 104 Beauty and the Geek (Tue.) WB 4.42 105 Contra Viento y Marea (Fri.) UNI 4.37

Malcolm in the Middle FOX 4.37 107 Alborada (Fri.) UNI 4.24 108 Bernie Mac (8 p.m.) FOX 4.19 109 Bernie Mac (8:30 p.m.) FOX 4.15 110 Reba (Fri.) WB 3.98

111 Everybody Hates Chris UPN 3.49 112 Aqui y Ahora UNI 3.46 113 Don Francisco Presenta UNI 3.45 114 Cristina UNI 3.39 115 “Jamie Foxx: Unpredictable” (Fri.) NBC 3.33

116 Twins WB 3.09 117 Girlfriends (Mon.) UPN 2.96 118 Charmed (9 p.m.) WB 2.95 119 All of Us (Mon.) UPN 2.91 120 Reba (Sun., 7:30 p.m.) WB 2.86

121 Charmed (8 p.m.) WB 2.82 122 Casos Vida UNI 2.81 123 Sabado Gigante UNI 2.80 124 One on One (Mon.) UPN 2.76 125 One Tree Hill WB 2.69

126 Gilmore Girls WB 2.63 127 Beauty and the Geek (Wed.) WB 2.62 128 Half and Half UPN 2.60 129 Asi Es Gilberto Gless UNI 2.55 130 Hora Pico UNI 2.48

131 Reba (Sun., 7 p.m.) WB 2.37 What I Like About You WB 2.37 133 Living With Fran WB 2.22 Perplejos UNI 2.22 135 Related WB 2.17

Supernatural WB 2.17 137 Love Inc. UPN 1.98 138 Cuts UPN 1.88 139 Eve (9 p.m.) UPN 1.83 140 Girlfriends (Tue.) UPN 1.79 141 Casos Familia UNI 1.73 142 Eve (Tue., 8:30 p.m.) UPN 1.67 143 Veronica Mars UPN 1.62 144 One on One (Tue.) UPN 1.57 145 All of Us (Tue.) UPN 1.48 146 South Beach UPN 1.40

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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 13.34 13.01

FOX 13.03 8.77

ABC 10.84 11.00

NBC 8.11 9.07

UNI 4.14 3.94

WB 3.26 3.27

UPN 2.58 3.34

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