Winning colors: black, yellow and ‘Grey’s’

The ABC medical drama “Grey’s Anatomy” had a super Sunday, even if the Seattle Seahawks did not, according to Nielsen Media Research figures released Tuesday.

The post-Super Bowl episode drew 37.88 million viewers, the most by a program following a Super Bowl since the premiere of the second cycle of “Survivor” drew 45.37 million in 2001.

ABC’s telecast of the Pittsburgh Steelers’ 21-10 victory was the second most-watched program since Nielsen began recording individual viewership in September 1987 with 90.74 million viewers, trailing only Super Bowl XXX in 1996, when 94.08 million saw the Dallas Cowboys defeat the Steelers, 27-17.

ABC easily finished first for the week, with CBS second.

Outside of ABC’s Sunday programming, the week’s two “American Idol” episodes were the week’s most-watched programming. Viewership for the Fox series is up 14% compared with a similar amount of episodes last season.

Although viewership for the second episode of the CBS comedy “Courting Alex,” dropped 11% from its premiere, it was still the week’s most-watched first-year series with 13.27 million viewers, 18th overall for the week.

The decline mainly came from CBS airing a rerun of “Two and a Half Men” preceding “Courting Alex.” “Courting Alex” retained 90% of “Two and a Half Men’s” audience, compared with 87% for its premiere.

The week’s most-watched cable program was Fox News Channel’s coverage of President Bush’s State of the Union address, with 6.46 million viewers.

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Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (Jan. 30-Feb. 5) 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 Super Bowl XL ABC 90.74 2 “Super Bowl Post-Game 1” ABC 74.03 3 “Super Bowl Post-Game 2” ABC 59.80 4 Grey’s Anatomy ABC 37.88 5 American Idol (Wed.) FOX 30.40

6 American Idol (Tue.) FOX 30.18 7 CSI CBS 28.36 8 Without a Trace CBS 20.80 9 CSI: Miami CBS 20.43 10 Survivor: Panama, Exile Island CBS 19.19

11 Dancing With the Stars ABC 18.83 12 CSI: NY CBS 16.42 13 “Dancing With the Stars Results” ABC 16.04 14 Two and a Half Men CBS 15.04 15 24 FOX 13.82

16 ER NBC 13.76 17 Numb3rs CBS 13.31 18 Courting Alex CBS 13.27 19 Criminal Minds (Wed.) CBS 13.06 20 Bones FOX 12.64

21 Close to Home CBS 12.13 22 NCIS CBS 12.07 23 Ghost Whisperer CBS 11.13 24 My Name Is Earl NBC 10.60 25 Dateline: NBC (Fri.) NBC 10.59

26 Skating With Celebrities FOX 10.00 27 King of Queens CBS 9.56 28 Lost ABC 9.41 29 Office NBC 9.21 “Super Bowl: Great Commercials” CBS 9.21

31 Wife Swap ABC 9.19 32 Crumbs ABC 9.13 33 Law & Order (Wed.) NBC 8.95 34 Law & Order (Sat.) NBC 8.82 35 How I Met Your Mother CBS 8.77

36 “In Style: Celebrity Weddings” ABC 8.63 37 In Justice ABC 8.61 38 48 Hours: Mystery CBS 8.60 39 Bachelor: Paris ABC 8.49 40 Surface NBC 8.27

41 Biggest Loser NBC 8.03 42 Crimetime Saturday CBS 7.79 43 Law & Order: Criminal Intent (Sun.) NBC 7.72 44 Las Vegas NBC 7.66 45 E-Ring NBC 7.55

46 America’s Most Wanted FOX 7.54 47 Law & Order: Criminal Intent (Sat.) NBC 7.48 48 Cops (8:30 p.m.) FOX 7.32 49 20/20 ABC 7.31 50 Will & Grace NBC 7.27

51 “State of the Union Analysis 1” ABC 7.21 52 Cold Case (9 p.m.) CBS 7.06 53 Most Outrageous Moments on Live TV (8:30 p.m.) NBC 6.99 54 Medium NBC 6.92 55 CSI: Miami (Sun.) CBS 6.91

56 Yes, Dear CBS 6.70 57 Primetime ABC 6.69 58 Four Kings NBC 6.60 59 “State of the Union Analysis 1” CBS 6.52 60 Cops (8 p.m.) FOX 6.46

61 Still Standing CBS 6.44 62 Most Outrageous Moments on Live TV (8 p.m.) NBC 6.30 63 7th Heaven WB 6.28 64 According to Jim ABC 6.21 65 Criminal Minds (Sun.) CBS 6.12

66 George Lopez ABC 5.83 67 Supernatural WB 5.82 68 That ‘70s Show (8:30 p.m.) FOX 5.81 69 That ‘70s Show (8 p.m.) FOX 5.76 70 Rodney ABC 5.66

71 “State of the Union Analysis 2” ABC 5.41 72 The Simpsons (8 p.m.) FOX 5.37 73 Family Guy FOX 5.36 Smallville WB 5.36 75 The O.C. FOX 5.35

76 Freddie ABC 5.29 77 “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” ABC 5.24 78 Contra Viento y Marea (Mon.) UNI 5.23 79 Invasion ABC 5.23 80 Gilmore Girls WB 5.22

81 Alborada (Mon.) UNI 5.20 82 Family Guy (9:30 p.m.) FOX 5.19 83 Family Guy (8:30 p.m.) FOX 5.03 84 Alborada (Wed.) UNI 5.00 Contra Viento y Marea (Tue.) UNI 5.00 86 Bailando por un Sueno UNI 4.95 87 Contra Viento y Marea (Thu.) UNI 4.91 88 Contra Viento y Marea (Wed.) UNI 4.89 Alborada (Tue.) UNI 4.89 90 Piel de Otono (Thu.) UNI 4.74

91 Piel de Otono (Tue.) UNI 4.73 92 Alborada (Thu.) UNI 4.72 Trading Spouses FOX 4.72 94 Piel de Otono (Mon.) UNI 4.71 Piel de Otono (Wed.) UNI 4.71

96 WWE Smackdown! UPN 4.70 97 Fear Factor NBC 4.69 98 Crossing Jordan (9 p.m.) NBC 4.65 99 Piel de Otono (Fri.) UNI 4.59 100 Beauty and the Geek (Thu.) WB 4.56

101 “State of the Union Analysis 3” CBS 4.53 102 Dateline: NBC (Sun.) NBC 4.48 103 Contra Viento y Marea (Fri.) UNI 4.47 104 “State of the Union Analysis 2” CBS 4.42 105 “Superstars” CBS 4.30

106 Alborada (Fri.) UNI 4.28 107 Everybody Hates Chris UPN 4.24 108 The Simpsons (7:30 p.m.) FOX 3.94 109 Scrubs NBC 3.88 110 Reba WB 3.59

111 Crossing Jordan (8 p.m.) NBC 3.37 112 Don Francisco Presenta UNI 3.34 113 Cristina UNI 3.29 114 Vecinos UNI 3.28 115 Bernie Mac (8 p.m.) FOX 3.20

116 Beauty and the Geek (Wed.) WB 3.11 117 Bernie Mac (8:30 p.m.) FOX 3.10 118 One Tree Hill WB 3.01 119 Aqui y Ahora UNI 2.95 120 Girlfriends (Mon.) UPN 2.92

121 All of Us UPN 2.90 122 Half and Half UPN 2.89 123 The Simpsons (7 p.m.) FOX 2.72 124 Twins WB 2.65 125 “Acapulco Exclusivo” UNI 2.60

126 Sabado Gigante UNI 2.56 127 One on One UPN 2.55 128 Related WB 2.50 129 Love Inc. UPN 2.34 130 Hora Pico UNI 2.23

131 Veronica Mars (Wed.) UPN 2.11 132 Cuerpo del Deseo (Thu.) TEL 2.03 133 Cuerpo del Deseo (Mon.) TEL 2.01 134 Living With Fran WB 2.00 135 What I Like About You WB 1.97

Eve (Thu.) UPN 1.97 137 Cuerpo del Deseo (Tue.) TEL 1.90 138 Cuts UPN 1.88 139 Veronica Mars (Tue.) UPN 1.88 140 Cuerpo del Deseo (Wed.) TEL 1.80

141 Girlfriends (Tue.) UPN 1.72 142 Cuerpo del Deseo (Fri.) TEL 1.71 143 Casos Familia UNI 1.55 144 Beauty and the Geek (Sun., 9 p.m.) WB 1.50 145 Tormenta (Wed.) TEL 1.50

146 Beauty and the Geek (8 p.m.) WB 1.47 147 Eve (Tue.) UPN 1.46 148 Tormenta (Thu.) TEL 1.45 149 South Beach UPN 1.32 150 Tormenta (Mon.) TEL 1.30

151 Tormenta (Tue.) TEL 1.21 152 Cinemundo del Sabado TEL 1.19 153 Decisiones (Mon., 10:05 p.m.) TEL 1.13 154 Decisiones (Wed., 10:05 p.m.) TEL 1.11 155 Corazon Partido (Thu.) TEL 1.10

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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 ABC 22.29 11.56

CBS 12.08 12.97

FOX 10.31 8.84

NBC 7.64 9.00

UNI 4.07 3.96

WB 3.46 3.28

UPN 2.71 3.31

TEL 1.19 1.19

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