NBC back on top with Olympics

The XX Olympic Winter Games took the chill off NBC, which notched its first weekly ratings win in nearly 1 1/2 years for the week ending Sunday.

Although early ratings for the Turin games have not been as high as those for Salt Lake City in 2002 or Nagano in 1998, Friday’s opening ceremonies plus coverage of competitive events Saturday and Sunday nevertheless helped NBC average 15.6 million viewers in prime time for the week, its first victory since September 2004, according to figures released Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research. CBS was the runner-up (averaging 12.6 million), trailed by ABC (11.8 million) and Fox (11 million).

NBC, running in fourth place for the season that started in September, also finished No. 1 in the advertiser-friendly category of adults ages 18 to 49 for the first time since May.

Fox’s medical drama “House” hit its best number so far (22.2 million viewers), while the week’s most-watched program was Fox’s Tuesday edition of “American Idol” (31.2 million). The Wednesday installment finished No. 2 and helped sink the Grammy Awards to its lowest ratings since at least 1987.

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Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (Feb. 6-12) 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 31.15 2 American Idol (Wed.) FOX 28.74 3 CSI CBS 27.42 4 Grey’s Anatomy (Sun.) ABC 25.42 5 Desperate Housewives ABC 23.47

6 Winter Olympics (Sun.) NBC 23.24 Winter Olympics (Sat) NBC 23.24 8 House FOX 22.24 9 Winter Olympics: Opening Ceremony NBC 22.17 10 Without a Trace CBS 20.34

11 Dancing With the Stars ABC 19.96 12 Survivor: Panama, Exile Island CBS 18.75 13 Lost ABC 18.74 14 CSI: Miami CBS 18.68 15 Grammy Awards CBS 17.00

16 Two and a Half Men CBS 16.33 17 NCIS CBS 16.05 18 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (8 p.m.) ABC 15.90 19 Law & Order: SVU NBC 15.23 20 Dancing With the Stars: Results ABC 14.59

21 Law & Order NBC 14.53 22 ER NBC 14.16 23 24 FOX 13.70 24 Courting Alex CBS 12.99 25 Medium NBC 12.04

26 Criminal Minds CBS 11.99 27 Bones FOX 11.90 28 Las Vegas NBC 11.80 29 King of Queens CBS 11.60 30 60 Minutes CBS 11.34

31 Boston Legal ABC 11.24 32 How I Met Your Mother CBS 10.94 33 Wife Swap ABC 10.83 34 Skating With Celebrities FOX 10.46 35 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (7 p.m.) ABC 10.39

36 My Name Is Earl NBC 10.20 37 Numb3rs CBS 10.00 38 Grey’s Anatomy (Thu.) ABC 9.94 39 Bachelor: Paris ABC 9.68 40 Cold Case CBS 9.59

41 Surface NBC 9.47 42 Invasion ABC 9.09 43 Office NBC 8.95 44 Close to Home CBS 8.93 45 In Justice ABC 8.41

46 According to Jim (9 p.m.) ABC 8.37 47 20/20 ABC 7.87 48 Ghost Whisperer CBS 7.58 49 “Sum of All Fears” CBS 7.57 50 Will & Grace NBC 7.45

51 The Simpsons FOX 7.27 52 “The Green Mile” ABC 7.14 53 Scrubs (9:30 p.m.) NBC 7.10 54 Cops (8:30 p.m.) FOX 7.05 55 Primetime ABC 7.01

56 Crumbs ABC 6.97 57 America’s Most Wanted FOX 6.89 58 According to Jim (8 p.m.) ABC 6.57 59 George Lopez ABC 6.40 60 Cops FOX 6.39

61 Four Kings NBC 6.33 62 Family Guy FOX 6.30 63 Scrubs (9 p.m.) NBC 6.17 64 “Die Another Day” CBS 6.03 65 Bailando por un Sueno UNI 5.98

66 Freddie ABC 5.96 67 Rodney ABC 5.94 68 Biggest Loser: Special Edition NBC 5.90 69 48 Hours Mystery CBS 5.89 7th Heaven WB 5.89

71 War at Home FOX 5.54 72 American Dad FOX 5.43 73 Smallville WB 5.41 74 Gilmore Girls WB 5.40 75 Love Monkey CBS 5.39

76 The O.C. FOX 5.25 77 Contra Viento y Marea (Mon.) UNI 5.19 78 That ‘70s Show (8:30 p.m.) FOX 5.11 79 Contra Viento y Marea (Tue.) UNI 5.07 80 Contra Viento y Marea (Thu.) UNI 5.05

81 Alborada (Mon.) UNI 5.04 82 Alborada (Tue.) UNI 5.03 83 Alborada (Thu.) UNI 4.94 84 WWE Smackdown! UPN 4.83 85 Contra Viento y Marea (Wed.) UNI 4.79

86 That ‘70S Show (8 p.m.) FOX 4.68 87 Piel de Otono (Thu.) UNI 4.67 88 Piel de Otono (Mon.) UNI 4.65 Piel de Otono (Wed.) UNI 4.65 90 Everybody Hates Chris UPN 4.39

91 Fear Factor NBC 4.29 92 Alborada (Fri.) UNI 4.28 93 Supernatural WB 4.27 94 Piel de Otono (Tue.) UNI 4.26 95 Contra Viento y Marea (Fri.) UNI 4.23

96 Alborada (Wed.) UNI 4.21 97 King of the Hill FOX 4.18 98 Piel de Otono (Fri.) UNI 4.15 99 Beauty and the Geek (Thu.) WB 4.08 100 Girlfriends (Mon.) UPN 3.92

101 Malcolm in the Middle FOX 3.86 102 All of Us UPN 3.71 103 Half and Half UPN 3.57 104 Aqui y Ahora (Thu.) UNI 3.51 105 Arrested Development (9 p.m.) FOX 3.47

106 Arrested Development (9:30 p.m.) FOX 3.43 107 “Por Siempre ... Selena” UNI 3.32 108 Charmed (8 p.m.) WB 3.28 109 Arrested Development (8:30 p.m.) FOX 3.18 110 Arrested Development (8 p.m.) FOX 3.14

111 One on One UPN 3.06 112 Cristina (Mon.) UNI 3.00 113 Sabado Gigante UNI 2.99 114 Don Francisco Presenta UNI 2.95 115 Vecinos UNI 2.92

116 One Tree Hill WB 2.89 117 Hora Pico UNI 2.78 118 Love Inc. UPN 2.72 119 Beauty and the Geek (Wed.) WB 2.71 120 Reba-Begin (7:30 p.m.) WB 2.63

121 Related WB 2.48 122 Cuts UPN 2.46 123 Eve (9 p.m.) UPN 2.43 124 Casos Familia UNI 2.15 125 Reba (7 p.m.) WB 2.10

126 Veronica Mars UPN 2.05 127 Cuerpo del Deseo (Mon.) TEL 2.04 128 Charmed (9 p.m.) WB 1.92

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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 NBC 15.55 9.30

CBS 12.59 12.95

ABC 11.85 11.58

FOX 11.03 8.93

UNI 4.27 4.01

WB 3.39 3.29

UPN 2.96 3.30

TEL 1.13 1.16

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