CBS closes 2005 with a bang: 7 shows in Top 10

The final week of 2005 was a predictably quiet one for prime-time TV. With most viewers caught up in the holiday swirl, networks hewed to their seasonal mix of series repeats, football match-ups and a smattering of New Year’s specials.

With seven of the top 10 programs, CBS hauled away the prize as most-watched network for the week ending Jan. 1, according to figures released this week by Nielsen Media Research.

Leading the way was a Thursday repeat of “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation,” the week’s No. 1 program with 17.6 million viewers.

Overall, CBS averaged 10.1 million viewers for the week, trailed by ABC (8.1 million), NBC (7 million) and Fox (5.7 million).

ABC was tops among viewers ages 18 to 49, the demographic most prized by advertisers. The network waved goodbye to “Monday Night Football” (the series moves to ESPN next season) with a New England Patriots-New York Jets contest that was the week’s No. 2 program in the 18-49 demographic and among total viewers (a relatively tame 14.4 million).

On Saturday, the prime-time portion of ABC’s “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve” -- featuring Clark’s first TV appearance since suffering a stroke in December 2004 -- led its time slot (7.7 million) but faced surprisingly tough competition from a repeat of CBS’ “48 Hours Mystery” (7.3 million).

Season to date, ABC is flat in 18 to 49, while its main rivals have experienced declines. But the network hasn’t quite been able to catch No. 1 CBS, which has an ever-so-thin advantage of one-tenth of a “demo” rating point over ABC. NBC and Fox are tied for third.

On basic cable, football dominated; the week’s top five most-watched programs were pro or college games on ESPN. Sunday’s Rams-Cowboys contest was the week’s top draw (9.1 million viewers), followed closely by Saturday’s Giants-Raiders game (8.4 million).

Scott Collins

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*--* Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (Dec. 26-Jan. 1) 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. Program Net- work View- ers Program Net- work View- ers

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*--* 1 CSI CBS 17.65 2 Monday Night Football ABC 14.43 3 NFL Monday Showcase ABC 13.34 4 CSI: Miami CBS 12.93 5 The OT (football post-game) FOX 12.75

6 Desperate Housewives ABC 12.39 7 NCIS CBS 12.19 8 Two and a Half Men CBS 12.14 9 Without a Trace CBS 11.71 10 CSI: NY CBS 11.51

11 Criminal Minds (Thu.) CBS 11.45 12 Cold Case CBS 11.04 13 “Kennedy Center Honors” CBS 10.85 14 In Justice ABC 10.53 15 Criminal Minds (Wed.) CBS 10.39

16 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition ABC 10.06 17 Law & Order: SVU NBC 9.87 18 60 Minutes CBS 9.85 19 Numb3rs CBS 9.83 20 Out of Practice CBS 9.53

21 King of Queens CBS 9.35 22 Law & Order NBC 9.15 23 Close to Home CBS 9.14 24 House (Tue.) FOX 8.62 25 Dateline: NBC (Fri.) NBC 8.59

26 My Name Is Earl NBC 8.54 27 “Surrender Dorothy” CBS 8.51 28 Crossing Jordan (Sun.) NBC 8.29 29 “ABC Extreme Bloopers” ABC 8.14 30 How I Met Your Mother CBS 8.05

31 Primetime ABC 8.04 32 Medium NBC 8.02 33 America’s Funniest Home ABC 8.00 34 “CBS Evening News Special” CBS 7.97 35 20/20 ABC 7.95

36 Las Vegas NBC 7.92 37 “New Year’s Rockin’ Eve ‘06” ABC 7.68 38 Law & Order: Criminal Intent (Fri.) NBC 7.48 39 Primetime ABC 7.47 40 Ghost Whisperer CBS 7.42

41 Law & Order: Criminal Intent (Sat.) NBC 7.39 42 Fear Factor NBC 7.37 43 48 Hours Mystery CBS 7.32 44 According to Jim ABC 7.18 45 Law &Order;: Criminal Intent (Wed.) NBC 7.17

46 Crossing Jordan (Mon.) NBC 7.11 47 E-Ring NBC 7.10 48 Crimetime Saturday (9 p.m.) CBS 7.09 49 Yes, Dear CBS 7.06 50 George Lopez ABC 6.97

51 ER NBC 6.87 Dateline: NBC (Sun.) NBC 6.87 53 Crimetime Saturday (8 p.m.) CBS 6.72 54 Rodney ABC 6.59 55 Still Standing CBS 6.45

56 Lost ABC 6.43 57 Law & Order: Criminal Intent (Sun.) NBC 6.27 58 Freddie ABC 6.24 59 Wife Swap ABC 6.21 60 Lost ABC 6.10

61 Boston Legal ABC 6.07 62 “Vertical Limit” FOX 5.96 63 House (Mon.) FOX 5.79 64 “Snow Dogs” ABC 5.68 65 Supernanny ABC 5.48

66 Will & Grace NBC 5.44 67 Joey NBC 5.33 68 Office NBC 5.32 69 Bones (Tue.) FOX 5.27 70 Trading Spouses FOX 5.24

71 Contra Viento y Marea (Thu.) UNI 5.10 72 “Shallow Hal” FOX 4.96 73 That ‘70s Show FOX 4.86 74 Hope & Faith ABC 4.74 75 Alborada (Tue.) UNI 4.61

76 Alborada (Thu.) UNI 4.54 Piel de Otono (Thu.) UNI 4.54 Contra Viento y Marea (Wed.) UNI 4.54 79 Alborada (Wed.) UNI 4.41 80 Alborada (Mon.) UNI 4.20

Contra Viento y Marea (Mon.) UNI 4.20 82 Hot Properties ABC 4.18 “A Knight’s Tale” NBC 4.18 84 Contra Viento y Marea (Tue.) UNI 4.15 85 Piel de Otono (Wed.) UNI 4.11

86 Piel de Otono (Tue.) UNI 4.07 87 Contra Viento y Marea (Fri.) UNI 4.04 88 WWE Smackdown! UPN 3.99 89 House (Sat.) FOX 3.83 The Simpsons FOX 3.83

Piel de Otono (Mon.) UNI 3.83 92 Piel de Otono (Fri.) UNI 3.80 93 Stacked FOX 3.78 94 Family Guy FOX 3.69 95 Everybody Hates Chris UPN 3.59

96 “Sun Bowl” (S) CBS 3.53 97 Casos Vida R: Ed. (Tue.) UNI 3.36 98 Gran Noche Alborada UNI 3.27 99 “Feliz 2006” UNI 3.23 100 “Popeye’s Voyage” FOX 3.17

101 “War at Home” FOX 3.16 102 Aqui y Ahora (Thu.) UNI 3.11 103 Don Francisco Presenta (Wed). UNI 3.05 104 Bones (Sat.) FOX 3.04 105 Cristina (Mon.) UNI 2.94

106 Smallville WB 2.87 107 Arrested Development (8 p.m.) FOX 2.83 108 Arrested Development (8:30 p.m.) FOX 2.77 Girlfriends UPN 2.77 110 All of Us UPN 2.67

111 “All About the Benjamins” UPN 2.65 Gilmore Girls WB 2.65 113 7th Heaven WB 2.64 114 Half and Half UPN 2.63 115 Sabado Gigante UNI 2.50

116 Reba (7:30 p.m.) WB 2.46 117 Supernatural (Tue.) WB 2.28 One on One UPN 2.28 119 “Deliver Us From Eva” WB 2.22 120 Love Inc. (Thu.) UPN 2.19

Supernatural (Thu.) WB 2.19 122 Charmed WB 2.11 123 Reba (7 p.m.) WB 2.07 124 “Latin Grammy 2005” UNI 2.06 125 Supernatural (Mon.) WB 1.83

126 Supernatural (Wed.) WB 1.78 127 One Tree Hill WB 1.75 128 Eve (Wed.) UPN 1.71

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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 10.06 12.93

ABC 8.06 10.38

NBC 7.01 9.07

FOX 5.74 7.91

UNI 3.44 3.44

UPN 2.59 3.50

WB 2.19 3.32

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