‘People’s Choice’? Hardly

CBS’ broadcast gets the lowest ratings in the award show’s 32-year history.

CBS’ “People’s Choice Awards” did not live up to its name last week, drawing the smallest audience in its 32-year history, according to Nielsen Media Research figures released Wednesday.

The telecast drew 9.75 million viewers, down 1% from last year’s telecast, which attracted 9.89 million, the previous low. The entertainment awards show drew its largest audience in 1977, with 35.32 million viewers.

Viewership for awards shows has generally dropped in recent years because the proliferation of such shows takes away their uniqueness.

Like all television programming, they are also affected by growing competition from the Internet, cable television and home video.

Television’s coverage of the Hollywood award season began with the WB -- the least watched of the six major broadcast networks -- drawing 2.84 million viewers for its telecast of the “Critics’ Choice Awards,” a 5% increase over the 2.71 million who watched last year’s telecast.

CBS was back in its customary first-place position in the network race, a week after ABC’s five prime-time football telecasts enabled it to end CBS’ 15-week winning streak to start the season.

An average of 14.88 million viewers watched CBS between Jan. 9 and Sunday. ABC was second with 11.72 million, followed by Fox with 10.25 million, NBC with 9.15 million, the WB with 3.47 million and UPN with 2.89 million.

CBS has finished first 31 of the last 33 weeks and also led among viewers ages 18 to 49 -- the group targeted by ABC, Fox and NBC -- and ages 25 to 54, its core audience.

Last week was CBS’ turn to benefit from football, as Saturday’s telecast of the Denver Broncos-New England Patriots playoff game was the week’s most-watched show, attracting 26.25 million viewers. CBS also had the week’s most-watched new series, “Criminal Minds,” which was 11th overall for the week with 15.92 million viewers.

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Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (Jan. 9-16) 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 NFL Divisional Playoff: New England-Denver CBS 26.25 2 Desperate Housewives ABC 22.52 3 Lost (9 p.m.) ABC 20.56 4 CSI: Miami CBS 20.15 5 Grey’s Anatomy ABC 18.97

6 CSI CBS 17.79 7 Dancing With the Stars ABC 17.36 8 Two and a Half Men CBS 17.20 9 NCIS CBS 17.19 10 24 (8 p.m.) FOX 17.01

11 Criminal Minds CBS 15.92 12 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (8 p.m.) ABC 15.56 13 24 (9 p.m.) FOX 15.48 14 ER NBC 15.40 15 House (Tue.) FOX 14.83

16 Law & Order: SVU NBC 14.72 17 Cold Case CBS 14.60 18 Without a Trace CBS 14.23 19 “Jesse Stone: Night Passage” CBS 13.94 20 Out of Practice CBS 13.74

21 “Dancing With the Stars Results” ABC 13.66 22 Lost (8 p.m.) ABC 13.52 23 CSI: NY CBS 13.17 24 Numb3rs CBS 12.98 25 Law & Order NBC 12.83

26 My Name Is Earl NBC 12.49 27 Las Vegas NBC 12.27 28 King of Queens CBS 12.11 29 Crumbs ABC 11.81 30 How I Met Your Mother CBS 11.49

31 Commander in Chief ABC 11.40 32 Medium (Mon.) NBC 11.39 33 Boston Legal ABC 11.21 34 Close to Home CBS 11.20 35 Wife Swap ABC 11.01

36 Ghost Whisperer CBS 10.92 37 Crossing Jordan (Sun.) NBC 10.83 38 Law & Order: Criminal Intent NBC 10.82 39 Office NBC 10.27 40 CSI: Miami (Thu.) CBS 10.09

41 60 Minutes CBS 10.03 42 20/20 ABC 9.98 43 Dateline: NBC (Fri.) NBC 9.90 44 “People’s Choice Awards” CBS 9.75 45 Will & Grace NBC 9.69

46 Invasion ABC 9.65 47 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (7 p.m.) ABC 9.23 48 Primetime ABC 9.15 49 Four Kings NBC 9.12 50 In Justice ABC 8.74

51 House (Mon.) FOX 8.73 52 Still Standing CBS 8.44 53 Yes, Dear CBS 8.40 54 E-Ring NBC 8.35 Surface NBC 8.35

56 Law & Order: SVU (Sat.) NBC 7.97 57 Cops (8:30 p.m.) FOX 7.77 58 Most Outrageous Moments on Live TV (8:30 p.m.) NBC 7.59 59 House (Mon.) FOX 7.51 60 According to Jim ABC 7.50

61 Cops (8 p.m.) FOX 7.43 62 America’s Most Wanted FOX 7.42 63 Rodney ABC 7.23 64 Fear Factor NBC 7.17 65 U.S. Figure Skating Championships (8 p.m.) ABC 6.98

66 Scrubs (9 p.m.) NBC 6.87 Scrubs (9:30 p.m.) NBC 6.87 68 Book of Daniel NBC 6.86 69 Most Outrageous Moments on Live TV (8 p.m.) NBC 6.85 70 Biggest Loser: Special Edition NBC 6.43

71 The West Wing NBC 6.35 72 Emily’s Reasons Why Not ABC 6.26 73 Bachelor: Paris ABC 6.24 74 Dateline: NBC (Sun.) NBC 6.02 75 Contra Viento y Marea (Thu.) UNI 5.85

76 Gilmore Girls WB 5.79 77 Bones FOX 5.65 78 Jake in Progress ABC 5.58 79 That ‘70s Show (Thu., 8:30 p.m.) FOX 5.54 80 Trading Spouses FOX 5.52

81 Crossing Jordan (Sat.) NBC 5.50 82 Smallville WB 5.45 83 Nanny 911 FOX 5.36 84 Contra Viento y Marea (Mon.) UNI 5.34 85 Contra Viento y Marea (Tue.) UNI 5.33

86 WWE Smackdown! UPN 5.29 87 Contra Viento y Marea (Wed.) UNI 5.28 88 Medium (Sat.) NBC 5.15 That ‘70s Show (Wed.) FOX 5.15 90 Alborada (Mon.) UNI 5.14

91 The O.C. FOX 5.13 92 Alborada (Thu.) UNI 5.13 93 Piel de Otono (Thu.) UNI 5.12 94 That ‘70s Show (Thu., 8 p.m.) FOX 5.07 95 Bailando por Un Sueno UNI 5.03

96 Piel de Otono (Fri.) UNI 4.99 97 Piel de Otono (Wed.) UNI 4.96 98 Beauty and the Geek WB 4.95 99 Alborada (Tue.) UNI 4.81 100 Alborada (Wed.) UNI 4.74

101 Piel de Otono (Tue.) UNI 4.67 102 Alborada (Fri.) UNI 4.58 103 Cristina (Mon.) UNI 4.57 104 Piel de Otono (Mon.) UNI 4.53 105 Contra Viento y Marea (Fri.) UNI 4.46

106 Stacked FOX 4.31 107 Supernatural WB 4.23 108 Bernie Mac FOX 3.82 109 Malcolm in the Middle FOX 3.80 110 Everybody Hates Chris UPN 3.73

111 Reba (Fri.) WB 3.65 112 Charmed WB 3.47 113 Don Francisco Presenta UNI 3.36 114 Aqui y Ahora (Thu.) UNI 3.33 115 One Tree Hill WB 3.23

116 Asi Es Gilberto Gless UNI 3.02 117 Sabado Gigante UNI 2.98 118 Twins WB 2.96 119 Reba (Sun., 7:30 p.m.) WB 2.89 120 “Critic’s Choice Awards” WB 2.84

121 Casos Vida UNI 2.66 122 Girlfriends UPN 2.61 123 “Beauty & the Geek Casting Call” WB 2.60 All of Us UPN 2.60 125 Hora Pico UNI 2.57

126 Half and Half UPN 2.46 127 One on One UPN 2.41 128 Reba (Sun., 7 p.m.) WB 2.25 129 Love Inc. UPN 2.24 130 Perplejos UNI 2.21

131 South Beach UPN 2.12 132 “Blue Crush” UPN 2.08 133 Eve UPN 1.95 Living With Fran WB 1.95 What I Like About You WB 1.95

136 Casos Familia UNI 1.91 137 Supernatural WB 1.87 138 Cuts UPN 1.78

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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 14.88 13.06

ABC 11.72 10.98

FOX 10.25 7.94

NBC 9.15 9.09

UNI 4.30 3.81

WB 3.47 3.27

UPN 2.89 3.43

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