‘Idol,’ NFL make Fox No. 1

Fox Broadcasting drew record viewership last week, not counting weeks with Super Bowl or World Series games, thanks to “American Idol” and the NFC championship, Nielsen Media Research reported Tuesday.

Fox had the three most-watched programs and attracted an average of 19.24 million viewers to record its first weekly victory since May 23-29, which included the “American Idol” season finale.

“American Idol’s” two-hour season premiere last Tuesday attracted 35.53 million viewers, the most for an “American Idol” premiere in its five-season run and the second-highest of any prime-time program this season, trailing only the 35.63 million for ABC’s Jan. 4 coverage of the Rose Bowl game.

In its first outing, CBS’ “Love Monkey” finished third in its slot with 8.63 million viewers.

The inaugural broadcast of the Miss America pageant on cable’s CMT drew 3.07 million viewers Sunday, making it the most-watched program in the channel’s 23-year history. However, the viewership was just 31% of the 9.82 million who watched Sept. 18, 2004, the final time the pageant was shown on ABC.

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Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (Jan. 16-22) 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 35.53 2 NFC Championship FOX 35.23 3 American Idol (Wed.) FOX 31.65 4 CSI (Thu., 9 p.m.) CBS 27.13 5 Desperate Housewives ABC 25.33

6 “NFC Championship Post-Game 1” FOX 24.64 7 Without a Trace CBS 23.12 8 Grey’s Anatomy ABC 21.04 9 Lost ABC 19.13 10 Dancing With the Stars ABC 18.98

11 “Golden Globe Awards” NBC 18.76 12 Skating With Celebrities FOX 18.74 13 NCIS (Tue.) CBS 17.74 14 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition ABC 16.11 15 Law & Order: SVU (Tue.) NBC 16.10

16 24 (9 p.m.) FOX 15.70 17 CSI: NY CBS 15.55 18 “Dancing With the Stars Results” ABC 15.44 19 “NFC Championship Post-Game 2” FOX 15.28 20 CSI (Thu., 8 p.m.) CBS 14.79

21 CSI: Miami CBS 14.54 22 Criminal Minds CBS 14.10 23 24 (8 p.m.) FOX 14.08 24 Two and a Half Men CBS 13.47 25 CSI (Tue.) CBS 12.39

26 Law & Order (Wed.) NBC 12.38 27 Boston Legal ABC 11.84 28 60 Minutes CBS 11.50 29 Crumbs ABC 11.37 30 Out of Practice CBS 11.24

31 Crossing Jordan NBC 11.10 32 Numb3rs CBS 10.92 33 Commander in Chief ABC 10.79 34 My Name Is Earl NBC 10.78 35 Law & Order: Criminal Intent (Sun.) NBC 10.51

36 Cold Case CBS 10.10 37 20/20 ABC 9.46 38 Wife Swap ABC 9.22 39 Invasion ABC 9.00 40 Close to Home CBS 8.99

41 King of Queens CBS 8.97 42 In Justice ABC 8.91 43 Dateline: NBC (Sun.) NBC 8.88 44 Office NBC 8.70 45 Love Monkey CBS 8.63

46 Dateline: NBC (Fri.) NBC 8.52 47 NCIS (Sun.) CBS 8.38 48 America’s Funniest Home Videos ABC 8.26 49 Without a Trace CBS 8.13 50 How I Met Your Mother CBS 7.93

51 E-Ring NBC 7.87 52 Ghost Whisperer CBS 7.81 53 Bachelor: Paris (10 p.m.) ABC 7.76 54 Law & Order: SVU (Sat.) NBC 7.73 55 The West Wing NBC 7.71

56 Will & Grace NBC 7.49 57 Cops (9:30 p.m.) FOX 7.44 58 Four Kings NBC 7.43 59 ER NBC 7.42 60 Still Standing CBS 7.32

61 Yes, Dear CBS 7.13 62 Biggest Loser NBC 7.13 63 America’s Most Wanted FOX 7.04 64 “Enemy of the State” ABC 6.99 65 48 Hours Mystery CBS 6.94

66 Primetime ABC 6.67 67 Lost ABC 6.52 68 Cops FOX 6.43 69 Most Outrageous Moments on Live TV (8:30 p.m.) NBC 6.36 Bachelor: Paris (9 p.m.) ABC 6.36

71 Crimetime Saturday (8 p.m.) CBS 6.22 72 Crimetime Saturday (9 p.m.) CBS 6.05 73 Scrubs (9:30 p.m.) NBC 5.93 74 Scrubs (9 p.m.) NBC 5.87 75 Book of Daniel NBC 5.81

76 Piel de Otono (Mon.) UNI 5.71 77 Gilmore Girls WB 5.67 78 That ‘70s Show (8:30 p.m.) FOX 5.60 79 Law & Order: Criminal Intent (Sat.) NBC 5.56 80 Most Outrageous Moments on Live TV (8 p.m.) NBC 5.52

81 Contra Viento y Marea (Mon.) UNI 5.37 82 The O.C. FOX 5.36 83 Law & Order (Sat.) NBC 5.30 84 Contra Viento y Marea (Thu.) UNI 5.25 85 That ‘70s Show (8 p.m.) FOX 5.23

86 Alborada (Tue.) UNI 5.19 87 Contra Viento y Marea (Wed.) UNI 5.15 88 Contra Viento y Marea (Tue.) UNI 5.08 89 Piel de Otono (Tue.) UNI 5.05 90 Piel de Otono (Thu.) UNI 5.04

91 Alborada (Mon.) UNI 5.02 92 According to Jim ABC 4.92 93 Smallville WB 4.90 94 Alborada (Wed.) UNI 4.85 95 Bailando por un Sueno UNI 4.82

96 Piel de Otono (Wed.) UNI 4.80 97 WWE Smackdown! UPN 4.79 98 Trading Spouses FOX 4.77 99 Alborada (Thu.) UNI 4.71 100 Rodney ABC 4.60

101 Alborada (Fri.) UNI 4.55 102 Contra Viento y Marea (Fri.) UNI 4.46 103 Piel de Otono (Fri.) UNI 4.39 104 Fear Factor NBC 4.36 105 Beauty and the Geek (Thu.) WB 4.16

106 Supernatural WB 3.86 107 Reba (Fri.) WB 3.85 108 Bernie Mac (8:30 p.m.) FOX 3.82 109 Everybody Hates Chris UPN 3.72 110 Charmed WB 3.67

111 Bernie Mac (8 p.m.) FOX 3.54 112 Girlfriends UPN 3.11 113 Casos Vida UNI 3.05 114 Don Francisco Presenta UNI 3.04 Sabado Gigante UNI 3.04

116 Aqui y Ahora (Thu.) UNI 3.03 117 All of Us UPN 3.01 118 7th Heaven WB 2.99 119 Half and Half UPN 2.97 120 Cristina UNI 2.85

121 Twins WB 2.76 Asi es Gilberto Gless UNI 2.76 123 Beauty and the Geek (Wed.) WB 2.69 124 One Tree Hill WB 2.67 125 One on One UPN 2.48

126 Reba (Sun.) WB 2.47 127 Hora Pico UNI 2.35 128 Love Inc. UPN 2.19 129 Perplejos UNI 2.17 130 Supernatural WB 2.12

131 Casos Familia UNI 2.05 132 Eve UPN 2.02 133 What I Like About You WB 2.01 134 Living With Fran WB 1.98 135 Cuts UPN 1.92

136 South Beach (Wed.) UPN 1.69 137 Related WB 1.40 138 Veronica Mars UPN 1.38 139 South Beach (Thu.) UPN 1.17

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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 FOX 19.24 8.54

CBS 11.87 12.99

ABC 11.45 11.00

NBC 9.62 9.12

UNI 4.12 3.89

WB 3.22 3.27

UPN 2.57 3.38

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