'Talent' dips but hangs on to No. 1 spot

L.A. Times Archives

July 7, 2006 12 AM PT

From City News Service

NBC’s “America’s Got Talent” bolstered its bid to become the first hit of television’s summer season by being the most-watched show last week, despite an 11% drop in viewership from its premiere.

The talent show hosted by Regis Philbin attracted slightly more than 11 million viewers for its second episode on June 28, according to figures released by Nielsen Media Research.

The show’s two-hour premiere a week earlier had averaged 12.41 million viewers, which placed it second for the week, behind the sixth and final game of the NBA playoffs on ABC.

The first two episodes of “America’s Got Talent” averaged 46% more viewers than the “Law & Order” reruns that aired on NBC during the same time periods a year earlier.

In its second episode, ABC’s “Master of Champions” drew 4.71 million viewers last Thursday, 23% below its premiere.

The finale of “Gameshow Marathon” opposite it on CBS won the 8 to 9 p.m. time period with 6.83 million viewers. “Marathon” won its slot each time it aired.

With five of the top seven programs between June 26 and Sunday, CBS was the most watched network for the fifth consecutive week, averaging 7.38 million viewers for its prime-time programming. Fox Broadcasting was second, averaging 6.2 million, followed by NBC with 5.81 million, ABC with 4.33 million, UPN with 2.06 million and the WB with 1.79 million.

CBS’ overall margin was a result of its dominance among viewers 55 and older, a group shunned by most advertisers. CBS attracted more than twice as many viewers than Fox in the category.

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Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (June 26-July 2) 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 America’s Got Talent (9 p.m.) NBC 11.02 2 Without a Trace CBS 10.87 3 CSI: Miami CBS 10.78 4 CSI CBS 10.57 5 House (9 p.m.) FOX 9.87

6 CSI: NY CBS 9.19 7 Two and a Half Men CBS 8.86 8 So You Think You Can Dance (Wed.) FOX 8.80 9 So You Think You Can Dance (Thu.) FOX 8.52 10 “How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days” CBS 8.39

11 Law & Order NBC 8.35 12 NCIS CBS 8.28 13 “Fox NASCAR Nextel Cup” FOX 8.25 14 60 Minutes CBS 8.21 15 Criminal Minds CBS 8.14

16 Hell’s Kitchen (9 p.m.) FOX 7.97 17 Cold Case CBS 7.82 18 Old Christine CBS 7.55 19 48 Hours Mystery (Tue.) CBS 7.54 20 Law & Order: Criminal Intent NBC 7.15

21 Law & Order: SVU NBC 7.13 22 King of Queens CBS 7.11 23 Last Comic Standing 4 NBC 7.09 24 Numb3rs CBS 7.06 25 The Unit CBS 7.02

26 House (8 p.m.) FOX 7.00 27 Gameshow Marathon CBS 6.83 28 America’s Got Talent (8 p.m.) NBC 6.66 29 Crossing Jordan NBC 6.43 30 Close to Home CBS 6.15

31 How I Met Your Mother CBS 6.09 32 Law & Order (Fri.) NBC 6.08 33 Dateline: NBC (Sun.) NBC 5.85 Medium NBC 5.85 Dateline: NBC (Fri.) NBC 5.85

36 Treasure Hunters (9 p.m.) NBC 5.79 37 Fear Factor NBC 5.69 38 Primetime ABC 5.67 39 America’s Funniest Home Videos (Fri.) ABC 5.49 40 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (8 p.m.) ABC 5.32

41 “Deep Impact” CBS 5.21 42 Kyle XY ABC 5.18 Ghost Whisperer CBS 5.18 44 According to Jim (9:30 p.m.) ABC 5.17 45 Wife Swap ABC 5.08

46 Supernanny ABC 4.97 47 “Shark: Mind of a Demon” CBS 4.86 48 Windfall NBC 4.73 49 Master of Champions ABC 4.71 50 Boston Legal ABC 4.68

51 According to Jim (8 p.m.) ABC 4.65 52 According to Jim (9 p.m.) ABC 4.63 53 Fea Mas Bella (Thu.) UNI 4.62 54 Hell’s Kitchen (8 p.m.) FOX 4.61 55 20/20 ABC 4.59

56 My Name Is Earl (8 p.m.) NBC 4.55 57 Fea Mas Bella (Wed.) UNI 4.48 58 Fea Mas Bella (Tue.) UNI 4.47 59 Grey’s Anatomy ABC 4.45 60 Fea Mas Bella (Mon.) UNI 4.42

61 According to Jim (8:30 p.m.) ABC 4.30 George Lopez ABC 4.30 63 “Men of Honor” FOX 4.20 64 Dateline: NBC (Sat.) NBC 4.16 65 Treasure Hunters (8 p.m.) NBC 4.08

66 My Name Is Earl (9:30 p.m.) NBC 4.02 67 “Bridget Jones’s Diary” NBC 4.01 68 Las Vegas NBC 3.90 Office (9 p.m.) NBC 3.90 70 Barrera de Amor (Thu.) UNI 3.86

71 Barrera de Amor (Mon.) UNI 3.83 72 Desperate Housewives ABC 3.80 73 Barrera de Amor (Tue.) UNI 3.79 74 WWE Smackdown! UPN 3.76 75 Fea Mas Bella (Fri.) UNI 3.68

76 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (7 p.m.) ABC 3.60 77 Office (8:30 p.m.) NBC 3.54 78 That ‘70s Show (8:30 p.m.) FOX 3.52 79 Freddie ABC 3.51 80 Don Francisco Presenta UNI 3.46

81 48 Hours Mystery (Sat.) CBS 3.43 82 Barrera de Amor (Wed.) UNI 3.39 83 The Simpsons FOX 3.28 84 Wonderful World of Disney ABC 3.27 85 The Evidence ABC 3.26

86 Peregrina (Wed.) UNI 3.25 87 Peregrina (Tue.) UNI 3.13 88 How to Get the Guy ABC 3.10 89 Peregrina (Mon.) UNI 3.04 90 Lost (10 p.m.) ABC 3.02

91 Peregrina (Thu.) UNI 2.99 That ‘70s Show (8 p.m.) FOX 2.99 93 Barrera de Amor (Fri.) UNI 2.96 94 Peregrina (Fri.) UNI 2.95 95 Lost (9 p.m.) ABC 2.78

Cristina UNI 2.78 97 Everybody Hates Chris UPN 2.64 98 Blue Collar TV (8:30 p.m.) WB 2.50 99 Not Uni Presenta UNI 2.49 100 “Gordo y Flaca” UNI 2.46

101 Reba (Sun., 7:30 p.m.) WB 2.40 102 Reba (Fri.) WB 2.37 103 Cantando por un Sueno (7 p.m.) UNI 2.36 104 Girlfriends UPN 2.30 All of Us (Mon.) UPN 2.30

106 Half and Half UPN 2.21 107 Blue Collar TV (8 p.m.) WB 2.20 108 24 (9 p.m.) FOX 2.13 109 7th Heaven (8 p.m.) WB 2.12 110 Living With Fran WB 2.08

111 Que Madre Tan Padre UNI 2.04 112 7th Heaven (9 p.m.) WB 2.02 113 Love Inc. UPN 1.95 114 Reba (Sun., 7 p.m.) WB 1.92 115 One on One (Mon.) UPN 1.91

Sabado Gigante UNI 1.91 117 Smallville WB 1.84 118 24-Friday (8 p.m.) FOX 1.80 119 Cantando por un Sueno (8 p.m.) UNI 1.79 120 Gilmore Girls WB 1.77

121 Eve (Thu.) UPN 1.75 122 “Mexico Decide” UNI 1.61 123 Charmed (8 p.m.) WB 1.60 124 Supernatural WB 1.56 125 Twins WB 1.55

126 What I Like About You WB 1.52 127 Cuts (Thu.) UPN 1.44 128 Charmed (9 p.m.) WB 1.41 129 America’s Next Top Model 6 UPN 1.37 130 Pepper Dennis WB 1.36

131 Casos Familia UNI 1.34 132 One Tree Hill WB 1.32 133 One on One (Wed.) UPN 1.26 134 Eve (Wed.) UPN 1.23 135 Cuts (Wed.) UPN 1.21

All of Us (Wed.) UPN 1.21 137 Tormenta (Mon.) TEL 1.17 138 Decisiones (Thu.) TEL 1.14 139 Tierra de Pasiones (Mon.) TEL 1.05 140 Decisiones (Tue.) TEL 1.04

141 Tormenta (Wed.) TEL 0.99 142 Veronica Mars UPN 0.97 143 Tormenta (Tue.) TEL 0.95 Amores de Mercado (Mon.) TEL 0.95 Tierra de Pasiones (Tue.) TEL 0.95

Tierra de Pasiones (Wed.) TEL 0.95 147 Decisiones (Mon.) TEL 0.90 148 Tierra de Pasiones (Thu.) TEL 0.89 Tormenta (Thu.) TEL 0.89

150 Decisiones (Wed.) TEL 0.87 151 Tormenta (Fri.) TEL 0.84 152 Amores de Mercado (Thu.) TEL 0.80 153 Amores de Mercado (Wed.) TEL 0.79

154 Amores de Mercado (Tue.) TEL 0.78 155 Tierra de Pasiones (Fri.) TEL 0.76

156 Decisiones (Fri.) TEL 0.69 157 Cinemundo del Sabado TEL 0.64 158 Amores de Mercado (Fri.) TEL 0.52 159 Cinemundo Premier TEL 0.50

160 Accion Extrema TEL 0.43

161 Loteria TEL 0.31 “Just for Laughs” TEL 0.31 163 “Decision Mexico” TEL 0.27 164 Corriendo y Grabando TEL 0.26

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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 7.38 11.92

FOX 6.20 9.53

NBC 5.81 9.21