Yet again, ‘Talent’ takes the No. 1 spot

With few first-run alternatives in an Independence Day week that traditionally has the lowest television viewing of the year, a pair of talent shows broadcast against each other were the week’s two most-watched programs.

NBC’s “America’s Got Talent” drew 12.03 million viewers, making it the most-watched program for the second consecutive week, according to figures released Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research.

A 90-minute episode of Fox’s “So You Think You Can Dance,” whose final hour aired opposite “America’s Got Talent,” averaged 9.78 million viewers, putting it second among prime-time programs broadcast between July 3 and Sunday.

There weren’t enough viewers left for the CBS talent show “Rock Star: Supernova” to have a winning season premiere. Its 91-minute debut, broadcast from 8 to 9:31 p.m. Wednesday opposite the first 31 minutes of “America’s Got Talent” and the first 61 minutes of “So You Think You Can Dance,” drew 5.3 million viewers.

But there were reasons for CBS to be optimistic about “Supernova.” The season premiere’s audience grew each half-hour, and viewership for a Thursday episode -- against a “So You Think You Can Dance” episode and reruns of “The Office” on NBC and “Grey’s Anatomy” on ABC -- grew 14% to 6.02 million.

The week’s most-watched cable program airing entirely in prime time was Friday’s 90-minute premiere of USA Network’s “Psych,” averaging 6.06 million viewers, this season’s largest audience for the premiere of a scripted series on basic cable.

For the sixth consecutive week, CBS was the week’s most-watched network, averaging 6.5 million viewers for its prime-time programming. NBC was second, averaging 6.02 million.

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Prime-Time TV Rankings

Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (July 3-9) 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 America’s Got Talent (9 p.m.) NBC 12.03 2 So You Think You Can Dance (Wed., 8:30 p.m.) FOX 9.78 3 CSI (10 p.m.) CBS 9.70 4 60 Minutes CBS 9.11 5 Law & Order: Criminal Intent (Sun.) NBC 8.86

6 So You Think You Can Dance (Thu.) FOX 8.84 7 Cold Case CBS 8.82 8 CSI: Miami (Mon.) CBS 8.66 9 CSI: Miami (Wed.) CBS 8.22 10 Law & Order (Wed.) NBC 8.16

11 “Macy’s 4th of July Fireworks” NBC 8.01 12 Grey’s Anatomy (10 p.m.) ABC 7.73 13 Big Brother 7 CBS 7.54 14 Law & Order: SVU (Tue.) NBC 7.51 15 Crossing Jordan NBC 7.44

16 So You Think You Can Dance (Wed., 8 p.m.) FOX 7.24 17 Grey’s Anatomy (9 p.m.) ABC 7.23 18 NCIS (Fri.) CBS 7.20 19 Dateline: NBC (Sun.) NBC 7.07 20 “Boston Pops Fireworks” CBS 6.95

21 America’s Got Talent (8 p.m.) NBC 6.68 22 Law & Order (Sat.) NBC 6.67 23 Two and a Half Men CBS 6.56 24 Grey’s Anatomy (Sun.) ABC 6.42 25 20/20 ABC 6.41

26 NCIS (Tue.) CBS 6.33 27 Numb3rs CBS 6.30 28 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition ABC 6.05 29 Rock Star: Supernova (Thu.) CBS 6.02 30 Dateline: NBC (Fri.) NBC 5.93

31 Family Guy FOX 5.87 32 House (9 p.m.) FOX 5.76 33 “Mission Impossible II” CBS 5.66 34 America’s Funniest Home Videos (Sun.) ABC 5.64 35 “Saving Milly” CBS 5.63

36 My Name Is Earl NBC 5.59 37 The Unit CBS 5.56 38 House (8 p.m.) FOX 5.48 39 America’s Funniest Home Videos (Fri.) ABC 5.45 40 Law & Order (Fri.) NBC 5.34

41 The New Adventures of Old Christine CBS 5.32 42 Rock Star: Supernova (9 p.m.) CBS 5.30 43 Supernanny ABC 5.21 44 “Master of Champions” ABC 5.19 45 America’s Most Wanted FOX 5.17

46 King of Queens CBS 5.11 47 “An American Celebration at Ford’s Theatre” ABC 5.06 48 Treasure Hunters (9 p.m.) NBC 4.95 49 The Simpsons FOX 4.91 50 Kyle XY ABC 4.88

51 Fea Mas Bella (Thu.) UNI 4.83 52 Desperate Housewives ABC 4.80 53 War at Home FOX 4.69 54 How I Met Your Mother CBS 4.67 Most Outrageous Moments (8:30 p.m.) NBC 4.67

56 George Lopez ABC 4.63 57 American Dad FOX 4.56 58 Wife Swap ABC 4.53 59 Cops (8:30 p.m.) FOX 4.50 60 Windfall NBC 4.48

61 Fea Mas Bella (Wed.) UNI 4.47 62 “Mr. Deeds” FOX 4.41 63 “Hero’s Welcome” CBS 4.39 64 Wonderful World of Disney ABC 4.37 65 Most Outrageous Moments (8 p.m.) NBC 4.34

66 Medium NBC 4.21 67 The Office (8 p.m.) NBC 4.20 68 That ‘70s Show (8:30 p.m.) FOX 4.17 69 Fea Mas Bella (Fri.) UNI 4.14 70 WWE Smackdown! UPN 4.02

71 Law & Order: Criminal Intent (Sat.) NBC 4.01 72 Las Vegas NBC 3.99 73 Dateline: NBC (Sat.) NBC 3.89 74 Barrera de Amor (Wed.) UNI 3.88 75 Cops (8 p.m.) FOX 3.85

76 The Office (9:30 p.m.) NBC 3.82 77 Peregrina (Thu.) UNI 3.80 78 Fea Mas Bella (Mon.) UNI 3.75 79 Office (9 p.m.) NBC 3.67 80 Freddie ABC 3.66

81 48 Hours Mystery CBS 3.60 82 Peregrina (Wed.) UNI 3.44 Barrera de Amor (Thu.) UNI 3.44 84 That ‘70s Show (8 p.m.) FOX 3.40 85 According to Jim (9:30 p.m.) ABC 3.35

86 According to Jim (8 p.m.) ABC 3.33 87 Peregrina (Fri.) UNI 3.21 88 Barrera de Amor (Fri.) UNI 3.18 89 According to Jim (8:30 p.m.) ABC 3.16 According to Jim (9 p.m.) ABC 3.16

91 Fea Mas Bella (Tue.) UNI 3.04 92 Lost (10 p.m.) ABC 3.03 Treasure Hunters (8 p.m.) NBC 3.03 Cantando por un Sueno UNI 3.03 95 King of the Hill FOX 2.96

96 Peregrina (Mon.) UNI 2.91 97 The Evidence ABC 2.90 98 Don Francisco Presenta UNI 2.89 99 Barrera de Amor (Mon.) UNI 2.87 100 Lost (9 p.m.) ABC 2.75

101 How to Get the Guy ABC 2.72 102 Aqui y Ahora UNI 2.70 103 Cristina UNI 2.69 104 Reba (Fri.) WB 2.65 105 Blue Collar TV 2 (8:30 p.m.) WB 2.61

106 Blue Collar TV (8 p.m.) WB 2.56 Barrera de Amor (Tue.) UNI 2.56 108 Everybody Hates Chris UPN 2.54 109 Reba (Sun., 7:30 p.m.) WB 2.44 110 Peregrina (Tue.) UNI 2.38

111 Malcolm in the Middle FOX 2.18 112 Living With Fran WB 2.18 113 Reba (Sun., 7 p.m.) WB 2.03 114 Smallville WB 2.00 115 Que Madre Tan Padre UNI 1.89

116 Sabado Gigante UNI 1.88 117 “Conteo Final a Premios Juventud” UNI 1.87 Eve (Wed.) UPN 1.87 24 (9 p.m.) FOX 1.87 120 Love Inc. UPN 1.85

121 24 (8 p.m.) FOX 1.79 122 Eve (Thu.) UPN 1.76 123 Cuts (Wed.) UPN 1.76 124 All of Us (Wed.) UPN 1.70 125 What I Like About You WB 1.69

126 Charmed (8 p.m.) WB 1.68 127 Girlfriends (Mon.) UPN 1.67 One on One (Wed.) UPN 1.67 129 All of Us (Mon.) UPN 1.62 Charmed (9 p.m.) WB 1.62

131 Primer ... Mundial UNI 1.59 132 Twins WB 1.58 133 Supernatural WB 1.56 134 7th Heaven (8 p.m.) WB 1.54 135 Half and Half UPN 1.49

136 Cuts (Thu.) UPN 1.48 7th Heaven (9 p.m.) WB 1.48 138 One on One (Mon.) UPN 1.42 139 Vecinos UNI 1.41 140 Pepper Dennis WB 1.34

141 Casos Familia UNI 1.32 142 One Tree Hill WB 1.31 143 Gilmore Girls WB 1.22 144 Tierra de Pasiones (Wed.) TEL 1.11 145 Decisiones (Fri.) TEL 1.10

146 Tierra de Pasiones (Thu.) TEL 1.08 147 Tormenta (Wed.) TEL 1.05 148 America’s Next Top Model 6 UPN 1.02 149 Tormenta (Thu.) TEL 1.01 150 Tormenta (Fri.) TEL 0.97

Amores de Mercado (Wed.) TEL 0.94 Cinemundo Premier TEL 0.94 153 Decisiones (Tue.) TEL 0.92 154 Tierra de Pasiones (Fri.) TEL 0.91 155 Decisiones (Wed.) TEL 0.90

156 Cinemundo Premier TEL 0.87 157 Veronica Mars UPN 0.86 158 Decisiones (Mon.) TEL 0.85 159 Decisiones (Thu.) TEL 0.83 160 Amores de Mercado (Fri.) TEL 0.82

161 Tierra de Pasiones (Tue.) TEL 0.78 162 Tierra de Pasiones (Mon.) TEL 0.77 163 Amores de Mercado (Thu.) TEL 0.76 Cinemundo del Sabado TEL 0.76

165 Decisiones TEL 0.74

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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 6.50 11.80

NBC 6.02 9.13

FOX 5.11 9.42

ABC 4.79 9.94

UNI 2.95 3.63

UPN 2.04 2.95

WB 1.74 2.91

TEL 0.87 0.90

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