For summertime viewers, it’s all just fun and games

CBS’ “Gameshow Marathon” and NBC’s “Last Comic Standing” both had winning premieres in the first full week of television’s summer season, according to figures released Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research.

The premiere of “Gameshow Marathon” won its Wednesday 8-9 p.m. time period last week with 8.17 million viewers against a new episode of “Dateline” on NBC and reruns on the four other major broadcast networks.

Viewership grew to 8.33 million for the second episode on Thursday, which won the 8-9 p.m. time period against the opening hour of ABC’s coverage of the Scripps National Spelling Bee and reruns on the four other major broadcast networks.

“Last Comic Standing,” which had success in the summers of 2003 and 2004 but disappeared after being a prime-time flop in the fall of 2004, attracted 8.59 million viewers for its two-hour season premiere last Tuesday.

It won its time period against reruns on CBS, the WB, UPN, two reruns of “According to Jim” and original episodes of the canceled comedies “Rodney” and “Less Than Perfect” on ABC and the movie “Shanghai Knights” on Fox.

Viewers were spellbound by the first prime-time major network telecast of the Scripps National Spelling Bee, which drew 8.53 million viewers.

The audience grew each half-hour, with 14.06 million watching for the final 11 minutes as Katherine “Kerry” Close, a 13-year-old from Spring Lake, N.J., correctly spelled “ursprache” to emerge victorious over runner-up Finola Mei Hwa Hackett of Edmonton, Alberta.

The bee was the most-watched program on ABC on a summer Thursday from 8 to 10 p.m. since Sept. 6, 2001, other than NBA Finals and NFL football telecasts.

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Prime-time TV Rankings

Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (May 29-June 4) 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 Deal or No Deal (Mon.) NBC 13.84 2 CSI CBS 13.57 3 Without a Trace CBS 12.06 4 CSI: Miami CBS 11.74 5 NCIS CBS 11.23

6 Two and a Half Men CBS 10.61 7 Deal or No Deal (Wed.) NBC 10.25 8 Criminal Minds CBS 10.14 9 So You Think Can Dance (Thu.) FOX 10.03 10 CSI: NY CBS 9.81

11 48 Hours Mystery (Tue.) CBS 9.67 12 60 Minutes CBS 9.46 13 Apprentice 5 NBC 9.16 14 Old Christine CBS 9.09 15 The Unit CBS 9.05

16 So You Think Can Dance (Wed.) FOX 8.81 17 Numb3rs CBS 8.72 18 Last Comic Standing 4 NBC 8.59 Cold Case CBS 8.59 20 Law & Order: SVU NBC 8.54

21 “Scripps National Spelling Bee” ABC 8.53 22 Law & Order NBC 8.35 23 “Gameshow Marathon” (Thu.) CBS 8.33 24 Dateline: NBC (Wed.) NBC 8.23 25 “NBA Playoffs” (Mon.) ABC 8.19

26 “Gameshow Marathon” (Wed.) CBS 8.17 27 Crossing Jordan NBC 8.02 28 Close to Home CBS 7.87 29 Law & Order: Criminal Intent (Sun.) NBC 7.64 30 Dateline: NBC: (Sun.) NBC 7.42

31 48 Hours Mystery CBS 7.24 32 Primetime ABC 7.13 “Ocean’s Eleven” CBS 7.13 34 Grey’s Anatomy ABC 7.04 35 Medium NBC 6.63

36 20/20 ABC 6.61 37 Dateline: NBC (Fri.) NBC 6.58 38 Crimetime Saturday (9 p.m.) CBS 6.53 39 King of Queens CBS 6.52 40 America’s Most Wanted FOX 6.17

41 America’s Funniest Home Videos (Fri.) ABC 6.04 42 So You Think Can Dance (Thu.) FOX 6.00 43 Desperate Housewives ABC 5.98 44 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition ABC 5.95 45 Ghost Whisperer CBS 5.89

46 “2 Fast 2 Furious” FOX 5.84 47 America’s Funniest Home Videos (Sun.) ABC 5.75 48 The Simpsons FOX 5.70 49 Bones FOX 5.55 50 Commander in Chief ABC 5.54

51 Cops (8:30 p.m.) FOX 5.37 Law & Order: Criminal Intent (Sat.) NBC 5.37 53 ER NBC 5.31 54 Family Guy FOX 5.30 55 According to Jim ABC 5.20

Boston Legal ABC 5.20 57 “Shanghai Knights” FOX 5.11 58 According to Jim ABC 4.93 59 How I Met Your Mother CBS 4.90 Fea Mas Bella (Wed.) UNI 4.90

61 Rodney ABC 4.89 62 American Dad FOX 4.84 63 Office (9 p.m.) NBC 4.82 64 “GMC NBA Nation” (Mon.) ABC 4.81 65 The Office (8:30 p.m.) NBC 4.75

66 Less Than Perfect ABC 4.67 67 The Office (9:30 p.m.) NBC 4.65 68 Cops (8 p.m.) FOX 4.61 The Office (8 p.m.) NBC 4.61 70 Crimetime Saturday (8 p.m.) CBS 4.57

71 Last Comic Standing 4 NBC 4.53 72 Dateline: NBC (Sat.) NBC 4.34 73 War at Home FOX 4.30 74 Fea Mas Bella (Thu.) UNI 4.20 75 Barrera de Amor (Wed.) UNI 4.07

76 Fea Mas Bella (Tue.) UNI 3.95 77 “Laura Croft: Tomb Raider: FOX 3.93 George Lopez ABC 3.93 79 Lost ABC 3.89 80 Barrera de Amor (Tue.) UNI 3.80

81 Hope & Faith ABC 3.79 82 Barrera de Amor (Thu.) UNI 3.77 83 Freddie ABC 3.74 84 Fea Mas Bella (Mon.) UNI 3.69 85 Fea Mas Bella (Fri.) UNI 3.68

86 WWE Smackdown! UPN 3.63 87 Barrera de Amor (Mon.) UNI 3.57 88 Wonderful World of Disney ABC 3.53 89 King of the Hill FOX 3.50 90 Don Francisco Presenta UNI 3.26

91 Everwood WB 3.22 92 Aqui y Ahora (Thu.) UNI 3.06 93 Peregrina (Wed.) UNI 3.03 94 “The 4400: Unlocking the Secrets” NBC 2.95 95 Blue Collar TV (8:30 p.m.) WB 2.77

96 Peregrina (Tue.) UNI 2.72 97 Everybody Hates Chris UPN 2.69 98 Blue Collar TV (8 p.m.) WB 2.64 99 Peregrina (Thu.) UNI 2.54 100 Cantando por un Sueno UNI 2.51

Peregrina (Fri.) UNI 2.51 102 Ver Para Creer UNI 2.47 103 Peregrina (Mon.) UNI 2.42 104 Malcolm in the Middle FOX 2.41 105 Cristina UNI 2.39

106 Smallville WB 2.23 107 Sabado Gigante UNI 2.10 108 Gilmore Girls WB 2.08 109 “Viva El Mundial” UNI 2.05 110 America’s Next Top Model 6 UPN 2.00

111 Reba (Fri., 9 p.m.) WB 1.91 7th Heaven WB 1.91 Half & Half UPN 1.91 114 Girlfriends UPN 1.89 115 Pepper Dennis WB 1.86

116 Supernatural WB 1.85 117 “My Baby’s Daddy” UPN 1.83 118 Reba (Sun., 7:30 p.m.) WB 1.82 119 All of Us UPN 1.72 120 Living With Fran WB 1.71

121 Love Inc. UPN 1.66 122 One on One UPN 1.54 123 Eve UPN 1.52 124 Charmed (8 p.m.) WB 1.43 125 Casos Familia UNI 1.37

126 What I Like About You WB 1.33 127 Reba (Sun., 7 p.m.) WB 1.32 128 Charmed (9 p.m.) WB 1.30 Twins WB 1.30 130 Cuts UPN 1.20

131 Tormenta (Thu.) TEL 1.14 Tormenta (Fri.) TEL 1.14 133 Tormenta (Wed.) TEL 1.09 134 Decisiones (Thu.) TEL 1.06 135 Veronica Mars UPN 1.05

136 Tierra de Pasiones (Thu.) TEL 1.05 137 Tormenta (Mon.) TEL 1.04 Tierra de Pasiones (Wed.). TEL 1.04 139 Tormenta (Tue.) TEL 1.01 140 One Tree Hill WB 1.00

141 Decisiones (Fri.) TEL 0.99 142 Tierra de Pasiones M TEL 0.98 143 Corazon Partido (Fri.) TEL 0.97 144 Tierra de Pasiones (Tue.) TEL 0.92 145 Corazon Partido (Thu.) TEL 0.92

146 Corazon Partido (Tue.) TEL 0.87 147 Tierra de Pasiones (Fri.) TEL 0.84 148 Decisiones (Mon.) TEL 0.82 Decisiones (Thu.) TEL 0.82 150 Corazon Partido (Mon.) TEL 0.79

151 Corazon Partido (Wed.) TEL 0.78 152 Decisiones (Wed.) TEL 0.72 153 Sin Fronteras TEL 0.69 154 Cinemundo Premier TEL 0.64

155 Accion Extrema TEL 0.49

156 Just for Laughs TEL 0.38

157 Corriendo y Grabando TEL 0.36 158 Loteria TEL 0.35 Cinemundo del Sabado TEL 0.35

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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 8.73 12.37

NBC 7.08 9.54

ABC 5.83 10.54

FOX 5.63 9.90

UNI 3.07 3.75

UPN 2.10 3.07

WB 1.87 3.05

TEL 0.79 0.92

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