NBC scores with ‘Talent,’ ABC doesn’t mind Heat

The strong premiere of NBC’s “America’s Got Talent” indicates it could become the first hit of the summer television season.

The two-hour premiere of the talent show hosted by Regis Philbin averaged 12.41 million viewers last Wednesday, the second-most of any original entertainment program this summer, trailing only the June 5 season finale of “Deal or No Deal,” which averaged 18.24 million.

ABC’s “Master of Champions” drew 6.1 million viewers for its premiere Thursday, second in the 8-9 p.m. time period behind CBS’ “Gameshow Marathon,” which attracted 7.5 million viewers.

For the second consecutive week, an NBA Finals game was the week’s most-watched program. ABC’s coverage of the Miami Heat’s 95-92 title-clinching victory over the Dallas Mavericks in Game 6 June 20 averaged 15.71 million viewers, 17% more than Game 6 of the 2005 Finals between the Detroit Pistons and San Antonio Spurs.

The six-game series averaged 13 million viewers, a 4% increase over last year’s seven-game finals.

Sunday’s premiere of the first part of the two-part “Broken Trail” on AMC was cable’s most-watched program of the week, with 9.8 million viewers, the second most for a made-for-TV movie on cable since 1995, according to AMC.

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Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (June 19-25) 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 “NBA Finals” (Tue.) ABC 15.71 2 America’s Got Talent (Wed.) NBC 12.41 3 CSI CBS 11.95 4 CSI: Miami CBS 11.34 5 Without a Trace CBS 10.16

6 Law & Order: SVU NBC 9.72 7 CSI: NY CBS 9.38 60 Minutes CBS 9.38 9 So You Think You Can Dance (Thu.) FOX 9.28 10 So You Think You Can Dance (Wed.) FOX 9.11

11 House (9 p.m.) FOX 9.03 12 “Nextel Cup Winners Circle” FOX 8.75 13 NCIS CBS 8.47 14 Numb3rs CBS 8.46 15 Cold Case CBS 8.23

16 Two and a Half Men CBS 8.05 17 Criminal Minds CBS 7.99 18 Hell’s Kitchen (9 p.m.) FOX 7.50 19 Game Show Marathon (Thu.) CBS 7.46 20 Close to Home CBS 7.39

21 Last Comic Standing 4 NBC 7.34 22 Law & Order: Criminal Intent (Sun.) NBC 7.31 23 “Enough” CBS 7.16 24 Old Christine CBS 7.13 25 King of Queens CBS 6.99

26 Primetime ABC 6.95 27 20/20 (Fri.) ABC 6.86 28 America’s Funniest Home Videos (Fri.) ABC 6.63 29 Grey’s Anatomy ABC 6.61 30 Family Guy (9 p.m.) FOX 6.58

31 House (8 p.m.) FOX 6.57 32 Crossing Jordan NBC 6.51 33 America’s Got Talent (Fri.) NBC 6.45 34 Dateline: NBC (Wed.) NBC 6.36 35 The Unit CBS 6.21

36 Master of Champions ABC 6.10 37 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (8 p.m.) ABC 6.09 38 Family Guy (8:30 p.m.) FOX 6.08 39 The Simpsons FOX 6.02 40 How I Met Your Mother CBS 5.96

41 Dateline: NBC (Sun.) NBC 5.95 42 “Big Brother 7: America’s Vote” (Wed.) CBS 5.88 43 Wife Swap ABC 5.74 44 48 Hours Mystery CBS 5.74 45 Fear Factor NBC 5.70

46 Ghost Whisperer CBS 5.64 47 America’s Most Wanted FOX 5.62 48 Windfall NBC 5.58 49 Crimetime Saturday CBS 5.41 50 Supernanny ABC 5.40

51 My Name Is Earl (8 p.m.) NBC 5.35 52 “NHL Stanley Cup Finals” (Mon.) NBC 5.29 53 My Name Is Earl (9 p.m.) NBC 5.21 54 20/20 (Thu.) ABC 5.18 55 Cops (8:30 p.m.) FOX 5.16

56 George Lopez ABC 5.08 57 Fea Mas Bella (Thu.) UNI 4.79 58 Fea Mas Bella (Wed.) UNI 4.78 59 Hell’s Kitchen (8 p.m.) FOX 4.72 60 Dateline: NBC (Sat.) NBC 4.64

61 Fea Mas Bella (Mon.) UNI 4.61 62 “NBA Nation” ABC 4.48 Desperate Housewives ABC 4.48 64 Fea Mas Bella (Tue.) UNI 4.46 65 That ‘70s Show (8:30 p.m.) FOX 4.42

66 Office (8:30 p.m.) NBC 4.30 67 Cops (8 p.m.) FOX 4.27 68 Freddie ABC 4.21 69 Wonderful World of Disney ABC 4.10 70 Tuesday Night Book Club CBS 4.09

71 It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia FOX 4.07 72 Office (9:30 p.m.) NBC 4.06 Fea Mas Bella (Fri.) UNI 4.06 74 Hope and Faith (9 p.m.) ABC 4.01 75 According to Jim ABC 3.97

76 King of the Hill FOX 3.96 77 How to Get the Guy ABC 3.84 78 Barrera de Amor (Wed.) UNI 3.83 79 Hope and Faith (9:30 p.m.) ABC 3.82 80 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (7 p.m.) ABC 3.79

81 Barrera de Amor (Mon.) UNI 3.75 82 Barrera de Amor (Tue.) UNI 3.71 83 Law & Order: Criminal Intent (Sat.) NBC 3.65 84 Barrera de Amor (Thu.) UNI 3.62 85 That ‘70s Show (8 p.m.) FOX 3.58

WWE Smackdown! UPN 3.58 87 The Evidence ABC 3.56 88 Don Francisco Presenta UNI 3.46 89 Peregrina (Wed.) UNI 3.45 90 Barrera de Amor (Fri.) UNI 3.36

91 “Treasure Hunters” (Fri.) NBC 3.33 92 Peregrina (Thu.) UNI 3.31 93 Peregrina (Tue.) UNI 3.14 94 Cristina UNI 3.11 95 Lost (10 p.m.) ABC 3.10

96 Historias Para Contar UNI 3.04 97 Peregrina (Mon.) UNI 3.01 98 Aqui y Ahora UNI 2.84 Peregrina (Fri.) UNI 2.84 100 Lost (9 p.m.) ABC 2.78

101 Que Madre Tan Padre UNI 2.65 102 Everybody Hates Chris UPN 2.62 103 Cantando Por Un Sueno UNI 2.61 104 Reba (Sun., 7:30 p.m.) WB 2.45 105 24 (9 p.m.) FOX 2.33

106 Vecinos UNI 2.25 107 Reba (Fri.) WB 2.24 108 Blue Collar TV (8 p.m.) WB 2.23 109 Sabado Gigante UNI 2.21 110 Smallville WB 2.16

Treasure Hunters (Sat.) NBC 2.16 112 24 (8 p.m.) FOX 2.14 113 Blue Collar TV (8:30 p.m.) WB 2.13 114 “Big Brother 7: America’s Vote” (Sat.) CBS 2.05 115 All of Us UPN 1.99

116 Living With Fran WB 1.98 117 7th Heaven (9 p.m.) WB 1.90 118 Reba (Sun., 7 p.m.) WB 1.89 119 Love Inc. UPN 1.86 120 Supernatural WB 1.81

121 Charmed (8 p.m.) WB 1.79 7th Heaven (8 p.m.) WB 1.79 123 Gilmore Girls WB 1.74 124 Casos Familia UNI 1.73 125 What I Like About You WB 1.72

126 Eve UPN 1.71 One on One UPN 1.71 128 Girlfriends UPN 1.68 129 Cuts UPN 1.66 130 Charmed (9 p.m.) WB 1.65

131 America’s Next Top Model 6 UPN 1.60 132 Hora Pico UNI 1.52 133 Half and Half UPN 1.50 Twins WB 1.50 135 Pepper Dennis WB 1.42

136 One Tree Hill WB 1.13 137 Tormenta (Tue.) TEL 1.10 138 Veronica Mars UPN 1.08 139 Decisiones (Tue.) TEL 1.07 140 Tierra de Pasiones (Fri.) TEL 1.05

141 Tierra de Pasiones (Tue.) TEL 1.04 Tormenta (Mon.) TEL 1.04 143 Tormenta (Thu.) TEL 1.01 144 Amores de Mercado (Tue.) TEL 0.99 145 Tierra de Pasiones (Mon.) TEL 0.98

146 Tormenta (Wed.) TEL 0.97 Amores de Mercado (Mon.) TEL 0.97 148 Tierra de Pasiones (Thu.) TEL 0.94 “Cantinfleando” TEL 0.94 150 Tormenta (Fri.) TEL 0.92

151 Tierra de Pasiones (Wed.) TEL 0.88 152 Decisiones (Mon.) TEL 0.85 153 Decisiones (Thu.) TEL 0.83 Amores de Mercado (Wed.) TEL 0.83

Amores de Mercado (Thu.) TEL 0.83 156 Decisiones (Wed.) TEL 0.81 157 Cinemundo Premier TEL 0.79

158 Accion Extrema TEL 0.76 Decisiones (Fri.) TEL 0.76 160 “My Date With Drew” UPN 0.75

161 Amores de Mercado (Fri.) TEL 0.71 162 Sin Fronteras TEL 0.58

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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 7.44 12.04

NBC 6.22 9.29

FOX 6.13 9.61

ABC 5.66 10.21

UNI 3.29 3.68

UPN 1.87 2.99

WB 1.81 2.97

TEL 0.86 0.91

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