NBC finishes out of the money again

Seventeen days of promos during the Winter Olympics couldn’t lift NBC out of fourth place in the weekly prime-time ratings race. In its first week of post-Turin programming, the network averaged 9.58 million viewers, finishing a distant fourth in total viewers and the ages 18-to-49 demographic it targets, according to figures released Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research.

The Olympics may have done some good, however: NBC was up 18.1% from the week of Jan. 23-29, the last week before the Super Bowl and Winter Olympics.

Fox, which devoted four of its 15 hours of prime-time programming to “American Idol,” was first for the week from Feb. 27 to Sunday, averaging 13.47 million viewers.

ABC’s coverage of Sunday’s 78th annual Academy Awards averaged 38.94 million viewers, making it both the week’s most-watched program and the season’s most-watched entertainment program, passing the previous leader, the post-Super Bowl “Grey’s Anatomy” episode on ABC, which averaged 37.88 million. However, viewership was down 8% from the 2005 ceremony, which was seen by 42.14 million.

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Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (Feb. 27-March 5) 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. 2 and older. Viewership is listed in millions.

*--* Program Net- View- work ers 1 “78th Annual Academy Awards” ABC 38.94 2 American Idol (Tue.) FOX 30.09 3 American Idol (Wed.) FOX 29.64 4 CSI (Thu.) CBS 27.81 5 American Idol (Thu.) FOX 26.32

6 Without a Trace CBS 19.78 7 CSI: Miami CBS 18.43 8 Two and a Half Men CBS 17.04 9 “Oscar Countdown 2006 Part 2” ABC 16.97 10 Lost ABC 16.43

11 Survivor: Panama, Exile Island CBS 16.08 12 NCIS CBS 15.14 13 Skating With Celebrities FOX 14.12 14 24 FOX 13.87 15 Law & Order: SVU (Tue.) NBC 13.83

16 Courting Alex CBS 13.78 17 CSI: NY CBS 13.76 18 Free Ride FOX 13.57 19 Deal or No Deal (Mon.) NBC 13.44 20 ER NBC 12.93

21 War at Home FOX 12.51 22 Ghost Whisperer CBS 12.40 23 Law & Order NBC 12.39 24 Deal or No Deal (Fri.) NBC 12.04 25 Numb3rs CBS 11.94

26 Criminal Minds (Wed.) CBS 11.72 27 Bachelor: Paris ABC 11.53 28 Close to Home CBS 11.52 29 My Name Is Earl NBC 11.27 30 Boston Legal ABC 11.24

31 Las Vegas NBC 11.03 32 King of Queens CBS 10.81 33 CSI (Sun.) CBS 10.55 34 Medium NBC 10.43 35 Amazing Race 9 CBS 10.40

36 60 Minutes CBS 10.31 Conviction (Fri.) NBC 10.31 38 Deal or No Deal (Wed.) NBC 10.25 39 Deal or No Deal (Tue.) NBC 9.98 40 “Oscar Countdown 2006 Part 1” ABC 9.88

41 How I Met Your Mother CBS 9.82 42 Cold Case Special (S) CBS 9.73 43 Apprentice 5 NBC 9.69 “Barbara Walters Special” ABC 9.69 45 Deal or No Deal (Thu.) NBC 9.53

46 Criminal Minds (Sun.) CBS 9.37 47 Wife Swap ABC 9.34 48 George Lopez (Tue.) ABC 8.83 49 “Skating With Celebrities” FOX 8.80 50 The Office NBC 8.45

51 20/20 ABC 8.26 52 Scrubs (9:30 p.m.) NBC 8.20 53 Dateline: NBC (Sun.) NBC 8.13 54 Law & Order NBC 8.08 55 According to Jim (9 p.m.) ABC 7.81

56 Primetime ABC 7.77 57 “Sweet Home Alabama” ABC 7.59 58 America’s Funniest Home Videos” ABC 7.44 59 Law & Order: SVU (Sat.) NBC 7.34 48 Hours Mystery CBS 7.34

61 Law & Order: Criminal Intent NBC 7.00 62 Conviction (Sat.) NBC 6.88 63 America’s Most Wanted FOX 6.87 Cops (8:30 p.m.) FOX 6.87 65 Scrubs (9 p.m.) NBC 6.73

66 Still Standing (8:30 p.m.) CBS 6.71 67 In Justice ABC 6.60 68 Dateline: NBC (Sat.) NBC 6.45 69 Still Standing (8 p.m.) CBS 6.19 70 Cops (8 p.m.) FOX 5.84

71 7th Heaven WB 5.71 72 “Bad Boys 2” FOX 5.67 73 “Panic Room” CBS 5.60 74 According to Jim (8 p.m.) ABC 5.54 75 Rodney ABC 5.45

76 Crossing Jordan NBC 5.44 77 George Lopez (Wed.) ABC 5.40 78 Freddie ABC 5.07 79 Gilmore Girls WB 5.01 80 Contra Viento y Marea (Thu.) UNI 4.69

81 Alborada (Wed.) UNI 4.53 82 Contra Viento y Marea (Wed.) UNI 4.43 83 Contra Viento y Marea (Tue.) UNI 4.40 84 Alborada (Tue.) UNI 4.36 85 Contra Viento y Marea (Mon.) UNI 4.34

86 Alborada (Mon.) UNI 4.32 87 Alborada (Thu.) UNI 4.29 88 Supernatural WB 4.22 89 “A Beautiful Mind” ABC 4.19 90 WWE Smackdown! UPN 4.18

91 Malcolm in the Middle FOX 4.12 92 Contra Viento y Marea (Fri.) UNI 4.06 93 “Premios F. Musical 06” UNI 3.98 94 Alborada (Fri.) UNI 3.89 95 Everybody Hates Chris UPN 3.77

96 Girlfriends (Mon.) UPN 3.74 97 Reba (Fri.) WB 3.52 All of Us UPN 3.52 99 One Tree Hill WB 3.36 100 Beauty and the Geek (Thu.) WB 3.35

101 Half and Half UPN 3.30 102 Smallville WB 3.25 103 Related WB 3.22 104 Cristina UNI 3.16 105 “Lo Que No Vio” UNI 3.13

106 “37th NAACP Image Awards” FOX 3.10 107 One on One UPN 3.03 108 Aqui y Ahora (Thu.) UNI 3.00 109 Twins WB 2.94 110 Peregrina (Tue.) UNI 2.93

111 Peregrina (Thu.) UNI 2.81 Sabado Gigante (Sat.) UNI 2.81 113 Don Francisco Presenta UNI 2.80 114 Peregrina (Mon.) UNI 2.79 115 Peregrina (Fri.) UNI 2.63

116 Casos Vida UNI 2.62 117 Estrellas UNI 2.57 118 Love Inc. UPN 2.40 119 What I Like About You WB 2.38 120 Peregrina (Wed.) UNI 2.36

121 “8 Mile” WB 2.25 122 Eve UPN 2.21 123 Living With Fran WB 2.20 124 Reba (Sun.) WB 2.16 125 Cuerpo del Deseo (Tue.) TEL 2.08

126 Cuts UPN 2.01 127 “America’s Top Model 5 Reunion” UPN 1.97 128 Beauty and the Geek (Wed.) WB 1.80 129 Cuerpo del Deseo (Mon.) TEL 1.71 130 Casos Familia UNI 1.61

131 Half & Half UPN 1.60 132 Tormenta (Tue.) TEL 1.49 133 Tormenta (Thu.) TEL 1.48 134 Veronica Mars UPN 1.44 135 Tierra De Pasiones (Mon.) TEL 1.38

Tierra de Pasiones (Tue.) TEL 1.38 137 Tormenta (Mon.) TEL 1.32 138 Girlfriends (Tue.) UPN 1.31 139 Decisiones (Tue.) TEL 1.30 140 America’s Next Top Model 5” UPN 1.28

141 Tierra de Pasiones (Thu.) TEL 1.27 142 Tierra de Pasiones (Wed.) TEL 1.25 143 Tormenta (Fri.) TEL 1.24 144 Tormenta (Wed.) TEL 1.21 145 Tierra de Pasiones (Fri.) TEL 1.20

146 Decisiones (Fri.) TEL 1.02 Decisiones (Mon.) TEL 1.02 148 Decisiones (Wed.) TEL 1.01 149 Corazon Partido (Wed.) TEL 0.98 150 Decisiones (Thu.) TEL 0.95

151 Decisiones Extra (Wed.) TEL 0.89 152 Deseo Final TEL 0.87 Corazon Partido (Fri.) TEL 0.87 154 Corazon Partido (Mon.) TEL 0.86

155 Corazon Partido (Thu.) TEL 0.83

156 Decisiones Extra (Thu.) TEL 0.72 Sin Fronteras TEL 0.72 158 Cinemundo del Sabado TEL 0.66 159 Decisiones Extra (Fri.) TEL 0.64

160 Accion Extrema TEL 0.57 161 Cinemundo Premier TEL 0.56

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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 13.47 9.43

ABC 12.61 11.60

CBS 12.28 12.68

NBC 9.58 10.08

UNI 3.69 4.02

WB 3.24 3.28

UPN 2.65 3.21

TEL 1.02 1.12

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