CBS with all the right hoops

Viewership dipped slightly for the first four nights of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament, but CBS still had its first prime-time weekly ratings victory in six weeks, according to figures released Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research.

CBS averaged 10.42 million viewers for its more than nine hours of prime-time tournament coverage Thursday through Sunday, a 1.3% decline from the 10.56 million average for the first four nights in 2005.

Despite the preemptions of its Thursday stalwarts “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” and “Without a Trace,” CBS recorded its first weekly win since the week of Jan. 23 to 29, averaging 12.22 millions viewers between March 13 and Sunday.

The CBS military drama “The Unit” took another step to establish itself as a hit, drawing 18.07 million viewers for its second episode, down only 2.3% from its premiere a week earlier.

Thursday’s two-hour premiere of the ABC unscripted series “American Inventor” drew 14.15 million viewers, winning its time period and attracting 3.46 million more viewers than the NCAA men’s basketball tournament opposite it.

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Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (March 13-19) 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 American Idol (Tue.) FOX 32.77 2 American Idol (Wed.) FOX 28.09 3 Grey’s Anatomy ABC 21.13 4 CSI: Miami CBS 19.01 5 The Unit CBS 18.06

6 NCIS CBS 17.55 7 Two and a Half Men CBS 17.37 8 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (8 p.m.) ABC 16.21 9 Deal or No Deal (Mon.) NBC 15.52 10 60 Minutes CBS 15.23

11 Old Christine CBS 15.09 12 Cold Case CBS 14.61 13 American Inventor ABC 14.15 14 ER NBC 13.98 15 24 FOX 13.72

16 The Loop (Wed.) FOX 13.70 17 Desperate Housewives ABC 13.55 18 “Survivor: Exile, Look Closer” CBS 12.68 19 Old Christine CBS 12.36 20 Deal or No Deal (Fri.) NBC 12.23

21 Criminal Minds CBS 12.08 22 Bones FOX 12.07 23 Law & Order: Criminal Intent NBC 11.38 24 “NCAA Post-Game” (Sun.) CBS 11.33 25 King of Queens CBS 11.30

26 CSI: NY CBS 11.27 27 Law & Order: SVU NBC 11.22 28 Boston Legal ABC 10.67 29 My Name Is Earl NBC 10.59 30 Dateline: NBC (7 p.m.) NBC 10.55

31 “NCAA Basketball Tournament” (Sat.) CBS 10.47 32 Medium NBC 10.30 33 Law & Order (10 p.m.) NBC 10.21 34 Crossing Jordan NBC 10.18 35 Las Vegas NBC 10.12

36 “NCAA Basketball Tournament” (Thu., 10:30 p.m.) CBS 9.81 37 “NCAA Basketball Tournament” (Fri., 9:45 p.m.) CBS 9.76 38 Supernanny ABC 9.73 39 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (7 p.m.) ABC 9.71 40 Amazing Race 9 CBS 9.67

41 Apprentice 5 NBC 9.57 42 “NCAA Basketball Tournament” (Thu., 7 p.m.) CBS 9.37 43 Wife Swap ABC 9.16 44 Conviction (Fri.) NBC 9.11 45 Miracle Workers ABC 9.09

Will & Grace NBC 9.09 47 The Office NBC 8.85 48 20/20 ABC 8.83 49 “NCAA Basketball Tournament” (Fri. 7 p.m.) CBS 8.80 50 The Simpsons FOX 8.66

51 “NCAA Post-Game” (Sat.) CBS 8.47 52 Primetime ABC 8.43 53 “Time Bomb” CBS 8.37 54 The West Wing NBC 8.07 55 “NCAA Basketball Tournament” (Thu., 10 p.m.) CBS 8.06

56 48 Hours Mystery CBS 7.62 57 Cops (8:30 p.m.) FOX 7.47 58 America’s Most Wanted FOX 7.32 59 Invasion ABC 7.22 60 Law & Order (9 p.m.) NBC 7.20

61 Family Guy FOX 7.19 62 Lost ABC 7.16 63 Prison Break FOX 6.83 Four Kings NBC 6.83 65 George Lopez ABC 6.71

66 War at Home FOX 6.61 67 In Justice ABC 6.51 America’s Funniest Home Videos ABC 6.51 69 Biggest Loser NBC 6.40 70 Cops FOX 6.34

71 Trading Spouses FOX 6.32 72 Freddie ABC 6.27 73 Scrubs (9 p.m.) NBC 5.80 74 King of the Hill FOX 5.77 75 That ‘70s Show FOX 5.62

According to Jim (8:30 p.m.) ABC 5.62 77 “WWE Saturday Night Main Event, Part 2” (9 p.m.) NBC 5.59 78 Scrubs (9:30 p.m.) NBC 5.49 79 According to Jim (8 p.m.) ABC 5.42 80 The O.C. FOX 5.40

81 “The Sixth Sense” ABC 5.38 Sons & Daughters (9 p.m.) ABC 5.38 83 Free Ride FOX 5.29 84 Contra Viento y Marea (Wed.) UNI 5.26 85 Most Outrageous Moments (8:30 p.m.) NBC 5.22

86 Contra Viento y Marea Thu UNI 5.15 87 Alborada (Mon.) UNI 5.14 88 Most Outrageous Moments (8 p.m.) NBC 5.11 Nanny 911 FOX 5.11 90 Contra Viento y Marea (Mon.) UNI 5.05

91 Alborada (Tue.) UNI 5.02 92 Malcolm in the Middle FOX 4.94 93 Contra Viento y Marea (Tue.) UNI 4.92 94 Sons & Daughters (9:30 p.m.) ABC 4.91 95 Contra Viento y Marea (Fri.) UNI 4.88

96 America’s Next Top Model 6 (Wed.) UPN 4.87 97 Bailando por un Sueno UNI 4.86 98 Alborada (Wed.) UNI 4.85 “WWE Saturday Night Main Event, Part 1” (8 p.m.) NBC 4.85 100 The Loop (Thu.) FOX 4.75

101 Alborada (Thu.) UNI 4.74 102 Alborada (Fri.) UNI 4.58 103 WWE Smackdown! UPN 4.27 104 Conviction (Sat.) NBC 3.76 105 Reba WB 3.65

106 7th Heaven WB 3.33 107 Peregrina (Thu.) UNI 3.23 108 Cristina UNI 3.21 109 Everybody Hates Chris UPN 3.10 110 Peregrina (Tue.) UNI 3.07

111 Peregrina (Wed.) UNI 3.04 Ver Para Creer UNI 3.04 113 Aqui y Ahora UNI 2.97 114 Casos de la Vida Real UNI 2.96 115 Peregrina (Fri.) UNI 2.86

116 Peregrina (Mon.) UNI 2.83 117 Smallville WB 2.80 118 Don Francisco Presenta UNI 2.76 119 Veronica Mars UPN 2.73 120 All of Us UPN 2.71

121 Girlfriends UPN 2.63 122 Modern Men WB 2.62 123 Half and Half UPN 2.56 124 Charmed (9 p.m.) WB 2.49 125 Charmed (8 p.m.) WB 2.46

126 Sabado Gigante UNI 2.45 127 Gilmore Girls WB 2.38 128 One on One UPN 2.32 129 Hora Pico UNI 2.29 130 Beauty and the Geek WB 2.23

What I Like About You WB 2.23 132 Related WB 2.16 133 Supernatural WB 2.12 134 Living With Fran WB 2.10 135 Eve UPN 1.95

136 Love Inc. UPN 1.94 137 America’s Next Top Model 6 (Tue.) UPN 1.91 138 Cuts UPN 1.89 139 One Tree Hill WB 1.81 140 La Tormenta (Wed.) TEL 1.42

141 Casos de Familia UNI 1.32 142 Tierra de Pasiones (Thu.) TEL 1.28 143 La Tormenta (Mon.) TEL 1.27 144 Decisiones (Wed.) TEL 1.22 145 Decisiones (Thu.) TEL 1.20

146 La Tormenta (Thu.) TEL 1.19 147 Tierra de Pasiones (Mon.) TEL 1.17 148 Tierra de Pasiones (Wed.) TEL 1.16 149 La Tormenta (Tue.) TEL 1.14

La Tormenta (Fri.) TEL 1.14 151 Decisiones (Mon.) TEL 1.13 152 Tierra de Pasiones (Tue.) TEL 1.12 153 “JammX Kids” WB 1.11 154 Decisiones (Tue.) TEL 1.08

155 Decisiones (Fri) TEL 1.04 156 Tierra de Pasiones (Fri.) TEL 0.98 Corazon Partido (Wed.) TEL 0.98 158 Corazon Partido (Thu.) TEL 0.92

159 Decisiones Extra (Mon.) TEL 0.89 160 Decisiones Extra (Wed.) TEL 0.87 161 Decisiones Extra (Thu.) TEL 0.85 Corazon Partido (Mon.) TEL 0.85 163 Decisiones Extra (Thu.) TEL 0.82

164 Accion Extrema (Sun.) TEL 0.80 165 Corazon Partido (Tue.) TEL 0.78 165 Cinemundo Premier TEL 0.73 Sin Fronteras TEL 0.73

Cinemundo del Sabado TEL 0.73 169 Factor Miedo TEL 0.39 170 Accion Extrema (Sat.) TEL 0.36

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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 12.22 12.66

FOX 11.64 9.66

ABC 9.35 11.42

NBC 9.05 9.97

UNI 4.05 4.01

UPN 2.95 3.20

WB 2.33 3.21

TEL 0.94 1.07

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