‘Idol’ again hits record heights

More March madness over “American Idol” and “Deal or No Deal” was reflected in the television ratings that were released Tuesday, with both series drawing a record number of viewers last week.

Fox’s two-hour installment of “American Idol” on Tuesday drew 33.36 million viewers, topping the performance show’s previous record of 32.77 million, set a week earlier.

It was also the week’s most-watched program, followed by the half-hour “American Idol” results show on Wednesday, which had 27.68 million viewers, according to figures from Nielsen Media Research.

“American Idol” is averaging 31.3 million viewers this season, a nearly 14% increase over the 27.5 million through a similar period last season.

“Deal or No Deal” continued to be NBC’s brightest spot. Its Monday episode drew 16.8 million viewers, the third consecutive week it has set a series high.

Meanwhile, long-suffering CBS News has something to brag about: The venerable “60 Minutes” landed among the top 10 shows with its most-watched episode since January.

Ed Bradley’s profile of Tiger Woods undoubtedly lured a sports-minded audience that had been watching the NCAA men’s basketball tournament on Sunday.

The perennially third-place “CBS Evening News” last week finished closer in the ratings to ABC’s “World News Tonight” than it has in four years, Nielsen said. (Nielsen measured only Monday through Wednesday’s ratings for CBS, since basketball preempted the news in many cities the other two nights.)

ABC’s news broadcast with Elizabeth Vargas last week had nearly 1 million fewer viewers than during the same week last year, when Peter Jennings was the anchor.

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Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (March 20-26) 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 33.36 2 American Idol (Wed.) FOX 27.68 3 Desperate Housewives ABC 21.41 4 CSI: Miami CBS 19.86 5 60 Minutes CBS 17.09

6 Deal or No Deal (Mon.) NBC 16.80 7 Two and a Half Men CBS 16.72 8 Lost ABC 16.06 9 Unan1mous FOX 16.04 10 The Unit CBS 15.50

11 Old Christine CBS 15.13 12 Deal or No Deal (Wed.) NBC 14.95 13 Grey’s Anatomy ABC 14.85 14 Cold Case CBS 14.64 15 CSI: NY CBS 13.93

16 24 FOX 13.71 17 ER NBC 13.53 18 Law & Order: SVU NBC 13.48 19 American Inventor ABC 13.04 20 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition ABC 13.02

21 “NCAA Basketball Post-Game 2” (Sun.) CBS 12.85 22 Deal or No Deal (Fri.) NBC 12.45 23 Criminal Minds CBS 12.10 24 “NCAA Basketball” (Thu., 7 p.m.) CBS 11.57 25 NCIS CBS 11.47

26 My Name Is Earl (9 p.m.) NBC 11.31 27 Bones FOX 11.14 28 Supernanny ABC 10.92 29 Primetime ABC 10.85 30 King of Queens CBS 10.75

31 “Extreme Makeover: After the Storm” ABC 10.70 32 Crossing Jordan NBC 10.55 33 “NCAA Basketball” (Thu., 10 p.m.) CBS 10.45 34 CSI CBS 10.38 “NCAA Basketball” (Sat., 7 p.m.) CBS 10.38

36 Prison Break FOX 10.27 37 Apprentice 5 NBC 10.21 38 The Simpsons FOX 10.09 39 How I Met Your Mother (Mon.) CBS 9.80 40 “NCAA Basketball” (Fri., 10 p.m.) CBS 9.79

41 Boston Legal ABC 9.76 42 Dateline: NBC (Sun.) NBC 9.51 43 Amazing Race 9 CBS 9.40 44 America’s Funniest Home Videos (Sun.) ABC 9.37 45 “NCAA Basketball” (Fri., 7 p.m.) CBS 9.34

46 Law & Order: Criminal Intent NBC 9.22 47 The Evidence (Wed.) ABC 9.10 48 “NCAA Basketball Post Game” (Sat.) CBS 9.02 49 Law & Order NBC 9.00 50 Conviction (Fri.) NBC 8.91

51 Will & Grace NBC 8.82 52 Heist NBC 8.75 53 My Name Is Earl (8:30 p.m.) NBC 8.66 54 The Office NBC 8.58 55 Wife Swap ABC 8.52

56 Without a Trace CBS 8.32 57 Family Guy FOX 8.22 58 20/20 ABC 8.15 59 The West Wing NBC 7.93 60 Law & Order: SVU (Fri.) NBC 7.90

61 War at Home FOX 7.85 62 Freddie ABC 7.70 63 48 Hours Mystery CBS 7.54 64 Medium NBC 7.51 65 Law & Order: SVU (Sat.) NBC 7.48

66 Miracle Workers ABC 7.27 67 George Lopez ABC 7.24 68 Out of Practice CBS 6.94 69 In Justice ABC 6.72 70 America’s Funniest Home Videos (Fri.) ABC 6.63

71 “Signs” ABC 6.48 72 Cops (8:30 p.m.) FOX 6.45 America’s Most Wanted FOX 6.45 74 According to Jim ABC 6.29 75 Courting Alex CBS 6.28

76 Contra Viento y Marea (Mon.) UNI 6.24 77 Trading Spouses FOX 6.22 78 Hope and Faith ABC 6.00 79 Scrubs (9 p.m.) NBC 5.84 80 Scrubs (9:30 p.m.) NBC 5.77

81 Most Outrageous Moments (8:30 p.m.) NBC 5.58 82 Cops (8 p.m.) FOX 5.56 Nanny 911 FOX 5.56 84 The Evidence (Sat.) ABC 5.55 85 That ‘70s Show FOX 5.49

86 Dateline: NBC (Sat.) NBC 5.47 87 Alborada (Mon.) UNI 5.41 88 How I Met Your Mother (Sat.) CBS 5.36 The O.C. FOX 5.36 90 Most Outrageous Moments (8 p.m.) NBC 5.31

91 America’s Next Top Model 6 (Wed.) UPN 5.21 92 King of the Hill FOX 5.13 93 Bailando por un Sueno UNI 5.02 94 Free Ride FOX 4.81 95 Conviction (Sat.) NBC 4.64

96 Alborada (Thu.) UNI 4.60 97 Sons & Daughters (9 p.m.) ABC 4.52 98 The Loop FOX 4.45 99 WWE Smackdown! UPN 4.42 Alborada (Wed.) UNI 4.42

101 Everybody Hates Chris UPN 4.37 102 Alborada (Tue.) UNI 4.34 103 Barrera de Amor (Tue.) UNI 4.33 104 Alborada (Fri.) UNI 4.31 105 Cristina UNI 4.14

106 Reba (Fri.) WB 4.06 107 Sons & Daughters (9:30 p.m.) ABC 4.05 Barrera de Amor (Wed.) UNI 4.05 109 Barrera de Amor (Thu.) UNI 3.87 110 Barrera de Amor (Fri.) UNI 3.70

111 Peregrina (Mon.) UNI 3.67 112 Malcolm in the Middle FOX 3.58 113 Girlfriends UPN 3.45 114 Peregrina (Thu.) UNI 3.32 115 Smallville WB 3.29

116 Peregrina (Fri.) UNI 3.20 117 Don Francisco Presenta UNI 3.10 118 All of Us UPN 3.04 Peregrina (Tue.) UNI 3.04 120 Peregrina (Wed.) UNI 2.99 > 121 Aqui y Ahora (Thu.) UNI 2.93 122 Half and Half UPN 2.81 123 Casos Vida UNI 2.76 Charmed (8 p.m.) WB 2.76 125 Supernatural WB 2.70

126 One on One UPN 2.62 127 Related (9 p.m.) WB 2.60 Gilmore Girls (Tue., 8 p.m.) WB 2.60 129 Ver Para Creer UNI 2.56 130 Related (8 p.m.) WB 2.51

131 Sabado Gigante UNI 2.50 132 Gilmore Girls (Tue., 9 p.m.) WB 2.48 133 Love Inc. UPN 2.47 134 Reba (Sun., 7:30 p.m.) WB 2.44 135 America’s Next Top Model 6 (Tue.) UPN 2.41

136 Living With Fran WB 2.38 137 Modern Men WB 2.37 138 One Tree Hill WB 2.35 139 Veronica Mars (Wed.) UPN 2.34 140 Eve UPN 2.33

141 Hora Pico UNI 2.32 142 What I Like About You WB 2.29 143 Cuts UPN 2.27 144 Charmed (9 p.m.) WB 2.07 145 Reba (Sun., 7 p.m.) WB 2.02

146 Gilmore Girls (Wed.) WB 1.83 147 Casos Familia UNI 1.37 148 Tierra de Pasiones (Tue.) TEL 1.24 149 Decisiones (Fri.) TEL 1.22 150 Tierra de Pasiones (Wed.) TEL 1.19

Tormenta (Wed.) TEL 1.19 152 Tierra De Pasiones (Thu.) TEL 1.18 Tormenta (Fri.) TEL 1.18 154 Tormenta (Thu.) TEL 1.16 155 Veronica Mars (Tue.) UPN 1.15

156 Tierra de Pasiones (Fri.) TEL 1.12 Decisiones (Tue.) TEL 1.12 158 Tormenta (Thu.) TEL 1.09 159 Tierra de Pasiones (Mon.) TEL 1.07 160 Tormenta (Mon.) TEL 1.06

161 Decisiones (Thu.) TEL 1.01 162 Decisiones (Wed.) TEL 0.99 163 Corazon Partido (Tue.) TEL 0.98 164 Decisiones Extra (Tue.) TEL 0.94 165 Decisiones (Mon.) TEL 0.93

166 Corazon Partido (Thu.) TEL 0.88 Corazon Partido (Fri.) TEL 0.88 168 Decisiones Extra (Wed.) TEL 0.87 169 Decisiones Extra (Mon.) TEL 0.85 170 Cinemundo Del Sabado TEL 0.83

171 Corazon Partido (Mon.) TEL 0.82 Corazon Partido (Wed.) TEL 0.82 173 Decisiones Extra (Fri.) TEL 0.80 174 Decisiones Extra (Thu.) TEL 0.72 175 Accion Extrema (Sat.) TEL 0.70 176 Cinemundo Premier TEL 0.66 177 Accion Extrema (Sun.) TEL 0.60

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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 11.98 12.64

FOX 11.88 9.74

ABC 9.68 11.35

FOX 11.88 9.74

NBC 9.48 9.95

UNI 3.91 4.01

UPN 3.16 3.20

WB 2.54 3.19

TEL 0.92 1.05

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