Farewells to two series draw better but not best

The series finales of “Will & Grace” and “That ‘70s Show” drew audiences reminiscent of their glory days but still trailed the season-ending episodes of newer favorites “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” and “Desperate Housewives.”

Thursday’s hourlong “Will & Grace” series finale drew 18.43 million viewers, the largest audience for the NBC comedy since April 29, 2004. It also helped “ER,” which followed, draw a season-high 16.56 million viewers for its 12th season finale, according to figures released Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research.

The series finale of the Fox comedy “That ‘70s Show” drew 10.02 million viewers, its largest audience since May 19, 2004.

The season finale of CBS’ “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” was the most-watched scripted program between May 15 and Sunday, with 25.4 million viewers opposite the “Will & Grace” finale. But that’s a 17% drop in viewership from the 30.73 million who watched last season’s “CSI” finale.

ABC’s “Desperate Housewives” ended its second season Sunday by drawing 24.23 million viewers for its two-hour finale. It was the week’s second-most-watched scripted program, despite a 21% drop-off from the 30.62 million who watched last season’s hourlong finale.

The two-hour second-season finale of ABC’s “Grey’s Anatomy” May 15 was the week’s third-most-watched scripted program, averaging 22.5 million viewers, a 1% increase from last season’s hourlong finale, which had the benefit of “Desperate Housewives” as a lead-in.

The May 16 “American Idol” broadcast on Fox was the week’s most-watched program, with 28.33 million viewers, a 13% increase over the 24.98 million that watched last season’s episode with the final three competitors.

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Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (May 15-21) 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 27.57 2 American Idol (Wed.) FOX 27.24 3 CSI (9 p.m.) CBS 24.93 4 Desperate Housewives ABC 23.67 5 House FOX 22.14

6 Grey’s Anatomy (9 p.m.) ABC 21.95 7 Without a Trace CBS 19.59 8 Will & Grace (Thu., 9 p.m.) NBC 18.04 9 CSI: Miami (Mon.) CBS 17.32 10 ER NBC 16.34 Deal or No Deal (Mon.) NBC 16.34

12 NCIS CBS 16.30 13 Lost ABC 14.20 14 Deal or No Deal (Wed.) NBC 13.91 15 The Unit (9 p.m.) CBS 13.89

16 CSI (8 p.m.) CBS 13.65 17 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (8 p.m.) ABC 13.53 18 Law & Order NBC 13.49 19 CSI: NY CBS 13.08 20 The Unit (10 p.m.) CBS 12.97

21 Law & Order: SVU NBC 12.88 22 Cold Case CBS 12.86 23 24 FOX 12.76 24 Will & Grace (Thu., 8 p.m.) NBC 12.69 25 Numb3rs CBS 12.54

26 Old Christine CBS 11.37 27 CSI: Miami (Sun.) CBS 10.93 28 Two and a Half Men CBS 10.89 29 60 Minutes CBS 10.79 30 Prison Break FOX 9.91

31 That ‘70s Show (8:30 p.m.) FOX 9.79 32 Close to Home CBS 9.65 33 Boston Legal ABC 9.21 34 Bones FOX 8.92 35 Dateline: NBC (Wed.) NBC 8.89

36 Amazing Race 9 CBS 8.84 37 How I Met Your Mother CBS 8.51 38 Grey’s Anatomy (8:20 p.m.) ABC 8.43 39 That ‘70s Show (8 p.m.) FOX 8.39 40 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (7 p.m.) ABC 8.26

41 “10.5: Apocalypse,” part 1 NBC 8.24 42 20/20 ABC 8.13 43 King of Queens CBS 8.10 44 The Simpsons (8 p.m.) FOX 8.04 45 Family Guy (9:30 p.m.) FOX 8.00

46 Family Guy (8:30 p.m.) FOX 7.97 Apprentice 5 NBC 7.97 48 Family Guy (9 p.m.) FOX 7.73 49 America’s Funniest Home Videos (Fri.) ABC 7.58 50 Invasion ABC 7.51

51 Dateline: NBC (Fri.) NBC 7.20 52 “Dr. Phil: Escaping Danger” CBS 6.91 53 Crimetime Saturday (9 p.m.) CBS 6.88 54 Dateline: NBC (7 p.m.) NBC 6.87 55 48 Hours Mystery CBS 6.51

56 Scrubs (9:30 p.m.) NBC 6.48 57 American Inventor (9 p.m.) ABC 6.46 58 Simpsons (7:30 p.m.) FOX 6.36 59 The O.C. FOX 6.22 60 Scrubs (9 p.m.) NBC 6.11

61 Conviction NBC 5.90 62 America’s Most Wanted FOX 5.73 63 America’s Next Top Model 6 (Wed.) UPN 5.72 64 Primetime ABC 5.68 65 Crimetime Saturday (8 p.m.) CBS 5.55

66 Cops (8:30 p.m.) FOX 5.53 67 Alias ABC 5.35 68 American Inventor (8 p.m.) ABC 5.00 69 “10.5” NBC 4.97 70 The Simpsons (7 p.m.) FOX 4.94

71 “X2: X-Men United” FOX 4.59 72 Cops FOX 4.57 73 Celebrity Debut ABC 4.49 74 “Remember the Titans” ABC 4.44 75 Charmed (8 p.m.) WB 4.40

76 Fea Mas Bella (Mon.) UNI 4.30 77 Fea Mas Bella (Tue.) UNI 4.24 78 Fea Mas Bella (Thu.) UNI 4.13 79 Fea Mas Bella (Fri.) UNI 4.05 80 Barrera de Amor (Tue.) UNI 4.02

81 Barrera de Amor (Mon.) UNI 3.88 82 Will & Grace (Tue., 8:30 p.m.) NBC 3.85 83 Will & Grace (Tue, 8 p.m.) NBC 3.84 84 Barrera de Amor (Thu.) UNI 3.78 85 Barrera de Amor (Wed.) UNI 3.77 Fea Mas Bella (Wed.) UNI 3.77

87 Barrera de Amor (Fri.) UNI 3.66 88 Reyes de La Pista UNI 3.51 89 All of Us UPN 3.23 90 Peregrina (Tue.) UNI 3.20

91 7th Heaven WB 3.15 92 One on One UPN 2.94 93 WWE Smackdown! UPN 2.91 94 Cristina UNI 2.90 95 Everybody Hates Chris UPN 2.83

96 “Lucero ... Trayectoria” UNI 2.76 Aqui y Ahora UNI 2.76 98 Peregrina (Wed.) UNI 2.74 99 Don Francisco Presenta UNI 2.72 100 Half and Half (Mon.) UPN 2.70

101 Peregrina (Thu.) UNI 2.58 Peregrina (Fri.) UNI 2.58 103 Ver Para Creer UNI 2.57 104 Everwood WB 2.54 105 Peregrina (Mon.) UNI 2.52

106 “Final Destination 2”) WB 2.34 107 “Drumline” WB 2.29 108 Sabado Gigante UNI 2.28 109 Reba (7:30 p.m.) WB 2.24 110 America’s Next Top Model 6 (Tue.) UPN 2.15

111 Chiquitibum UNI 2.06 112 Hora Pico UNI 1.91 113 Half & Half (Wed.) UPN 1.89 114 Charmed (9 p.m.) WB 1.72 115 “Bend It Like Beckham” WB 1.70

116 Reba (7 p.m.) WB 1.69 117 Gilmore Girls WB 1.67 118 Eve UPN 1.63 119 Pepper Dennis WB 1.52 120 Love Inc. UPN 1.51

121 Cuts UPN 1.48 122 Casos Familia UNI 1.30 123 Veronica Mars UPN 124 Tormenta (Tue.) TEL 1.28 125 Tormenta (Wed.) TEL 1.27

126 Tormenta (Mon.) TEL 1.19 127 Tierra de Pasiones (Tue.) TEL 1.17 128 Decisiones (Wed.) TEL 1.11 129 Tierra de Pasiones (Mon.) TEL 0.99

130 Tormenta (Thu.) TEL 0.98 Tierra de Pasiones (Wed.) TEL 0.98 132 Tierra de Pasiones (Thu.) TEL 0.97 133 Corazon Partido (Mon.) TEL 0.92 134 Tormenta (Fri.) TEL 0.91 Decisiones (Mon.) TEL 0.91

136 Decisiones (Tue.) TEL 0.90 137 Corazon Partido (Tue.) TEL 0.89 138 Decisiones (Fri.) TEL 0.85

139 Tierra de Pasiones (Fri.) TEL 0.84 Decisiones (Thu.) TEL 0.84 141 Corazon Partido (Fri.) TEL 0.82 142 Corazon Partido (Wed.) TEL 0.80

143 Corazon Partido (Thu.) TEL 0.73 144 Loteria TEL 0.44 145 Cinemundo Premier (Sat.) TEL 0.43 146 Cinemundo Premier (Sun.) TEL 0.39 147 Corriendo y Grabando TEL 0.38

148 Cinemundo del Sabado TEL 0.33

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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 11.96 12.58

FOX 11.04 9.87

ABC 10.46 10.77

NBC 9.58 9.70

UNI 3.33 3.80

UPN 2.66 3.12

WB 2.29 3.12

TEL 0.76 0.93

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