NBC attracting prized viewers

Thanks to “Sunday Night Football,” “Heroes,” “Deal or No Deal” and “1 vs. 100,” NBC has become the only network to increase its viewership among the young adult demographic through the first six weeks of the television season.

NBC’s ratings among viewers ages 18 to 49 -- the group most prized by many advertisers -- are up 12% over last year, according to figures released Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research, putting it in third place behind ABC and CBS.

NBC was tied for third with Fox a year ago. With football taken out of the equation, NBC’s increase is 6%.

CBS’ viewership among viewers ages 18 to 49 is down 3% compared with last year, and Fox’s is down 9%, while ABC’s is unchanged.

Among the factors hurting Fox’s ratings among that key demographic group were the Major League Baseball playoffs, which were down 14% from 2005.

Overall viewership for the St. Louis Cardinals’ five-game victory over the Detroit Tigers averaged a record-low 15.8 million viewers, 8% less than the previous low of last year’s 17.16 million for the Chicago White Sox’s sweep of the Houston Astros.

In a week that featured reruns of several of the season’s most-watched series, CBS was able to continue its streak of being the most-watched network for each week of the season, averaging 12.29 million viewers for its prime-time programming for Oct. 23 through Sunday.

ABC was second with 11.39 million viewers, followed by Fox with 9.97 million, NBC with 9.72 million and the CW with 3.59 million.

ABC finished first among viewers ages 18 to 49 for the fifth time in the season’s six weeks, continuing its best start since the 1977-78 season, when its lineup included such series as “Happy Days,” “Laverne & Shirley,” “Three’s Company” and “Charlie’s Angels.” ABC tied CBS for the lead the other week.

NBC’s “Heroes” was the week’s most-watched new series, with 14.45 million viewers, finishing 18th overall. It was also the most-watched new series among viewers ages 18 to 49, finishing fourth overall in the category.

ESPN’s “Monday Night Football” game between the Dallas Cowboys and New York Giants was the week’s most-watched cable program with 16.03 million viewers, the second largest audience for a regularly scheduled cable program.

ESPN was cable’s most-watched channel in prime time for the sixth time in seven weeks, averaging 3.63 million viewers.

The “CBS Evening News With Katie Couric” was in third place in the weekly ratings for the fifth consecutive week, averaging 7.29 million viewers, the same as the corresponding week a year ago, when Bob Schieffer was anchoring.

Despite a 6% drop from a year ago, the “NBC Nightly News” recorded its 117th weekly victory in the last 121 weeks, with 8.65 million viewers. ABC’s “World News With Charles Gibson” was second with 8.38 million, 3% less than a year ago, when it used several substitute anchors following the death of Peter Jennings.

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Prime-Time TV Rankings

Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (Oct. 23-29) 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 283.5 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 Desperate Housewives ABC 21.24 2 “NFL Post-Game” CBS 20.82 3 Dancing With the Stars ABC 20.69 4 Dancing With the Stars Results ABC 20.02 5 CSI: Miami CBS 17.83

6 CSI: NY CBS 17.42 7 Sunday Night Football NBC 17.33 8 Lost ABC 17.09 9 CSI CBS 16.82 10 Criminal Minds (Wed.) CBS 16.77

11 60 Minutes CBS 16.55 12 “World Series Game 5” (Fri.) FOX 16.28 13 “World Series Game 4” (Thu.) FOX 16.11 14 Deal or No Deal (Mon.) NBC 15.83 15 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition ABC 15.63

16 “World Series Game 3” (Tue.) FOX 15.58 17 Two and a Half Men CBS 15.03 18 Heroes NBC 14.45 19 Cold Case CBS 14.16 20 Without a Trace CBS 13.37

21 Ugly Betty ABC 13.14 22 Survivor: Cook Islands CBS 12.63 23 Brothers & Sisters ABC 12.49 24 Grey’s Anatomy (9 p.m.) ABC 12.18 25 The New Adventures of Old Christine CBS 12.10

26 NCIS CBS 11.76 27 Amazing Race 10 CBS 11.66 28 “NFL Pre-Game” (Sun.) NBC 11.57 29 America’s Funniest Home Videos ABC 11.40 30 Deal or No Deal (Thu.) NBC 11.15

31 Numb3rs CBS 11.09 32 Ghost Whisperer CBS 10.88 33 Close to Home CBS 10.83 34 Law & Order: SVU (Thu.) NBC 10.72 35 Help Me Help You ABC 10.59

36 Jericho CBS 10.56 37 Boston Legal ABC 10.50 38 Shark CBS 10.46 39 Grey’s Anatomy (10 p.m.) ABC 9.95 40 The Unit CBS 9.79

41 1 Vs. 100 NBC 9.75 42 How I Met Your Mother CBS 9.59 43 Law & Order: Criminal Intent NBC 9.43 44 Las Vegas NBC 9.33 45 Criminal Minds (Tue.) CBS 9.13

46 Football Night America, Part 3 NBC 9.10 47 Law & Order NBC 9.02 48 Dateline: NBC (Wed.) NBC 8.87 49 “World Series Game 3 Pre-Game” FOX 8.64 50 Prison Break FOX 8.53

51 Bachelor: Rome ABC 8.18 52 “World Series Game 4 Pre-Game” FOX 8.11 53 20/20 ABC 8.10 54 Crimetime Saturday CBS 8.05 55 The Class CBS 7.95

56 Biggest Loser 3 NBC 7.91 57 48 Hours Mystery CBS 7.82 58 “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown” ABC 7.81 59 The Nine ABC 7.77 60 Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip NBC 7.72

61 Football Night America, Part 2 NBC 7.43 62 My Name Is Earl NBC 7.36 63 Wife Swap ABC 7.17 64 ER NBC 7.10 65 “World Series Game 5 Pre-Game FOX 7.02

66 Men in Trees ABC 6.86 67 Law & Order: SVU (Sat.) NBC 6.44 68 The Office NBC 6.36 69 Friday Night Lights NBC 6.27 70 Justice FOX 6.22

71 War at Home (Wed., 9 p.m.) FOX 6.11 72 “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban” ABC 6.08 73 30 Rock NBC 6.01 74 What About Brian ABC 5.98 75 The War at Home (Wed., 9:30 p.m.) FOX 5.86

76 Cops (9:30 p.m.) FOX 5.80 77 America’s Next Top Model (Wed.) CW 5.45 78 Cops (9 p.m.) FOX 5.36 20 Good Years NBC 5.36 The Simpsons (8 p.m.) FOX 5.36

81 Dateline: NBC (Sat.) NBC 5.29 82 Crimetime Saturday (8 p.m.) CBS 5.20 83 The War at Home (Wed., 8:30 p.m.) FOX 5.17 84 Family Guy FOX 5.14 85 Cops (8:30 p.m.) FOX 4.94

86 War at Home (Wed, 8 p.m.) FOX 4.85 87 La Fea Mas Bella (Wed.) UNI 4.81 88 Smallville CW 4.79 89 La Fea Mas Bella (Mon.) UNI 4.75 90 Gilmore Girls CW 4.73

91 La Fea Mas Bella (Tue.) UNI 4.67 92 American Dad FOX 4.58 93 La Fea Mas Bella (Thu.) UNI 4.57 94 Friday Night Smackdown CW 4.48 95 La Fea Mas Bella (Fri.) UNI 4.36

96 Cops (8 p.m.) FOX 4.23 97 Til Death FOX 3.92 98 Kidnapped NBC 3.71 99 One Tree Hill CW 3.67 100 Supernatural (Thu.) CW 3.65

101 The War at Home (Sun.) FOX 3.60 102 The Simpsons (7 p.m.) FOX 3.57 103 Don Francisco Presenta UNI 3.49 104 Mundo de Fieras (Wed.) UNI 3.44 105 Mundo de Fieras (Tue.) UNI 3.38

106 Mundo de Fieras (Mon.) UNI 3.35 107 Veronica Mars CW 3.33 108 Mundo de Fieras (Thu.) UNI 3.20 109 Everybody Hates Chris CW 3.19 110 7th Heaven CW 3.14

Mundo de Fieras (Fri.) UNI 3.14 112 All of Us CW 2.93 113 Cristina UNI 2.88 114 Heridas de Amor (Thu.) UNI 2.83 115 Girlfriends CW 2.81

116 Heridas de Amor (Mon.) UNI 2.70 117 Heridas de Amor (Tue.) UNI 2.60 118 Heridas de Amor (Wed.) UNI 2.51 119 The Game CW 2.48 120 Sabado Gigante UNI 2.45

121 Ver Para Creer UNI 2.40 122 Heridas de Amor (Fri.) UNI 2.38 123 Aqui y Ahora UNI 2.33 124 Hora Pico UNI 2.23 125 Casos Vida UNI 2.14

126 Reyes de la Cancion Sun UNI 2.09 127 Casos Familia UNI 1.98 128 America’s Top Model (Sun.) CW 1.63 129 Supernatural (Sun.) CW 1.57 130 Tierra de Pasiones (Tue.) TEL 1.42

131 Tierra de Pasiones (Mon.) TEL 1.17 132 Viuda de Blanco (Tue.) TEL 1.05 133 Marina (Tue.) TEL 1.04 134 Marina (Mon.) TEL 1.03 135 Viuda de Blanco (Fri.) TEL 0.99

136 Viuda de Blanco (Thu.) TEL 0.96 Marina (Thu.) TEL 0.96 138 Amores (Fri.) TEL 0.95 Viuda de Blanco (Mon.) TEL 0.95 140 Decisiones (Fri.) TEL 0.94

141 Decisiones (Thu.) TEL 0.93 142 Amor Mio (Fri.) TEL 0.91 143 Amor Mio (Thu.) TEL 0.87 144 Amores (Mon.) TEL 0.84 Decisiones (Mon.) TEL 0.84

Amores (Thu.) TEL 0.84 147 Amor Mio (Wed.) TEL 0.83 148 Marina (Fri.) TEL 0.82 Decisiones (Tue.) TEL 0.82 150 Viuda de Blanco (Wed.) TEL 0.81

151 Mundo Disney TEL 0.80 152 Amores (Wed.) TEL 0.73 153 Decisiones (Wed.) TEL 0.71 Amores (Thu.) TEL 0.71 155 Marina (Wed.) TEL 0.69

156 Vas O No Vas TEL 0.53 157 Cinemundo del Sabado TEL 0.41 158 Quinceanera TEL 0.33 159 Que Hay de Nuevo TEL 0.24

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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 12.29 12.76

ABC 11.39 11.52

FOX 9.97 8.76

NBC 9.72 10.04

CW 3.59 3.41

UNI 3.15 3.31

TEL 0.78 0.87

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