CBS wins the first week of November sweeps

A prime NFL duel helped NBC, a supermarket shootout led ABC’s “Desperate Housewives” to the top, “Lost” lost and Fox’s soap “The O.C.” seems just plain shot.

Meanwhile, methodical CBS rode the overall strength of its prime-time schedule to victory during the first week of television’s November ratings sweeps, according to Nielsen Media Research. The quarterly sweeps ratings are used to determine advertising rates.

The hard-fought Sunday night football matchup between rival powerhouses Indianapolis and New England brought nearly 22 million people to NBC. That was well above Sunday night football’s season average of 15.5 million before the game, Nielsen said.

The football didn’t hurt “Desperate Housewives,” also on Sunday night. With 22.6 million viewers, it was the most popular program of the week.

Fox’s season premiere of “The O.C.,” the once-popular prime-time drama, was seen by an alarmingly low 3.4 million people, ranking No. 98.

It’s hurt by being in a brutal Thursday time slot, but those numbers indicate its fans have moved on.

It has been a tough season for Fox, which doesn’t begin “American Idol” and “24” until January. Nothing the network has tried so far has worked, and even postseason baseball was a ratings dud.

Evening-news ratings were up across-the-board the week before the midterm election, with ABC getting the biggest boost. NBC’s “Nightly News” finished first, averaging 9.3 million viewers. ABC’s “World News” had 9 million viewers and the “CBS Evening News” had 7.7 million.

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Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (Oct. 30 to Nov. 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 283.5 million potential viewers in the U.S. ages 2 and older. Viewership is listed in millions.

*--* Program Network Viewers 1 Desperate Housewives ABC 22.65 2 Sunday Night Football NBC 21.94 3 Grey’s Anatomy (Thu.) ABC 21.02 4 CSI CBS 20.77 5 Dancing With the Stars ABC 20.51

6 Dancing With the Stars Results ABC 19.22 7 Criminal Minds CBS 16.97 8 Deal or No Deal (Mon.) NBC 16.90 9 CSI: NY CBS 16.64 10 Lost ABC 16.07

11 NCIS CBS 15.94 12 60 Minutes CBS 15.31 13 Survivor: Cook Islands CBS 15.29 14 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition ABC 15.27 15 Heroes NBC 14.89

16 NFL Pregame NBC 14.61 17 CSI: Miami CBS 14.47 18 House FOX 14.18 19 Cold Case CBS 13.96 20 ER NBC 13.85

21 Two and a Half Men CBS 13.72 22 Ugly Betty ABC 13.62 23 Brothers & Sisters ABC 13.53 24 Law & Order: SVU (Tue.) NBC 13.36 25 Shark CBS 13.32

26 Deal or No Deal (Thu.) NBC 13.22 27 Without a Trace CBS 13.02 28 Football Night in America, Part 3 NBC 11.93 29 Close to Home CBS 11.57 30 The Unit CBS 11.49

31 Amazing Race 10 CBS 11.38 32 Ghost Whisperer CBS 11.12 33 Numb3rs CBS 11.08 34 Law & Order NBC 10.87 35 Old Christine CBS 10.60

36 1 vs. 100 NBC 10.55 37 America’s Funniest Home Videos ABC 10.53 38 The Simpsons FOX 10.46 39 Boston Legal ABC 10.40 40 Jericho CBS 9.87

41 My Name Is Earl NBC 9.48 42 Help Me Help You ABC 9.01 43 Las Vegas NBC 8.96 Crimetime Saturday (9 p.m.) CBS 8.96 45 Prison Break FOX 8.94

46 48 Hours Mystery CBS 8.90 47 The Office NBC 8.81 48 Law & Order: Criminal Intent (Tue.) NBC 8.47 49 Family Guy FOX 8.45 50 How I Met Your Mother CBS 8.38

51 Football Night America Part 2 NBC 8.35 52 Friday Night Lights (Sun.) NBC 8.26 53 CSI: NY (Tue.) CBS 8.02 54 20/20 (9 p.m.) ABC 7.90 55 Crimetime Saturday (8 p.m.) CBS 7.82

56 Biggest Loser 3 NBC 7.78 57 Bachelor: Rome ABC 7.77 58 American Dad FOX 7.71 59 20/20 (10 p.m.) ABC 7.68 60 Six Degrees ABC 7.40

61 Bones FOX 7.33 62 The Class CBS 7.22 The Simpsons (7:30 p.m.) FOX 7.22 64 Dateline: NBC (Wed.) NBC 7.11 65 America’s Most Wanted FOX 6.58

66 Justice FOX 6.52 The Nine ABC 6.52 68 Cops (8:30 p.m.) FOX 6.51 69 Law & Order: SVU (Sat.) NBC 6.17 70 The War at Home FOX 6.16

71 What About Brian ABC 6.08 72 Wife Swap ABC 6.07 73 Grey’s Anatomy (Fri.) ABC 5.90 74 “Latin Grammy 06” UNI 5.69 College Football ABC 5.69

76 Cops FOX 5.41 77 Smallville CW 5.01 78 The Simpsons (7 p.m.) FOX 4.96 79 Dateline: NBC (Sat.) NBC 4.94 Standoff FOX 4.94

81 La Fea Mas Bella (Fri.) UNI 4.76 82 La Fea Mas Bella (Wed.) UNI 4.65 83 La Fea Mas Bella (Mon.) UNI 4.64 84 Friday Night Smackdown CW 4.63 85 30 Rock NBC 4.61

86 Law & Order: Criminal Intent (Sat.) NBC 4.51 87 America’s Next Top Model (Wed.) CW 4.41 88 La Fea Mas Bella (Tue.) UNI 4.35 89 Til Death FOX 4.33 90 The Rich List FOX 4.10

Noche de Estrellas UNI 4.10 20 Good Years NBC 4.10 93 Friday Night Lights (Tue.) NBC 3.90 94 7th Heaven CW 3.85 95 Trading Spouses FOX 3.68

96 Everybody Hates Chris CW 3.58 97 Mundo de Fieras (Wed.) UNI 3.46 98 The O.C. FOX 3.39 99 Supernatural (Thu.) CW 3.38 100 Vanished FOX 3.32

101 Mundo de Fieras (Tue.) UNI 3.26 102 Happy Hour FOX 3.20 103 Girlfriends CW 3.13 104 All of Us CW 3.09 105 Mundo de Fieras (Fri.) UNI 3.08

106 Mundo de Fieras (Mon.) UNI 3.07 107 Heridas de Amor (Wed.) UNI 3.00 108 The Game CW 2.85 109 Don Francisco Presenta UNI 2.84 Heridas de Amor (Mon.) UNI 2.84

111 Gilmore Girls CW 2.79 112 Veronica Mars CW 2.70 113 Heridas de Amor (Fri.) UNI 2.66 114 Heridas de Amor (Tue.) UNI 2.62 115 One Tree Hill CW 2.51

116 Hora Pico UNI 2.32 117 Sabado Gigante UNI 2.23 118 Reyes de la Cancion UNI 2.22 119 Cristina UNI 1.98 120 Ver Para Creer UNI 1.89

121 Casos Familia UNI 1.82 122 America’s Next Top Model (Sun.) CW 1.51 Supernatural (Sun.) CW 1.51 124 Amor Mio (Mon.) TEL 1.03 125 Marina (Mon.) TEL 0.98

126 Viuda de Blanco (Mon.) TEL 0.97 127 Marav Mundo Disney TEL 0.96 128 Decisiones (Tue.) TEL 0.95 129 Amores (Mon.) TEL 0.94 130 Viuda de Blanco (Tue.) TEL 0.90

131 Marina (Tue.) TEL 0.89 132 Viuda de Blanco (Wed.) TEL 0.86 133 Amor Mio (Wed.) TEL 0.85 Amores (Wed.) TEL 0.85 135 Amores (Tue.) TEL 0.84

Viuda de Blanco (Fri.) TEL 0.84 137 Decisiones (Fri.) TEL 0.83 138 Marina (Fri.) TEL 0.81 Amores (Fri.) TEL 0.81 140 Marina (Wed.) TEL 0.79

141 Viuda de Blanco (Thu.) TEL 0.78 142 Decisiones (Fri.) TEL 0.77 143 Decisiones (Mon.) TEL 0.75 144 Vas O No Vas TEL 0.74 145 Amor Mio (Fri.) TEL 0.73

146 Amor Mio (Tue.) TEL 0.70 147 Cinemundo del Sabado TEL 0.64 148 Amor Mio (Thu.) TEL 0.63 149 Amores (Thu.) TEL 0.60 150 Marina (Fri.) TEL 0.59

151 Quinceanera TEL 0.47 152 Decisiones (Thu.) TEL 0.46 153 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 Lastweek Seasonto date CBS 12.80 12.77

ABC 11.36 11.50

NBC 10.93 10.17

FOX 6.36 8.46

UNI 3.38 3.32

CW 3.33 3.40

TEL 0.77 0.85

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