CBS is able to hold off ABC

CBS continued its streak of being the most-watched network in prime time for each of the television season’s eight weeks, but ABC had four of last week’s five most-watched programs, drawing its largest audience since early March.

With “Desperate Housewives” finishing as the week’s most-watched show with 22.27 million viewers, ABC averaged 12.44 million viewers for its prime-time programming from Nov. 6 through Sunday, according to figures released Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research. CBS won with 12.73 million.

The first broadcast of the Country Music Awards on ABC drew a record-low 15.96 million viewers for its three-hour telecast Nov. 6, 10% fewer than last year’s awards, which were shown on CBS. The previous low was 16.63 million viewers for the 2000 broadcast on CBS.

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Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (Nov. 6-12) 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.

*--* 1 Desperate Housewives ABC 22.27 2 Dancing With the Stars ABC 21.98 3 CSI CBS 20.83 4 Dancing With the Stars: Results ABC 20.68 5 Grey’s Anatomy (Thu.) ABC 20.65

6 Sunday Night Football NBC 19.38 7 Dancing With the Stars: Recap ABC 18.15 8 Criminal Minds CBS 17.57 9 Lost ABC 17.15 10 CSI: Miami CBS 16.80

11 CSI: NY CBS 16.77 12 60 Minutes CBS 16.22 13 “House Election” FOX 16.11 14 “CMA Awards” ABC 15.96 15 NCIS CBS 15.43

16 Without a Trace CBS 15.22 17 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition ABC 15.10 18 Cold Case CBS 14.77 19 Deal or No Deal (Mon.) NBC 14.67 20 ER NBC 14.56

21 Fox NFL Sunday Post-Game FOX 14.53 22 Two and a Half Men CBS 14.48 23 Heroes NBC 14.47 24 Survivor: Cook Islands CBS 14.39 25 Shark CBS 13.64

26 Sunday Night NFL Pre-Game NBC 13.58 27 Ugly Betty ABC 12.81 28 Brothers & Sisters ABC 12.78 29 Numb3rs CBS 11.76 30 Deal or No Deal (Thu.) NBC 11.54

31 Old Christine CBS 11.47 32 Ghost Whisperer CBS 11.46 33 The Simpsons FOX 11.43 34 The OT (football post-game) FOX 11.42 35 Close to Home CBS 11.38

36 The Unit CBS 11.34 37 Amazing Race 10 CBS 10.90 38 Football Night in America, Part 3 NBC 10.86 39 America’s Funniest Home Videos ABC 9.91 40 1 vs. 100 NBC 9.86

41 Jericho CBS 9.68 42 Law & Order NBC 9.57 43 Crimetime Saturday (9 p.m.) CBS 9.24 44 My Name Is Earl NBC 9.13 45 Family Guy FOX 9.04

46 Desperate Housewives (Thu.) ABC 8.69 47 Prison Break FOX 8.63 48 “ABC News: Vote 2006” ABC 8.55 49 American Dad FOX 8.48 50 Las Vegas NBC 8.37

51 How I Met Your Mother CBS 8.22 52 48 Hours Mystery CBS 8.13 53 Dateline: NBC (Wed.) NBC 8.10 54 The Office NBC 8.05 55 Law & Order: SVU (Sat.) NBC 7.72

56 Studio 60 NBC 7.67 57 Crimetime Saturday (8 p.m.) CBS 7.62 58 The Class CBS 7.57 59 Bones FOX 7.52 60 Law & Order: Criminal Intent NBC 7.39

61 The Nine ABC 7.22 62 The Biggest Loser 3 NBC 7.20 63 20/20 ABC 6.42 64 Men in Trees ABC 6.38 65 “Decision 2006” NBC 6.24

66 Dateline: NBC (Sat.) NBC 6.07 67 War at Home FOX 5.96 68 Cops (8:30 p.m.) FOX 5.95 69 Friday Night Lights NBC 5.94 70 Football Night in America, Part 2 NBC 5.93

71 “Campaign 2006: Election” CBS 5.90 72 Justice FOX 5.85 73 College Football ABC 5.76 74 America’s Most Wanted FOX 5.58 75 Cops FOX 5.50

76 Grey’s Anatomy (Fri.) ABC 5.43 77 America’s Next Top Model (Wed.) CW 5.37 78 Standoff FOX 5.36 79 La Fea Mas Bella (Tue.) UNI 5.08 80 La Fea Mas Bella (Thu.) UNI 5.02

81 Til Death (Thu 8:30 p.m.) FOX 4.92 82 La Fea Mas Bella (Wed.) UNI 4.88 83 La Fea Mas Bella (Mon.) UNI 4.81 84 Smallville (Thu.) CW 4.46 85 Til Death FOX 4.43

86 La Fea Mas Bella (Fri.) UNI 4.37 87 College Football Pre-Game ABC 4.35 88 Gilmore Girls CW 4.34 89 Friday Night Smackdown CW 4.33 90 The O.C. FOX 3.73

91 7th Heaven CW 3.62 92 Mundo de Fieras (Thu.) UNI 3.60 93 One Tree Hill CW 3.56 94 The O.C. (Wed.) FOX 3.54 95 Mundo de Fieras (Tue.) UNI 3.52

96 Trading Spouses FOX 3.51 97 Mundo de Fieras (Mon.) UNI 3.44 98 Cristina (Mon.) UNI 3.27 99 Heridas de Amor (Tue.) UNI 3.24 100 Supernatural CW 3.19

101 Everybody Hates Chris CW 3.18 102 Mundo de Fieras (Fri.) UNI 3.16 103 Mundo de Fieras (Wed.) UNI 3.12 104 Heridas de Amor (Mon.) UNI 2.96

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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 12.73 12.99

ABC 12.44 11.79

NBC 10.25 10.30

FOX 7.22 8.33

CW 3.50 3.47

UNI 3.21 3.31

TEL 81 85

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