‘Dancing’ is top show, but CBS takes the trophy
ABC drew its largest audience since Super Bowl week, thanks in part to two “Dancing With the Stars” episodes with the two biggest audiences of the season, but it wasn’t enough to end the season-long CBS winning streak.
Wednesday’s third-cycle finale of “Dancing With the Stars” -- former NFL running back Emmitt Smith defeated actor and television host Mario Lopez to be crowned champion -- was the most watched show between Nov. 13 and Sunday with a series-record 27.51 million viewers, according to Nielsen Media Research figures released Tuesday.
But with “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation,” “60 Minutes,” “CSI: Miami,” “Shark” and “The Amazing Race” all drawing their largest audiences of the season, CBS continued its streak of being the most-watched network for each of the nine weeks of the season, averaging 13.41 million viewers for its prime-time programming.
ABC was second with 12.96 million viewers, its largest weekly audience since the week of Jan. 30 to Feb. 5, when it averaged 22.9 million and its programming included Super Bowl XL.
ABC used the two “Dancing With the Stars” episodes in an attempt to boost viewership for the premieres of “Show Me the Money” and “Day Break” and achieved some success.
Tuesday’s 90-minute premiere of “Show Me the Money,” a game show hosted by William Shatner, was 29th for the week with 12.39 million viewers. Wednesday’s two-hour premiere of “Day Break,” which stars Taye Diggs as a detective reliving the same day, was 35th with 10.16 million viewers, topping the season premiere of NBC’s “Medium” opposite it. CBS won the time period with “Criminal Minds.”
The premiere of the CBS medical drama “3 Lbs.” was third in its 10-11 p.m. Tuesday time slot with 9.87 million viewers.
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Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (Nov. 13-19) 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 Dancing With the Stars Results ABC 27.51 2 Dancing With the Stars ABC 26.80 3 CSI CBS 24.11 4 “NFL Post-Game” CBS 23.76 5 Desperate Housewives ABC 21.63
6 Grey’s Anatomy (Thu.) ABC 20.92 7 60 Minutes CBS 19.16 8 CSI: Miami CBS 18.76 9 Deal or No Deal (Mon.) NBC 18.07 10 Criminal Minds CBS 16.47
11 CSI: NY CBS 16.18 12 Two and a Half Men CBS 15.83 13 NCIS CBS 15.80 14 Survivor: Cook Islands CBS 15.35 15 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition ABC 15.31
16 Shark CBS 15.24 17 Heroes NBC 15.08 18 Sunday Night Football NBC 14.99 19 Law & Order: SVU (Tue.) NBC 14.76 20 House (Tue.) FOX 14.60
21 Cold Case CBS 14.53 22 Without a Trace CBS 14.51 23 Brothers & Sisters ABC 13.04 24 Ugly Betty ABC 12.95 25 “Barbara Walters Special” (Thu.) ABC 12.91
26 Deal or No Deal (Fri.) NBC 12.67 27 E.R. NBC 12.52 28 Amazing Race 10 CBS 12.40 29 Show Me the Money ABC 12.39 30 Old Christine CBS 11.87
31 The Unit CBS 11.84 32 Numb3rs CBS 10.73 33 America’s Funniest Home Videos ABC 10.58 34 Close to Home CBS 10.56 35 Day Break ABC 10.16
36 Ghost Whisperer CBS 10.13 37 Law & Order NBC 9.94 38 3 Lbs. CBS 9.86 39 NFL Pre-Game NBC 9.50 40 Medium NBC 9.44
41 Jericho CBS 9.34 42 How I Met Your Mother CBS 9.33 43 “Barbara Walters Special” (Fri.) ABC 9.31 44 Family Guy FOX 9.30 45 The Simpsons (8 p.m.) FOX 9.27
46 College Football ABC 9.23 47 Prison Break FOX 9.21 48 House (Fri.) FOX 9.17 49 Law & Order: Criminal Intent NBC 9.14 50 My Name Is Earl NBC 9.11
51 Las Vegas NBC 9.04 52 The Class CBS 8.44 53 The Office NBC 8.43 54 Bachelor: Rome ABC 8.35 55 American Dad (8:30 p.m.) FOX 8.24
56 Football Night in America, Part 3 NBC 8.00 57 Bones (8 p.m.) FOX 7.83 58 48 Hours Mystery CBS 7.58 Studio 60 on Sunset Strip NBC 7.58 60 20/20 ABC 7.48
61 Law & Order: SVU (Sat.) NBC 7.41 62 Crimetime Saturday (9 p.m.) CBS 7.32 63 College Football Pre-Game ABC 6.93 64 Crimetime Saturday (8 p.m.) CBS 6.92 65 Football Night in America, Part 2 NBC 6.79
66 War at Home FOX 6.63 67 Wife Swap ABC 6.54 68 Biggest Loser NBC 6.37 69 America’s Most Wanted FOX 5.99 70 Bones (9 p.m.) FOX 5.77
71 The Simpsons (7:30 p.m.) FOX 5.70 72 Grey’s Anatomy (Fri.) ABC 5.68 73 Cops (8:30 p.m.) FOX 5.60 74 Friday Night Lights NBC 5.48 75 La Fea Mas Bella (Mon.) UNI 5.27
76 What About Brian ABC 5.21 77 30 Rock NBC 5.19 78 La Fea Mas Bella (Thu.) UNI 5.08 79 La Fea Mas Bella (Wed.) UNI 5.06 80 La Fea Mas Bella (Tue.) UNI 5.03
81 Dateline: NBC (Sat.) NBC 4.95 82 Cops (8 p.m.) FOX 4.82 83 America’s Next Top Model (Wed.) CW 4.71 84 Smallville CW 4.70 85 La Fea Mas Bella (Fri.) UNI 4.65
86 Standoff FOX 4.64 87 Til Death (8 p.m.) FOX 4.55 88 Til Death (8:30 p.m.) FOX 4.54 89 Gilmore Girls CW 4.51 7th Heaven CW 4.51
91 Reba (7:30 p.m.) CW 4.34 92 Friday Night Smackdown! CW 4.21 93 Don Francisco Presenta UNI 3.82 94 Trading Spouses (9 p.m.) FOX 3.78 95 The O.C. FOX 3.77
96 American Dad (7 p.m.) FOX 3.68 Reba (7 p.m.) CW 3.68 98 Mundo de Fieras (Mon.) UNI 3.63 99 Mundo de Fieras (Wed.) UNI 3.54 100 Mundo de Fieras (Thu.) UNI 3.40
101 Mundo de Fieras (Fri.) UNI 3.38 102 Trading Spouses (8 p.m.) FOX 3.28 103 Mundo de Fieras (Tue.) UNI 3.25 104 Everybody Hates Chris CW 3.22 105 Heridas de Amor (Wed.) UNI 3.21
106 Supernatural CW 3.16 107 One Tree Hill CW 3.15 108 All of Us CW 3.10 109 Heridas de Amor (Thu.) UNI 3.04 110 Heridas de Amor (Tue.) UNI 3.00
Heridas de Amor (Mon.) UNI 3.00 112 Girlfriends CW 2.98 113 Aqui y Ahora (Thu.) UNI 2.70 114 Veronica Mars CW 2.69 115 Reyes de la Cancion UNI 2.67
116 Cristina UNI 2.58 117 “25 Anos: Noticiero Univision” UNI 2.57 Heridas de Amor (Fri.) UNI 2.57 119 The Game CW 2.43 120 Hora Pico UNI 2.38
121 Sabado Gigante UNI 2.25 122 Ver Para Creer UNI 2.12 123 Casos Familia UNI 1.88 124 America’s Top Model (Sun.) CW 1.83 125 Viuda de Blanco (Tue.) TEL 1.03
126 Marina (Fri.) TEL 1.02 127 Viuda de Blanco (Thu.) TEL 1.01 128 Viuda de Blanco (Wed.) TEL 1.00 129 Marina (Wed.) TEL 0.98 Marina (Tue.) TEL 0.98 Amor Mio (Tue.) TEL 0.98
132 Amores (Thu.) TEL 0.93 133 Decisiones (Mon.) TEL 0.91 Amores (Tue.) TEL 0.91 135 Marina (Thu.) TEL 0.89
Viuda de Blanco (Fri.) TEL 0.89 137 Viuda de Blanco (Mon.) TEL 0.87 138 Amor Mio (Thu.) TEL 0.85 139 Amor Mio (Wed.) TEL 0.84
140 Amores (Wed.) TEL 0.83 Decisiones (Thu.) TEL 0.83 Amor Mio (Mon.) TEL 0.83 Decisiones (Tue.) TEL 0.83 Cinemundo del Sabado TEL 0.83 145 Cinemundo Premier TEL 0.82
146 Decisiones (Fri.) TEL 0.80 Marina (Mon.) TEL 0.80 148 Amores (Mon.) TEL 0.78 Amor Mio (Fri.) TEL 0.78 150 Amores (Fri.) TEL 0.71
151 Decisiones (Wed.) TEL 0.68 152 Cinemundo del Sabado TEL 0.63 153 Vas o No Vas TEL 0.61 154 Seguro y Urgente TEL 0.39 155 Que Hay de Nuevo TEL 0.22
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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 13.41 12.84
ABC 12.96 11.77
NBC 10.12 10.17
FOX 6.63 8.15
CW 3.66 3.44
UNI 3.34 3.31
TEL 0.82 0.84
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