CBS, ABC battle it out on Thursdays

CBS repeated its first-week ratings win overall, ABC again led in the coveted 18-to-49 group, and NBC recorded the largest audience growth.

Two weeks into the new TV season, NBC’s viewership is up 13% over the first two weeks of last season, according to figures released Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research, thanks to “Sunday Night Football,” a substantial increase in viewers on Fridays and the premiere of “Heroes,” which drew the network’s largest audience for a fall drama premiere in five years.

ABC’s overall viewership is up 2% over last year, CBS is up 1% and Fox is virtually unchanged.

CBS’ “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” avenged its opening-week loss to ABC’s “Grey’s Anatomy” and was the most-watched program between Sept. 25 and Sunday, drawing 23.77 million viewers. Opposite it Thursday at 9 p.m., “Grey’s Anatomy” was second for the week with 23.48 million viewers.

Viewership for “CSI” was up 5.3% over its season premiere a week earlier, while “Grey’s Anatomy’s” fell 7.6%. But the ABC show was first among the key demographic group of 18-to-49-year-olds.

Thursday’s premiere of the ABC hourlong comedy “Ugly Betty” was the week’s most-watched new series with 16.32 million viewers and the first new series to crack the weekly top 10, finishing ninth.

Meanwhile, the “CBS Evening News with Katie Couric” fell into third place in the weekly ratings for the first time since Couric began anchoring Sept. 5, averaging 7.49 million viewers. The “NBC Nightly News” averaged 8.18 million viewers for its 113th victory in the last 117 weeks. ABC’s “World News” was second with 7.56 million.

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Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (Sept. 25-Oct. 1) 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 CSI CBS 23.77 2 Grey’s Anatomy (Thu.) ABC 23.48 3 Desperate Housewives ABC 21.42 4 Dancing With the Stars ABC 17.91 5 CSI: Miami CBS 17.79

6 Sunday Night Football NBC 16.94 7 Survivor: Cook Islands CBS 16.84 8 Criminal Minds CBS 16.54 9 Ugly Betty ABC 16.32 10 CSI: NY CBS 16.21

11 Dancing With the Stars Results ABC 15.81 12 Two and a Half Men CBS 15.28 13 60 Minutes CBS 15.13 14 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition ABC 14.84 15 Shark CBS 14.64

16 House FOX 14.52 17 Without a Trace CBS 14.51 18 Cold Case CBS 14.43 19 Law & Order: SVU (Tue.) NBC 14.41 20 ER NBC 14.36

21 NCIS CBS 14.12 22 Heroes (Mon.) NBC 14.09 23 20/20 (Wed.) ABC 13.49 24 Brothers & Sisters ABC 13.46 25 Deal or No Deal (Mon.) NBC 13.00

26 Old Christine CBS 12.19 27 The Unit CBS 11.96 28 “NFL Pre-Game” NBC 11.78 29 Amazing Race 10 CBS 11.75 30 Help Me Help You ABC 11.48

31 Jericho CBS 11.47 32 Close to Home CBS 11.05 33 Studio 60 on Sunset Strip NBC 10.82 34 Numb3rs CBS 10.69 35 Law & Order: Criminal Intent NBC 10.61

36 Deal or No Deal (Fri.) NBC 10.45 37 Six Degrees ABC 10.15 38 Law & Order NBC 10.03 39 Boston Legal ABC 9.89 40 Ghost Whisperer CBS 9.73

41 Football Night America NBC 9.68 42 Smith CBS 9.67 43 Deal or No Deal (Thu.) NBC 9.46 44 How I Met Your Mother CBS 9.14 45 Lost ABC 9.03

46 America’s Funniest Home Videos ABC 8.97 47 Dateline: NBC (Fri.) NBC 8.85 48 The Class (Mon.) CBS 8.48 49 Prison Break FOX 8.41 50 My Name Is Earl NBC 8.12

51 Standoff FOX 7.95 52 Wife Swap (9 p.m.) ABC 7.92 53 Bones FOX 7.80 54 The Office NBC 7.78 55 Saturday Night Football ABC 7.75

56 The Simpsons (8 p.m.) FOX 7.65 57 20/20 (Fri.) ABC 7.62 58 Wife Swap (8 p.m.) ABC 7.09 Biggest Loser 3 NBC 7.09 60 Justice (Wed.) FOX 7.05

61 Family Guy FOX 6.97 62 Dateline: NBC (Sat.) NBC 6.93 63 Law & Order: SVU (Sat.) NBC 6.92 Men in Trees (Fri.) ABC 6.92 65 Vanished FOX 6.47

66 48 Hours Mystery CBS 6.43 67 Kidnapped NBC 6.34 Cops (8:30 p.m.) FOX 6.34 69 ‘Til Death (Sun., 8:30 p.m.) FOX 6.31 70 Football Night America, Part 2 NBC 6.27

71 Football Pre-Game ABC 5.95 72 America’s Most Wanted FOX 5.81 73 ‘Til Death (Thu., 8 p.m.) FOX 5.72 74 Grey’s Anatomy (Fri.) ABC 5.65 75 ‘Til Death (Sun., 7:50 p.m.) FOX 5.62

76 War at Home FOX 5.59 77 ‘Til Death (Thu., 8:30 p.m.) FOX 5.43 78 La Fea Mas Bella (Mon.) UNI 5.21 79 Barrera de Amor (Thu.) UNI 5.13 80 Cops (8 p.m.) FOX 5.02

81 Smallville CW 4.96 82 Barrera de Amor Mon UNI 4.91 83 Heroes (Tue.) NBC 4.86 Barrera de Amor (Tue.) UNI 4.86 85 La Fea Mas Bella (Tue.) UNI 4.72

86 La Fea Mas Bella (Thu.) UNI 4.71 87 America’s Next Top Model (Wed.) CW 4.68 88 La Fea Mas Bella (Wed.) UNI 4.62 89 Barrera de Amor (Fri.) UNI 4.57 90 Barrera de Amor (Wed.) UNI 4.56

91 Gilmore Girls CW 4.48 92 Crimetime Saturday CBS 4.46 93 La Fea Mas Bella (Fri.) UNI 4.23 94 7th Heaven CW 4.19 95 Celebrity Duets (Thu.) FOX 4.09

96 Friday Night Smackdown! CW 3.98 Men in Trees (Mon.) ABC 3.98 98 Supernatural CW 3.92 99 Aqui y Ahora UNI 3.68 100 ‘Til Death (Sun., 7:30 p.m.) FOX 3.67

101 Celebrity Duets (Fri.) FOX 3.64 102 The Class (Sat., 8:30 p.m.) CBS 3.61 103 One Tree Hill CW 3.44 104 The Class (Sat., 8 p.m.) CBS 3.42 105 Cristina UNI 3.39

106 Ver Para Creer (Tue.) UNI 3.38 107 The Simpsons (7 p.m.) FOX 3.08 108 Don Francisco Presenta UNI 2.99 109 Heridas de Amor (Mon.) UNI 2.95 110 Casos Vida UNI 2.94

111 Justice (Fri.) FOX 2.84 112 Girlfriends CW 2.74 113 Heridas de Amor (Wed.) UNI 2.65 114 The Game CW 2.60 115 Sabado Gigante UNI 2.58

Heridas de Amor (Tue.) UNI 2.58 117 Heridas de Amor (Thu.) UNI 2.56 118 Everybody Hates Chris CW 2.43 America’s Top Model (Sun.) CW 2.43 120 Cantando por Sueno UNI 2.39

121 All of Us CW 2.30 122 Heridas de Amor (Fri.) UNI 2.22 123 Hora Pico UNI 2.20 124 Runaway (Mon.) CW 2.18 125 Casos Familia UNI 1.71

126 Runaway (Tue.) CW 1.65 127 Tierra de Pasiones (Wed.) TEL 1.19 128 Viuda de Blanco (Wed.) TEL 1.15 129 Tierra de Pasiones (Tue.) TEL 1.13 130 Amores (Mon.) TEL 1.08

131 Tierra de Pasiones (Mon.) TEL 1.02 132 Cinemundo Premier TEL 1.00 Tierra de Pasiones (Thu.) TEL 1.00 Viuda de Blanco (Tue.) TEL 1.00 135 Tierra de Pasiones (Fri.) TEL 0.96

Decisiones (Fri.) TEL 0.96 137 Amores (Wed.) TEL 0.95 138 Decisiones (Tue.) TEL 0.92 Amores (Thu.) TEL 0.92 140 Decisiones (Wed.) TEL 0.89

141 Amores (Tue.) TEL 0.88 Viuda de Blanco (Fri.) TEL 0.88 143 Viuda de Blanco (Thu.) TEL 0.87 144 Viuda de Blanco (Mon.) TEL 0.83 Amores (Fri.) TEL 0.83

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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 12.79 12.90

ABC 11.50 11.89

NBC 10.36 10.70

FOX 6.46 6.99

UNI 3.69 3.60

CW 3.46 3.14

TEL 0.88 0.91

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