New series strike out

Television viewers clearly preferred returning series to new ones and just about everything other than baseball last week, according to figures released Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research.

All of the week’s top 10 shows between Oct. 2 and Sunday were returning series. ABC’s “Ugly Betty” was the most-watched new show, and it couldn’t crack the top 15.

The hourlong comedy produced by Salma Hayek finished 18th for the week with 14.26 million viewers -- 12.6% fewer than its premiere a week earlier but 93% more than the episode of “Alias” that ran in the Thursday 8-9 p.m. time period a year earlier.

Only one of Fox’s four baseball playoff telecasts was able to crack the top 60 for the week -- Game 1 of the Detroit Tigers-New York Yankees series last Tuesday, which was 50th with 8.36 million viewers.

The four telecasts averaged 7.16 million viewers, 19% less than the 8.88 million average for the three games Fox aired during the opening week of the playoffs last season.

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Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (Oct. 2-8) 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 Grey’s Anatomy (Thu.) ABC 22.80 2 CSI CBS 21.51 3 Desperate Housewives ABC 20.96 4 Lost ABC 18.82 5 Dancing With the Stars ABC 18.38

6 CSI: Miami CBS 17.90 7 Dancing With the Stars Results ABC 17.49 8 NCIS CBS 15.88 9 Survivor: Cook Islands CBS 15.83 10 Two and a Half Men CBS 15.80

11 CSI: NY CBS 15.73 12 Without a Trace CBS 15.27 13 Criminal Minds CBS 15.19 14 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition ABC 15.16 15 Sunday Night Football NBC 15.14

16 ER NBC 14.67 17 Law & Order: SVU (Tue.) NBC 14.30 18 Ugly Betty ABC 14.26 19 Shark CBS 13.75 20 Cold Case CBS 13.72

21 Old Christine CBS 13.59 22 The OT (football postgame) FOX 13.52 23 The Unit CBS 13.22 24 Deal or No Deal (Mon.) NBC 13.16 25 Brothers & Sisters ABC 13.01

26 Heroes NBC 12.96 27 Law & Order: Criminal Intent NBC 12.18 28 The Nine ABC 11.91 29 Close to Home CBS 11.61 30 Numb3rs CBS 11.07

31 Jericho CBS 10.83 32 Deal or No Deal (Fri.) NBC 10.65 33 Boston Legal ABC 10.59 34 Sunday Night NFL Pre-Kick NBC 10.41 35 Amazing Race 10 CBS 10.15

36 60 Minutes CBS 10.13 37 Help Me Help You ABC 10.08 38 Deal or No Deal (Thu.) NBC 10.03 39 My Name Is Earl NBC 9.89 40 Ghost Whisperer CBS 9.77

41 Law & Order NBC 9.64 42 How I Met Your Mother CBS 9.32 43 Six Degrees ABC 9.11 44 Prison Break FOX 8.99 45 The Office NBC 8.89

House FOX 8.89 47 Studio 60 on Sunset Strip NBC 8.85 48 Football Night America, Part 3 NBC 8.41 49 Smith CBS 8.38 50 “Baseball: AL Division Playoff, Game 1: FOX 8.36 Tigers-Yankees” (Tue.)

51 Dateline: NBC (Fri.) NBC 8.35 52 America’s Funniest Home Videos ABC 8.18 53 Bones FOX 8.10 54 48 Hours Mystery CBS 7.90 55 The Class CBS 7.88

56 Crimetime Saturday (9 p.m.) CBS 7.81 57 Bachelor: Rome ABC 7.53 58 Men in Trees ABC 7.26 59 Friday Night Lights (Tue.) NBC 7.17 60 Biggest Loser 3 NBC 7.15

61 “Baseball: NL Division Playoff, Game 4: FOX 7.11 Padres-Cardinals” (Sun.) 62 Wife Swap ABC 6.90 63 “Baseball: NL Division Playoff, Game 3: FOX 6.77 Mets-Dodgers” (Sat.) 64 Law & Order: SVU (Sat.) NBC 6.74 65 Dateline: NBC (Sat.) NBC 6.73

66 Crimetime Saturday (8 p.m.) CBS 6.50 67 20/20 ABC 6.46 68 “Baseball: NL Division Playoff, Game 2: FOX 6.39 Dodgers-Mets” (Thu.) 69 Vanished FOX 6.15 70 Barrera de Amor (Mon.) UNI 5.62

71 Grey’s Anatomy (Fri.) ABC 5.27 72 America’s Next Top Model (Wed.) CW 5.25 73 Kidnapped NBC 5.15 74 La Fea Mas Bella (Mon.) UNI 4.86 75 Gilmore Girls CW 4.62

76 Smallville CW 4.52 77 La Fea Mas Bella (Wed.) UNI 4.50 78 La Fea Mas Bella (Tue.) UNI 4.46 79 Friday Night Lights (Wed.) NBC 4.44 80 La Fea Mas Bella (Thu.) UNI 4.36

81 7th Heaven CW 4.17 82 Nanny 911 (9 p.m.) FOX 4.09 83 Cristina UNI 4.05 84 La Fea Mas Bella (Fri.) UNI 3.99 85 Friday Night Smackdown! CW 3.84

86 Nanny 911 (8 p.m.) FOX 3.82 87 Mundo de Fieras (Wed.) UNI 3.80 88 Football Night America, Part 2 NBC 3.74 89 College Football ABC 3.72 90 Mundo de Fieras (Thu.) UNI 3.69

91 Mundo de Fieras (Tue.) UNI 3.38 Mundo de Fieras (Fri.) UNI 3.38 93 Veronica Mars CW 3.36 94 Don Francisco Presenta UNI 3.35 95 Supernatural CW 3.34

96 College Football Pregame ABC 3.24 97 One Tree Hill CW 3.09 98 Aqui y Ahora UNI 2.97 99 Girlfriends CW 2.85 100 Heridas de Amor (Mon.) UNI 2.73

101 America’s Top Model (Sun.) CW 2.72 102 The Game CW 2.69 103 Heridas de Amor (Tue.) UNI 2.57 104 Heridas de Amor (Wed.) UNI 2.46 105 Heridas de Amor (Thu.) UNI 2.45

106 All of Us CW 2.40 107 Everybody Hates Chris CW 2.36 108 Hora Pico UNI 2.34 109 Heridas de Amor (Fri.) UNI 2.28 110 Cantando por Sueno UNI 2.21

111 Casos Vida UNI 2.20 112 Sabado Gigante UNI 2.18 113 Runaway CW 1.86 114 Casos Familia UNI 1.57 115 Cinemundo Premier TEL 1.22

116 Tierra de Pasiones (Wed.) TEL 1.19 117 Tierra de Pasiones (Tue.) TEL 1.18 118 Tierra de Pasiones (Fri.) TEL 1.11 119 Vas o No Vas TEL 1.08 120 Tierra de Pasiones (Thu.) TEL 1.04

121 Viuda de Blanco (Tue.) TEL 1.03 122 Amores (Thu.) TEL 1.02 123 Tierra de Pasiones (Mon.) TEL 1.00 124 Amores (Wed.) TEL 0.99 125 Amores (Fri.) TEL 0.97

126 Amores (Tue.) TEL 0.96 127 Viuda de Blanco (Wed.) TEL 0.95 128 Decisiones (Tue.) TEL 0.94 129 Viuda de Blanco (Thu.) TEL 0.93 130 Viuda de Blanco (Mon.) TEL 0.86

131 Decisiones (Fri.) TEL 0.81 132 Viuda de Blanco (Fri.) TEL 0.80 133 Amores (Mon.) TEL 0.77 134 Decisiones (Thu.) TEL 0.76 135 Decisiones (Mon.) TEL 0.73

136 Decisiones (Wed.) TEL 0.70 137 Cinemundo del Sabado TEL 0.67 138 Quinceanera TEL 0.55 139 Que Hay de Nuevo TEL 0.39

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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 12.53 12.78

ABC 11.25 11.68

NBC 9.92 10.44

FOX 7.79 7.29

CW 3.52 3.27

UNI 3.35 3.52

TEL 0.93 0.92

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