New sitcoms’ plight little to laugh about

New half-hour comedies continued to be a turnoff to viewers last week, according to figures released Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research.

ABC’s “Help Me Help You” was the most-watched new half-hour comedy among the five broadcast by the five major networks between Oct. 9 and Sunday, finishing 39th for the week with 9.89 million viewers.

The comedy starring Ted Danson as a psychotherapist treating an eccentric collection of patients in group therapy finished fourth in its 9:30 to 10 p.m. Tuesday time slot, both among all viewers and those ages 18 to 49, the group ABC, Fox and NBC target.

There were mixed results for the premieres of the NBC comedies “30 Rock” and “Twenty Good Years.”

“30 Rock,” which stars Tina Fey as the head writer of a TV variety show, was third in its Wednesday 8 to 8:30 p.m. time slot and 58th for the week with 8.13 million viewers, but drew 32% more viewers between the ages of 18 and 49 than the short-lived Pentagon drama “E-Ring” did in the same time period a year ago.

“Twenty Good Years,” which stars John Lithgow and Jeffrey Tambor as two New Yorkers who vow to live each day as if it were their last, was fourth from 8:30 to 9 p.m. Wednesday and 67th for the week with 7.05 million viewers.

NBC had a winner with the premiere of the game show “1 vs. 100,” which was Friday’s most-watched program with 12.77 million viewers and finished 26th for the week. The audience was NBC’s largest in the Friday 9 to 10 p.m. time period, other than for Olympics telecasts, since the March 19, 2004 episode of “Dateline NBC.”

As the TV season completed its fourth week, CBS was the week’s most-watched network for the fourth time in a row. It tied ABC for first among viewers ages 18 to 49, a group ABC had won in each of the first three weeks of the season.

ABC’s “Grey’s Anatomy” was the week’s most-watched program for the third time this season, with 22.88 million viewers nationally. The steamy medical drama was also the most-watched program in the Los Angeles market for the fourth consecutive week, drawing 1.28 million viewers.

The CBS legal drama “Shark” was the week’s most-watched new program, with 14.15 million viewers, 19th overall. Cable’s most-watched program of the week was ESPN’s “Monday Night Football” game between the Baltimore Ravens and Denver Broncos, drawing 12.51 million viewers, which would have placed it 27th for the week among the programs shown on the broadcast networks.

The “CBS Evening News” with Katie Couric was in third place in the weekly ratings for the third consecutive week, averaging 7.33 million viewers. The “NBC Nightly News” averaged 8.84 million viewers for its 115th weekly victory in the last 119 weeks.

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Prime-Time TV Rankings

Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (Oct. 9-15) 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 22.88 2 CSI (Thu.) CBS 21.85 3 Desperate Housewives ABC 20.64 4 Dancing With the Stars ABC 20.10 5 Dancing With the Stars Results ABC 18.21

6 CSI: NY CBS 17.97 7 “NFL Post-Game” CBS 17.95 8 CSI: Miami CBS 17.60 9 60 Minutes CBS 17.28 10 Lost ABC 16.89

11 Criminal Minds CBS 16.73 12 Two and a Half Men CBS 16.38 13 NCIS CBS 15.86 14 Survivor: Cook Islands CBS 15.83 15 Deal or No Deal (Mon.) NBC 15.41

16 Without a Trace CBS 15.16 17 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition ABC 14.90 18 E.R. NBC 14.57 19 Shark CBS 14.15 20 Cold Case CBS 13.97

21 Ugly Betty ABC 13.95 22 Law & Order: SVU NBC 13.89 23 Heroes NBC 13.34 24 The Unit CBS 13.03 25 Old Christine CBS 12.88

26 “1 vs 100” NBC 12.77 27 Sunday Night Football NBC 12.32 28 Brothers & Sisters ABC 12.14 29 Amazing Race 10 CBS 11.65 30 Deal or No Deal (Fri.) NBC 11.52

31 Law & Order: Criminal Intent NBC 11.47 32 Close to Home CBS 10.95 33 Numb3rs CBS 10.89 34 Jericho CBS 10.86 35 Deal or No Deal (Thu.) NBC 10.31

36 Ghost Whisperer CBS 10.18 37 Boston Legal ABC 10.08 38 CSI (Tue.) CBS 10.07 39 Help Me Help You ABC 9.88 40 “Baseball: ALCS, Game 2: Tigers-A’s” (Wed.) FOX 9.87

41 My Name Is Earl NBC 9.84 42 America’s Funniest Home Videos ABC 9.81 43 Law & Order NBC 9.43 44 The Class CBS 9.34 45 48 Hours Mystery CBS 9.18

46 How I Met Your Mother CBS 9.09 47 “Baseball: NLCS, Game 2: Cardinals-Mets” (Fri.) FOX 9.01 48 The Office NBC 8.83 49 “NFL Pre-Game” NBC 8.70 50 Six Degrees ABC 8.69

51 Studio 60 on Sunset Strip NBC 8.66 52 “Baseball: ALCS, Game 1: Tigers-A’s” (Tue.) FOX 8.59 53 “Baseball: NLCS, Game 4: Mets-Cardinals” (Sun.) FOX 8.57 54 “Baseball: NLCS, Game 1: Cardinals-Mets” (Thu.) FOX 8.51 55 Dateline: NBC (Wed.) NBC 8.41

56 Crimetime Saturday (9 p.m.) CBS 8.39 57 The Nine ABC 8.25 58 30 Rock NBC 8.13 59 Football Night America, Part 3 NBC 7.97 60 Bachelor: Rome ABC 7.92

61 “Lowe’s 500” NBC 7.80 62 Wife Swap ABC 7.61 63 “Baseball: NLCS, Game 3: Mets-Cardinals” (Sat.) FOX 7.51 64 20/20 ABC 7.42 65 Biggest Loser 3 NBC 7.23

66 Men in Trees ABC 7.13 67 20 Good Years NBC 7.05 68 What About Brian ABC 7.00 69 Crimetime Saturday (8 p.m.) CBS 6.62 70 Saturday Night Football ABC 6.21

71 Friday Night Lights NBC 5.87 72 Grey’s Anatomy (Fri.) ABC 5.79 73 America’s Next Top Model (Wed.) CW 5.50 74 Football Night America, Part 2 NBC 5.48 75 La Fea Mas Bella (Tue.) UNI 4.96

76 Smallville CW 4.88 77 La Fea Mas Bella (Mon.) UNI 4.85 78 Gilmore Girls CW 4.71 79 La Fea Mas Bella (Wed.) UNI 4.59 80 La Fea Mas Bella (Thu.) UNI 4.26

81 “College Football Pre-Game” ABC 4.22 82 Prison Break FOX 4.07 83 Mundo de Fieras (Wed.) UNI 3.87 La Fea Mas Bella (Fri.) UNI 3.87 85 Friday Night Smackdown CW 3.83

86 Supernatural CW 3.78 87 Mundo de Fieras (Mon.) UNI 3.69 88 Mundo de Fieras (Tue.) UNI 3.66 89 Justice FOX 3.58 90 Mundo de Fieras (Thu.) UNI 3.48

91 One Tree Hill CW 3.25 92 7th Heaven CW 3.17 93 Mundo de Fieras (Fri.) UNI 3.06 94 Everybody Hates Chris CW 3.03 95 Cristina UNI 2.97

96 Veronica Mars CW 2.96 97 Heridas de Amor (Tue.) UNI 2.83 98 Heridas de Amor (Mon.) UNI 2.77 99 Don Francisco Presenta UNI 2.67 100 Heridas de Amor (Wed.) UNI 2.55

Aqui y Ahora (Thu.) UNI 2.55 102 Heridas de Amor (Thu.) UNI 2.54 103 All of Us CW 2.51 104 Girlfriends CW 2.47 105 Cantando por Sueno UNI 2.46

106 Heridas de Amor (Fri.) UNI 2.28 107 Hora Pico UNI 2.24 108 Casos Vida UNI 2.19 109 Sabado Gigante UNI 2.17 110 The Game CW 2.14

111 Ver Para Creer UNI 2.06 112 America’s Top Model (Sun.) CW 2.01 113 Runaway CW 1.79 114 Casos Familia UNI 1.39 115 Tierra de Pasiones (Mon.) TEL 1.21

116 Tierra de Pasiones (Thu.) TEL 1.13 117 Tierra de Pasiones (Wed.) TEL 1.06 118 Tierra de Pasiones (Tue.) TEL 1.03 119 Viuda de Blanco (Thu.) TEL 0.99 120 Tierra de Pasiones (Fri.) TEL 0.96

Amores (Thu.) TEL 0.96 Viuda de Blanco (Mon.) TEL 0.96 123 Decisiones (Wed.) TEL 0.95 Viuda de Blanco (Wed.) TEL 0.95 125 Amores (Wed.) TEL 0.93

126 Viuda de Blanco (Tue.) TEL 0.92 127 Decisiones (Tue.) TEL 0.89 Amores (Tue.) TEL 0.89 129 “Vas O No Vas (Mon.) TEL 0.87 130 Decisiones (Thu.) TEL 0.86

131 Cinemundo Premier TEL 0.78 Viuda de Blanco (Fri.) TEL 0.78 Decisiones (Fri.) TEL 0.78 134 Amores (Fri.) TEL 0.76 135 Vas O No Vas (Sun.) TEL 0.72

136 Decisiones (Mon.) TEL 0.64 137 Cinemundo del Sabado TEL 0.50 138 Quinceanera TEL 0.41 139 Que Hay de Nuevo TEL 0.35

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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 13.38 12.93

ABC 11.49 11.63

NBC 10.33 10.41

FOX 8.18 7.54

CW 3.45 3.33

UNI 3.14 3.42

TEL 0.84 0.90

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