ABC can’t maintain its grip on viewers

Although ABC is off to its best start in attracting young adult viewers in more than 15 years, its new dramas “Six Degrees” and “The Nine” are having problems keeping the viewers from the hit shows that precede them.

Thursday’s episode of “Six Degrees” retained 36% of the 18- to 49-year-olds -- and 38% of all viewers -- who watched “Grey’s Anatomy,” according to figures released Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research.

“The Nine” on Wednesday night kept 47% of viewers ages 18 to 49 -- and 51% of all viewers -- who watched “Lost.” However, all is not lost for “The Nine,” as it matched its viewership among viewers ages 18 to 49 from the previous week, and found more viewers ages 18 to 34 and women ages 18 to 34, 18 to 49 and 25 to 54.

Fox snapped out of its postseason baseball ratings slump Sunday when Game 2 of the World Series drew 18.17 million viewers, 6% more than the 17.19 million for Game 2 of last year’s series.

Although ABC had four of the five most-watched programs from Oct. 16 through Oct. 22, CBS was the most-watched network for the fifth time in the season’s five weeks, averaging 12.57 million viewers for its prime-time programming. Fox was second with 11.89 million, followed by ABC with 11.21 million, NBC with 8.88 million and the CW with 3.56 million.

ABC finished first among viewers ages 18 to 49 for the fourth time in the season’s five weeks. It tied CBS for the lead the other week.

ABC’s “Grey’s Anatomy” was the week’s most-watched program for the fourth time in the season’s five weeks, with 22.05 million viewers. The steamy medical drama was also the week’s most-watched program among viewers ages 18 to 34, 18 to 49 and 25 to 54.

The CBS legal drama “Shark” was the week’s most-watched new program for the second consecutive week, with 13.71 million viewers, 20th overall. NBC’s “Heroes” was the most-watched new series among viewers ages 18 to 49.

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Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (Oct. 16-22) 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.

*--* Program Network Viewers 1 Grey’s Anatomy ABC 22.05 2 Dancing With the Stars ABC 21.25 3 CSI CBS 20.49 4 Desperate Housewives ABC 19.71 5 Dancing With the Stars Results ABC 19.23

6 “World Series Game 2” (Sun.) FOX 18.16 7 CSI: Miami CBS 18.12 8 Deal or No Deal (Mon.) NBC 17.47 9 “Baseball: NLCS, Game 7: Cardinals-Mets” FOX 16.53 (Thu.) 10 Lost ABC 16.31

11 Two and a Half Men CBS 16.25 12 Criminal Minds (Wed.) CBS 16.20 13 CSI: NY CBS 15.99 14 NCIS CBS 15.92 15 Survivor: Cook Islands CBS 15.02

16 Cold Case CBS 14.81 17 Without a Trace CBS 14.79 18 “World Series Game 2 Pre-Game” FOX 14.65 19 ER NBC 13.72 20 Shark CBS 13.70

21 Ugly Betty ABC 13.17 22 Old Christine CBS 13.03 23 Law & Order: SVU (Tue.) NBC 12.98 24 Heroes NBC 12.96 25 The Unit CBS 12.94

26 “World Series Game 1” (Sat.) FOX 12.84 27 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition ABC 12.80 28 The OT (football postgame) FOX 12.62 29 1 vs. 100 NBC 11.97 30 Numb3rs CBS 11.95

31 Brothers & Sisters ABC 11.92 32 60 Minutes CBS 11.89 33 “Baseball: NLCS, Game 6: Cardinals-Mets” FOX 11.67 (Wed.) 34 “Baseball: NLCS, Game 5: Cardinals-Mets” FOX 11.12 (Tue.) Close to Home CBS 11.12

36 Deal or No Deal (Fri.) NBC 11.07 37 Law & Order: Criminal Intent NBC 10.99 38 Amazing Race 10 CBS 10.89 39 Jericho CBS 10.88 40 Boston Legal ABC 10.81

41 Criminal Minds (Tue.) CBS 10.34 42 Help Me Help You ABC 10.32 43 Ghost Whisperer CBS 10.27 44 Law & Order NBC 10.20 45 Deal or No Deal (Thu.) NBC 10.03

46 America’s Funniest Home Videos ABC 9.62 47 How I Met Your Mother CBS 9.05 48 Bachelor: Rome ABC 8.66 49 My Name Is Earl NBC 8.56 50 The Office NBC 8.46

51 The Class CBS 8.45 52 Six Degrees ABC 8.36 53 The Nine ABC 8.21 54 Wife Swap ABC 8.06 55 Studio 60 on Sunset Strip NBC 7.74

56 20/20 ABC 7.59 57 Biggest Loser 3 NBC 7.54 58 What About Brian ABC 7.34 59 Dateline: NBC (Wed.) NBC 7.32 60 “The Bourne Identity” CBS 6.92

61 Law & Order: SVU (Sat.) NBC 6.90 62 Friday Night Lights NBC 6.55 Dateline: NBC (Sat.) NBC 6.55 64 Men in Trees ABC 6.24 65 Heroes (8 p.m.) NBC 5.83

66 30 Rock NBC 5.71 67 Heroes (10 p.m.) NBC 5.70 68 Heroes (9 p.m.) NBC 5.56 69 America’s Next Top Model (Wed.) CW 5.15 70 20 Good Years NBC 5.09

71 Gilmore Girls CW 4.85 72 Extreme Makeover ABC 4.82 73 House (9 p.m.) FOX 4.79 74 Smallville (Thu.) CW 4.71 75 Friday Night Smackdown CW 4.67

76 “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets” ABC 4.64 77 La Fea Mas Bella (Mon.) UNI 4.62 78 La Fea Mas Bella (Wed.) UNI 4.53 79 La Fea Mas Bella (Thu.) UNI 4.48 80 La Fea Mas Bella (Tue.) UNI 4.44

81 48 Hours Mystery CBS 4.41 82 Kidnapped NBC 4.19 83 House (8 p.m.) FOX 4.07 84 Trading Spouses (9 p.m.) FOX 3.80 85 La Fea Mas Bella (Fri.) UNI 3.61

Football Night America, Part 2 NBC 3.61 87 Mundo de Fieras (Wed.) UNI 3.53 88 Mundo de Fieras (Tue.) UNI 3.41 89 Mundo de Fieras (Mon.) UNI 3.35 90 Mundo de Fieras (Thu.) UNI 3.29

Supernatural CW 3.29 92 7th Heaven CW 3.27 93 Veronica Mars CW 3.12 Trading Spouses (8 p.m.) FOX 3.12 95 Girlfriends CW 3.08

96 Everybody Hates Chris CW 3.00 97 One Tree Hill CW 2.97 98 Mundo de Fieras (Fri.) UNI 2.91 99 All of Us CW 2.83 Heridas de Amor (Mon.) UNI 2.83

101 Heridas de Amor (Wed.) UNI 2.79 102 The Game CW 2.65 103 Heridas de Amor (Thu.) UNI 2.63 104 Cristina UNI 2.62 105 Heridas de Amor (Tue.) UNI 2.58

106 Heridas de Amor (Fri.) UNI 2.57 107 Don Francisco Presenta UNI 2.53 Ver Para Creer UNI 2.53 109 Reyes de la Cancion UNI 2.43 110 Aqui y Ahora UNI 2.37

111 Casos Vida UNI 2.28 112 Sabado Gigante UNI 2.13 113 America’s Top Model (Sun.) CW 1.95 114 Smallville (Sun.) CW 1.83 115 Hora Pico UNI 1.82

116 Casos Familia UNI 1.57 117 Marina (Fri.) TEL 1.09 Tierra de Pasiones (Wed.) TEL 1.09 119 Amores (Wed.) TEL 1.08 Marina (Wed.) TEL 1.08

121 Viuda de Blanco (Tue.) TEL 1.07 122 Tierra de Pasiones (Mon.) TEL 1.03 123 Marina (Thu.) TEL 1.02 Decisiones (Thu.) TEL 1.02 125 Tierra de Pasiones (Fri.) TEL 1.01

Marina (Tue.) TEL 1.01 127 Viuda de Blanco (Mon.) TEL 1.00 Amores (Thu.) TEL 1.00 129 Tierra de Pasiones (Thu.) TEL 0.99 130 Decisiones (Wed.) TEL 0.97

131 Viuda de Blanco (Wed.) TEL 0.94 Tierra de Pasiones (Tue.) TEL 0.94 133 Marina (Mon.) TEL 0.92 134 Viuda de Blanco (Thu.) TEL 0.91 Amores (Fri.) TEL 0.91

136 Amores (Tue.) TEL 0.89 137 Decisiones (Mon.) TEL 0.84 138 Viuda de Blanco (Fri.) TEL 0.82 139 Decisiones (Tue.) TEL 0.81 Amores (Mon.) TEL 0.81

141 Decisiones (Fri.) TEL 0.72 142 Cinemundo Premier TEL 0.71 143 Vas O No Vas TEL 0.59 144 Cinemundo del Sabado TEL 0.48 Quinceanera TEL 0.48

146 Que Hay de Nuevo TEL 0.26

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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 12.57 12.86

FOX 11.89 8.51

ABC 11.21 11.55

NBC 8.88 10.11

CW 3.56 3.38

UNI 3.02 3.34

TEL 0.83 0.89

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