‘Justice’ hits age group sweet spot

ALTHOUGH some viewers tuned out before the end of the hour, the premiere of Fox’s legal drama “Justice” was a winner among the young adult audience the network covets.

The opening half-hour won its 9-9:30 p.m. time slot Aug. 30 with 9.13 million viewers, but the audience declined 6% to 8.6 million in the second half-hour.

In the same period, viewership for a rerun of CBS’ “Criminal Minds” grew 7% to 9.33 million, enabling it to win the hour by averaging 9.01 million viewers versus 8.86 million for “Justice,” according to Nielsen Media Research figures released Wednesday.

Nevertheless, viewership for “Justice” was unchanged through the hour among viewers ages 18 to 49, the group Fox targets. It was also Fox’s most-watched Wednesday drama series premiere among total viewers and those ages 18 to 34 and 18 to 49 since the short-lived “Fastlane” in 2002.

ABC, which had a hit for 36 seasons with its Monday night NFL telecasts, had success with the first of its Saturday night college football telecasts. Notre Dame’s 14-10 victory over Georgia Tech drew 8.61 million viewers, ABC’s largest Saturday night audience since April 15.

A rerun of CBS’ “CSI: Miami” was the most-watched program for the week between Aug. 28 and Sunday with 10.8 million viewers.

With eight of the week’s 10 most-watched programs, CBS continued its unblemished record for the summer, averaging 7.04 million viewers for its prime-time programming -- the 14th consecutive week it has finished first. ABC was second with 6.27 million.

ABC and Fox tied for first among viewers ages 18 to 49, the group targeted by ABC, Fox and NBC. Fox extended its winning streak among viewers ages 12 to 17 and 18 to 34 to 30 consecutive weeks.

ESPN’s “Monday Night Football” exhibition game between the Cincinnati Bengals and Green Bay Packers was the week’s most-watched cable program with 6.69 million viewers.

TNT was the week’s most-watched cable channel in prime time for the third consecutive week.

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Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (Aug. 28-Sept. 3) 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: Miami CBS 10.80 2 Law & Order: SVU NBC 9.92 3 Two and a Half Men (9 p.m.) CBS 9.80 4 Prison Break FOX 9.44 5 60 Minutes CBS 9.20

6 Two and a Half Men (8 p.m.) CBS 9.16 7 CSI CBS 9.15 8 Without a Trace (Thu.) CBS 9.05 9 Criminal Minds CBS 9.01 10 CSI: NY CBS 8.89

11 Justice FOX 8.86 12 Celebrity Duets (Tue., 9 p.m.) FOX 8.81 13 College Football ABC 8.61 Bones FOX 8.61 15 Big Brother 7 (Tue.) CBS 8.53

16 Vanished (Mon.) FOX 8.51 17 “California 500” NBC 8.45 18 20/20 (Wed.) ABC 8.22 19 Celebrity Duets (Tue., 8 p.m.) FOX 7.91 20 Old Christine CBS 7.85

21 Primetime: The Outsiders ABC 7.81 22 Law & Order: Criminal Intent (Tue.) NBC 7.62 23 Big Brother 7 (Sun.) CBS 7.49 24 Big Brother 7 (Thu.) CBS 7.45 25 Without a Trace (Sun.) CBS 7.17

26 Cold Case CBS 7.15 27 How I Met Your Mother CBS 7.03 28 Rock Star: Supernova (Tue.) CBS 6.87 29 Dateline: NBC (Mon.) NBC 6.84 30 Wife Swap (9 p.m.) ABC 6.81

31 Most Outrageous Moments (Wed., 8:30 p.m.) NBC 6.56 32 Rock Star: Supernova (Wed.) CBS 6.44 33 20/20 (Fri.) ABC 6.35 34 Grey’s Anatomy (Thu., 9 p.m.) ABC 6.22

35 Wife Swap (8 p.m.) ABC 6.09 Grey’s Anatomy (Sun.) ABC 6.09 Law & Order (Wed.) NBC 6.09 38 Dateline: NBC (Fri.) NBC 6.03 39 Supernanny ABC 5.99 40 Most Outrageous Moments (Wed., 8 p.m.) NBC 5.98

41 48 Hours Mystery (Tue.) CBS 5.88 42 America’s Most Wanted FOX 5.86 43 “NBC News Special” NBC 5.85 44 According to Jim (9 p.m.) ABC 5.77 45 America’s Funniest Home Videos (Fri.) ABC 5.75

46 Numb3rs CBS 5.73 47 Law & Order: Criminal Intent (Sat.) NBC 5.66 48 Cops (8:30 p.m.) FOX 5.64 49 America’s Funniest Home Videos (Sun.) ABC 5.60 50 Law & Order (Fri.) NBC 5.58

51 Grey’s Anatomy (Thu., 8 p.m.) ABC 5.57 Medium NBC 5.57 53 According to Jim (8:30 p.m.) ABC 5.50 54 48 Hours Mystery (Sat.) CBS 5.40 55 According to Jim (9:30 p.m.) ABC 5.37

56 George Lopez (8:30 p.m.) ABC 5.29 57 Family Guy (Sun., 8:30 p.m.) FOX 5.24 58 Primetime ABC 5.21 59 According to Jim (8 p.m.) ABC 5.19 60 Dateline: NBC (Sat.) NBC 5.16

61 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition ABC 5.02 62 Fear Factor NBC 4.92 63 La Fea Mas Bella (Thu.) UNI 4.91 64 “College Football Pre-Game” ABC 4.89 65 Las Vegas NBC 4.88

66 Barrera de Amor (Thu.) UNI 4.87 67 La Fea Mas Bella (Mon.) UNI 4.86 68 My Name Is Earl NBC 4.84 69 Family Guy (Sun., 9 p.m.) FOX 4.82 70 Scrubs (9 p.m.) NBC 4.85

71 La Fea Mas Bella (Tue.) UNI 4.79 72 Cops (8 p.m.) FOX 4.67 73 La Fea Mas Bella (Wed.) UNI 4.60 74 Desperate Housewives ABC 4.54 Ghost Whisperer CBS 4.54

76 Scrubs (8:30 p.m.) NBC 4.48 77 Barrera de Amor (Mon.) UNI 4.47 78 “Dan Rather: Remembers” CBS 4.44 Vanished (Fri., 9 p.m.) FOX 4.44 80 George Lopez ABC 4.43

81 “NASCAR Tune-Up” NBC 4.36 Barrera de Amor (Tue.) UNI 4.36 83 Kyle XY ABC 4.27 84 Barrera de Amor (Wed.) UNI 4.17 85 Celebrity Duets (Thu., 9 p.m.) FOX 4.16

86 La Fea Mas Bella (Fri.) UNI 4.15 87 Celebrity Duets (Thu., 8 p.m.) FOX 4.00 88 Aqui y Ahora (Thu.) UNI 3.92 89 Barrera de Amor (Fri.) UNI 3.77 90 Family Guy (Sun., 8:30 p.m.) FOX 3.54

91 Office (9:30 p.m.) NBC 3.44 92 Office (8 p.m.) NBC 3.41 93 Office (8:30 p.m.) NBC 3.40 Vanished (Fri., 8 p.m.) FOX 3.40 95 Most Outrageous Moments (Sat.) NBC 3.37

96 “That ‘70s Show Goodbye” FOX 3.32 97 Windfall NBC 3.31 98 Cristina UNI 3.06 99 “NBC 2006 Fall Preview” NBC 3.03

100 Don Francisco Presenta UNI 2.93 Heridas de Amor (Tue.) UNI 2.93 102 WWE Smackdown! UPN 2.90 103 Heridas de Amor (Wed.) UNI 2.86 104 Heridas de Amor (Wed.) UNI 2.85 105 Cantando por Sueno UNI 2.70

106 “UNI Presenta” UNI 2.68 107 Heridas de Amor (Thu.) UNI 2.57 108 Reba WB 2.52 109 Sabado Gigante UNI 2.44 110 Casos Vida UNI 2.40

111 Heridas de Amor (Fri.) UNI 2.34 112 “A Day in the Life of TV: A Museum of Television and CBS 2.33 Radio Special” 113 Blue Collar TV (8 p.m.) WB 2.28 114 Smallville WB 2.26 115 “CBS Fall Preview 2006” CBS 2.25

116 Living With Fran WB 2.21 117 Gilmore Girls (8 p.m.) WB 2.16 118 Hora Pico UNI 2.09 119 Blue Collar TV (8:30 p.m.) WB 2.05 120 Gilmore Girls (9 p.m.) WB 1.99

121 All of Us (Mon.) UPN 1.98 122 One on One UPN 1.93 7th Heaven (9 p.m.) WB 1.93 124 Girlfriends (Mon.) UPN 1.87 125 7th Heaven (8 p.m.) WB 1.86

126 Supernatural WB 1.81 127 Girlfriends (Wed.) UPN 1.76 What I Like About You WB 1.76 129 Everybody Hates Chris (Thu.) UPN 1.71 130 Charmed (8 p.m.) WB 1.69

131 Everybody Hates Chris (Wed.) UPN 1.68 132 All of Us (Wed.) UPN 1.63 133 Half and Half (Wed.) UPN 1.60 134 Half and Half (Mon.) UPN 1.58 135 Charmed (9 p.m.) WB 1.52

136 Twins WB 1.46 137 One Tree Hill WB 1.36

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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 7.04 11.07

ABC 6.27 9.22

FOX 6.06 8.86

NBC 5.84 8.70

UNI 3.53 3.55

WB 1.85 2.73

UPN 1.76 2.79

TEL 0.85 0.88

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