ABC’s ‘Dancing’ sweeps viewers onto their couches

During the week leading up to the opening of the new television season, “Dancing With the Stars” made a strong return, Katie Couric won again and Fox’s “Happy Hour” appeared anything but.

“Dancing With the Stars” was the week’s most popular program with 20.2 million viewers, according to Nielsen Media Research figures released Tuesday. The follow-up results episode, in which Tucker Carlson was voted off the dance floor, also did well and enabled ABC to win the week’s ratings crown. The network averaged 9.41 million viewers per hour of prime time.

The hoofers did better than the first episode of CBS’ “Survivor,” seen by 18 million people. The 13th edition of the CBS game is being closely watched because, at least at first, its four teams are divided along racial and ethnic lines.

By a whisker-thin margin, Couric won her second week in a row in the evening news ratings. Couric’s “CBS Evening News” averaged 7.88 million viewers last week, while NBC’s “Nightly News” had 7.83 and ABC’s “World News” had 7.5 million viewers.

Though the new TV season didn’t officially start until Monday, several programs got a head start. That’s not always a good thing: “Happy Hour,” with 5.4 million viewers Thursday, is near the bottom of the ratings already. TV fans logging on to a contest on Bravo’s Brilliant but Cancelled website predict “Happy Hour” will be the first new show to be axed this fall.

Meanwhile, the first two episodes of “Men in Trees” gave ABC reason for both optimism and concern.

Both episodes of the hourlong series -- which stars Anne Heche as a relationship coach who decides to live in Alaska after learning her fiance cheated on her -- won their time slots. But the first had a substantial drop-off from “Dancing With the Stars,” which preceded it, and viewership declined 16% from the first half-hour to the second.

The Friday episode won its 9-10 p.m. time slot, mainly against reruns, with 8.13 million viewers, making it the night’s most-watched show. The audience for the first half-hour increased 55% from the last half-hour of a rerun of the premiere, which preceded it. Viewership dropped 2% in the second half-hour from the first.

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Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (Sept. 11-17) 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 Dancing With the Stars ABC 20.22 2 NBC Sunday Night Football NBC 18.40 3 “Survivor: Cook Island” CBS 18.00 4 Dancing With the Stars Results ABC 16.30 5 CSI (9 p.m.) CBS 15.59

6 House FOX 15.22 7 CSI (10 p.m.) CBS 14.68 8 “NFL Post-Game” CBS 13.64 9 60 Minutes CBS 13.13 10 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (9 p.m.) ABC 12.09

11 Sunday Night NFL Pre-Game NBC 11.86 12 Men in Trees (Tue.) ABC 11.72 13 Amazing Race: 10 CBS 10.13 14 “Primetime: 9/11/06” ABC 10.05 15 CSI: NY CBS 10.00

16 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (8 p.m.) ABC 9.91 17 Football Night America, Part 3 NBC 9.89 18 Without a Trace CBS 9.46 19 Family Guy FOX 9.23 20 CSI: Miami CBS 9.10

21 Standoff FOX 9.03 Criminal Minds CBS 9.03 23 The Simpsons (8 p.m.) FOX 9.01 24 Prison Break FOX 8.96 Dateline: NBC (Wed.) NBC 8.96

26 Law & Order (Wed.) NBC 8.94 27 Grey’s Anatomy (9 p.m.) ABC 8.90 28 Law & Order: SVU NBC 8.89 29 “ABC Sneak Peek” (9 p.m.) ABC 8.73 30 Bones FOX 8.59

31 Big Brother 7 (Tue.) CBS 8.41 32 Primetime ABC 8.24 33 Men in Trees (Fri., 9 p.m.) ABC 8.13 34 American Dad FOX 7.71 35 Numb3rs CBS 7.55

36 Justice FOX 7.53 37 Desperate Housewives ABC 7.51 38 20/20 ABC 7.47 39 America’s Funniest Home Videos ABC 7.29 40 NCIS CBS 7.23

41 Two and a Half Men CBS 7.20 42 Rock Star: Supernova (Tue.) CBS 7.19 43 Rock Star: Supernova (Wed.) CBS 7.03 44 Grey’s Anatomy (8 p.m.) ABC 6.94 45 Football Night America, Part 2 NBC 6.89

46 War at Home FOX 6.75 47 Dateline: NBC (Mon.) NBC 6.59 48 Law & Order: Criminal Intent NBC 6.56 49 ‘Til Death (Thu.) FOX 6.55 50 Law & Order (Fri.) NBC 6.53

51 Ghost Whisperer CBS 6.27 52 Dateline: NBC (Fri.) NBC 6.20 53 Close to Home CBS 6.12 54 Cops 2 (8:30 p.m.) FOX 6.04 55 America’s Most Wanted FOX 5.99

56 Vanished FOX 5.88 57 Celebrity Duets (Thu.) FOX 5.84 58 “ABC Sneak Peek” (9:30 p.m.) ABC 5.82 59 How I Met Your Mother CBS 5.78 60 College Football CBS 5.70

61 My Name Is Earl (8:30 p.m.) NBC 5.66 62 Old Christine CBS 5.53 63 College Football ABC 5.39 64 Happy Hour FOX 5.37 65 Cops (8 p.m.) FOX 5.29

66 ‘Til Death (Sun.) FOX 5.23 67 “Runaway Bride” NBC 5.22 68 ER NBC 5.16 69 La Fea Mas Bella (Mon.) UNI 5.13 70 Men in Trees (Fri., 8 p.m.) ABC 5.12

71 Dateline: NBC (Mon.) NBC 4.99 72 The Office NBC 4.92 73 La Fea Mas Bella (Thu.) UNI 4.83 74 Medium NBC 4.82 75 Barrera de Amor (Wed.) UNI 4.80

76 My Name Is Earl (8 p.m.) NBC 4.79 77 Barrera de Amor (Tue.) UNI 4.76 78 La Fea Mas Bella (Tue.) UNI 4.72 79 La Fea Mas Bella (Wed.) UNI 4.65 80 Barrera de Amor (Mon.) UNI 4.61

81 “NFL Post-Game” FOX 4.56 82 Fear Factor NBC 4.53 83 Celebrity Duets (Fri.) FOX 4.51 84 Most Outrageous Moments NBC 4.48 85 Las Vegas NBC 4.47

86 The Simpsons (7 p.m.) FOX 4.37 87 “All-Star Salute to Jimmy Kimmel” ABC 4.36 88 Barrera de Amor (Thu.) UNI 4.33 89 College Football Pre-Game ABC 4.19 90 La Fea Mas Bella (Fri.) UNI 4.03

91 Barrera de Amor (Fri.) UNI 4.00 92 Nanny 911 FOX 3.85 93 Aqui y Ahora UNI 3.35 94 Don Francisco Presenta UNI 3.28 95 Cristina UNI 3.19

96 Ver Para Creer UNI 3.12 97 Heridas de Amor (Mon.) UNI 2.93 98 Heridas de Amor (Wed.) UNI 2.91 99 Heridas de Amor (Thu.) UNI 2.62 100 Heridas de Amor (Tue.) UNI 2.59

101 Cantando por Sueno UNI 2.40 102 Sabado Gigante UNI 2.29 103 Casos Vida UNI 2.20 104 Heridas de Amor (Fri.) UNI 2.14 105 Reba WB 2.09

106 Smallville WB 1.95 107 Blue Collar TV (8 p.m.) WB 1.84 108 Supernatural WB 1.83 109 7th Heaven (9 p.m.) WB 1.78 110 Hora Pico UNI 1.75

111 Buffy WB 1.59 Gilmore Girls (8 p.m.) WB 1.59 WWE Smackdown! UPN 1.59 114 Living With Fran WB 1.53 Gilmore Girls (9 p.m.) WB 1.53

116 Blue Collar TV (8:30 p.m.) WB 1.49 117 Dawson’s Creek WB 1.40 118 What I Like About You WB 1.37 119 Twins WB 1.36 120 7th Heaven (8 p.m.) WB 1.35

121 Cinemundo Premier TEL 1.33 122 Casos Familia Ed. Esp. (Sat.) UNI 1.31 123 One Tree Hill WB 1.13 124 Decisiones (Wed.) TEL 1.12 125 Everybody Hates Chris (Thu.) UPN 1.10

126 Decisiones (Mon.) TEL 1.08 “Vicente Fernandez” TEL 1.08 128 Amores (Fri.) TEL 1.07 129 Tierra de Pasiones (Fri.) TEL 1.06 130 Tierra de Pasiones (Wed.) TEL 1.01

131 Tierra de Pasiones (Mon.) TEL 1.00 132 Amores (Wed.) TEL 1.00 133 Tierra de Pasiones (Thu.) TEL 0.97 134 Decisiones (Thu.) TEL 0.96 135 Amores (Thu.) TEL 0.95

136 Decisiones (Fri.) TEL 0.94 137 Girlfriends UPN 0.93 138 Amores (Tue.) TEL 0.92 139 Viuda de Blanco (Thu.) TEL 0.91 Amores (Mon.) TEL 0.91

Viuda de Blanco (Fri.) TEL 0.91 142 Tierra de Pasiones (Thu.) TEL 0.89 Half and Half UPN 0.89 144 Love Inc. UPN 0.87 145 Viuda de Blanco (Mon.) TEL 0.86

146 Fashion House Highlights MNT 0.85 147 Viuda de Blanco (Wed.) TEL 0.84 Decisiones (Tue.) TEL 0.84 149 Everybody Hates Chris (Wed.) UPN 0.80 150 Viuda de Blanco (Tue.) TEL 0.76

Eve UPN 0.76 152 Desire Highlights MNT 0.74 153 All of Us (Wed.) UPN 0.72 154 Cuts UPN 0.70 155 One on One UPN 0.69

156 All of Us (Mon.) UPN 0.64 157 Quinceanera TEL 0.51 158 Veronica Mars (9 p.m.) UPN 0.50 159 Cinemundo del Sabado TEL 0.48 160 Veronica Mars (8 p.m.) UPN 0.45

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Network averages

Here is the number of viewers (in millions) that each network averaged per hour of prime time.

*--* Network Last Week Season to date ABC 9.41 9.19

CBS 9.23 10.96

NBC 7.86 8.70

FOX 7.21 8.84

UNI 3.50 3.55

WB 1.58 2.69

TEL 0.96 0.88

UPN 0.91 2.71

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