Viewers mostly turn away from the reruns on NBC

With reruns dominating their schedules last week, NBC drew a record-low amount of viewers and CBS’ four-week streak of being the most-watched network in prime time was ended by Fox Broadcasting, according to figures released Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research.

With “American Idol” and “House” sweeping the top three spots, Fox averaged 10.26 million viewers for its 15 hours of prime-time programming between April 16 and Sunday. CBS was second, averaging 9.62 million for its 22 hours of programming.

NBC’s viewership of 6.24 million was the lowest during the official television season since Nielsen began using its People Meter system in September 1987, erasing the previous low of 6.81 million set a week earlier. NBC had just one program among the week’s top 25, the Monday edition of “Deal or No Deal.”

Also hitting a record low last week was ABC’s “Desperate Housewives,” with 15.91 million viewers, 20,000 fewer than the previous low on Easter (April 2), traditionally a day with lower-than-usual viewership.

The combined viewership of the three network nightly newscasts was virtually unchanged from the previous week, even with coverage of the Virginia Tech massacre, averaging 23.62 million viewers compared with 23.53 million a week earlier.

“NBC Nightly News With Brian Williams,” which received what was dubbed a “multimedia manifesto” from shooter Seung-hui Cho and later drew criticism for airing his videotapes and pictures, was first for the week with an average of 8.57 million viewers, 5% more than the previous week. ABC’s “World News With Charles Gibson” was second with 8.48 million, 3% fewer than the previous week, when it finished first for the seventh time in 10 weeks. The “CBS Evening News With Katie Couric” averaged 6.57 million viewers, the same as the previous week, finishing third for the 30th consecutive week.

Combined viewership of the four major cable news networks, however, was up 26% from the previous week. Fox News Channel averaged 1.09 million viewers a day for the week, a 23% increase; CNN 783,000, a 57% increase; MSNBC 373,000, unchanged from the previous week, and Headline News, 288,000, a 12% increase.

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Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (April 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 American Idol (Wed.) FOX 28.93 2 American Idol (Tue.) FOX 26.55 3 House (Tue.) FOX 22.41 4 Grey’s Anatomy (Thu.) ABC 21.12 5 Dancing With the Stars (Mon.) ABC 18.87

6 Dancing With the Stars Results (Tue., 9 p.m.) ABC 16.54 7 Desperate Housewives ABC 15.91 8 CSI: Miami CBS 15.36 9 Survivor: Fiji CBS 13.33 10 Two and a Half Men CBS 13.03

11 Shark CBS 12.54 12 CSI CBS 12.45 13 King of Queens CBS 12.22 14 Lost (10 p.m.) ABC 12.07 15 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition ABC 11.68

16 24 FOX 11.32 17 Deal or No Deal (Mon.) NBC 11.19 18 NCIS CBS 11.14 19 CSI: NY CBS 11.13 20 “Hallmark Hall of Fame” CBS 10.66

21 Criminal Minds CBS 10.59 22 Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? FOX 10.10 23 60 Minutes CBS 9.97 24 October Road ABC 9.60 25 Ugly Betty ABC 9.46

26 ER NBC 9.31 27 Deal or No Deal (Sun.) NBC 9.25 28 Bachelor: Officer & Gentleman ABC 9.03 29 Amazing Race 11 CBS 8.69 30 America’s Funniest Home Videos ABC 8.47

31 Law & Order: SVU NBC 8.36 32 Numb3rs CBS 8.13 33 Bones (Wed.) FOX 8.09 34 Apprentice 6 NBC 7.98 35 Close to Home CBS 7.95

36 48 Hours (Sat.) CBS 7.80 37 Jericho CBS 7.66 38 Crimetime Saturday (9 p.m.) CBS 7.33 39 The Unit CBS 7.32 40 My Name Is Earl NBC 7.15

41 Thank God You’re Here (Wed.) NBC 7.04 42 “Fox NASCAR Nextel Cup” (8:45 p.m.) FOX 7.02 43 Old Christine CBS 6.98 44 Dancing With the Stars (Tue., 8 p.m.) ABC 6.91 45 Crossing Jordan NBC 6.80

46 Law & Order NBC 6.79 47 Thank God You’re Here (Mon.) NBC 6.76 48 Family Guy (9:30 p.m.) FOX 6.72 49 Ghost Whisperer CBS 6.67 50 The Simpsons (8:30 p.m.) FOX 6.61

51 Crimetime Saturday (8 p.m.) CBS 6.55 52 48 Hours (Tue.) CBS 6.49 53 The Simpsons (8 p.m.) FOX 6.46 54 20/20 ABC 6.44 55 Brothers & Sisters ABC 6.41

How I Met Your Mother CBS 6.41 57 According to Jim ABC 6.35 58 Dateline: NBC (Mon.) NBC 6.26 Notes From the Underbelly ABC 6.26 60 The Office NBC 6.25

61 Family Guy (9 p.m.) FOX 6.23 62 Medium NBC 6.05 63 Raines NBC 5.85 64 Drive FOX 5.66 65 Scrubs NBC 5.61

66 House (Fri.) FOX 5.58 67 Law & Order: Criminal Intent NBC 5.54 68 Dateline: NBC (Sun.) NBC 5.48 69 La Fea Mas Bella (Mon.) UNI 5.29 70 “Fox NASCAR Nextel Cup” (8 p.m.) FOX 5.22

71 La Fea Mas Bella (Tue.) UNI 5.21 72 America’s Top Model 2 (Wed.) CW 5.20 73 30 Rock NBC 5.16 74 La Fea Mas Bella (Wed.) UNI 5.10 75 Dateline: NBC (Tue.) NBC 5.05

76 Bones (Fri.) FOX 4.98 77 Identity NBC 4.91 78 Wife Swap ABC 4.81 Destilando Amor (Wed.) UNI 4.81 80 Destilando Amor (Tue.) UNI 4.69

81 Destilando Amor (Mon.) UNI 4.67 82 La Fea Mas Bella (Thu.) UNI 4.48 83 Destilando Amor (Thu.) UNI 4.45 84 Trading Spouses FOX 4.26 85 “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” ABC 4.22

86 Destilando Amor (Fri.) UNI 4.13 87 Grey’s Anatomy (Fri.) ABC 4.06 88 Smallville CW 3.98 89 La Fea Mas Bella (Fri.) UNI 3.97 90 Lost (9 p.m.) ABC 3.84

91 Gilmore Girls CW 3.79 92 Friday Night Smackdown CW 3.78 93 Cristina UNI 3.68 94 Aqui y Ahora UNI 3.65 Nuestra Belleza UNI 3.65

96 Don Francisco Presenta UNI 3.60 97 King of the Hill FOX 3.34 98 Bailando Boda Suenos UNI 3.27 99 Supernatural CW 3.25 100 Duelo de Pasiones (Tue.) UNI 3.09

101 Duelo de Pasiones (Wed.) UNI 3.03 102 Pussycat Dolls (Tue.) CW 2.98 103 Pussycat Dolls (Wed.) CW 2.96 104 Duelo de Pasiones (Mon.) UNI 2.91 105 Duelo de Pasiones (Thu.) UNI 2.85

War at Home FOX 2.85 107 Heroes (10 p.m.) NBC 2.83 108 7th Heaven (8 p.m.) CW 2.79 109 Duelo de Pasiones (Fri.) UNI 2.71 110 Casos Vida UNI 2.45

111 Sabado Gigante UNI 2.30 112 Heroes (9 p.m.) NBC 2.20 113 The Game CW 2.05 114 Heroes (8 p.m.) NBC 2.01 115 Hora Pico UNI 1.94

116 Girlfriends CW 1.93 117 Everybody Hates Chris CW 1.89 118 All of Us CW 1.70 119 America’s Top Model 2 (Sun.) CW 1.56 120 7th Heaven (7 p.m.) CW 1.34

121 Casos Familia UNI 1.30 Marina (Tue.) TEL 1.30 123 Zorro (Mon.) TEL 1.25 124 Zorro (Wed.) TEL 1.24 125 Marina (Thu.) TEL 1.22

126 Zorro (Thu.) TEL 1.18 127 Dame Chocolate (Mon.) TEL 1.17 128 Zorro (Tue.) TEL 1.14 Zorro (Fri.) TEL 1.14 130 Marina (Mon.) TEL 1.13

131 Marina (Wed.) TEL 1.12 132 Dame Chocolate (Tue.) TEL 1.10 133 Cine Millonario TEL 1.05 134 Dame Chocolate (Wed.) TEL 1.03 Dame Chocolate (Thu.) TEL 1.03

136 Marina (Fri.) TEL 0.93 137 Sin Verguenza (Mon.) TEL 0.92 138 Cine en Familia TEL 0.79 139 Dame Chocolate (Fri.) TEL 0.77 Sin Verguenza (Wed.) TEL 0.77

Sin Verguenza (Thu.) TEL 0.77 142 Sin Verguenza (Fri.) TEL 0.70 143 Sin Verguenza (Tue.) TEL 0.67 144 Vas o No Vas TEL 0.41 145 Seguro y Urgente TEL 0.30

146 “Conteo al Billboard” TEL 0.25 147 “Mejor Sin Verguenza” TEL 0.24

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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 FOX 10.26 10.03

CBS 9.62 12.36

ABC 9.48 9.59

NBC 6.24 8.89

UNI 3.76 3.61

CW 3.02 3.14

TEL 0.92 0.85

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