'Talent' ends with sizzling numbers

L.A. Times Archives

Aug. 29, 2007 12 AM PT

From City News Service

The two-hour finale of NBC’s “America’s Got Talent” last Tuesday was the most-watched program on broadcast television in nearly three months with 13.9 million viewers, 16% more than last year’s finale, according to figures released Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research.

The second season of “America’s Got Talent” was the summer’s most-watched series, averaging 11.4 million viewers a week, 3% more than a year ago. It was television’s most-watched show eight times in the last 12 weeks.

The finale drew broadcast television’s largest audience since May 29, when 17.3 million watched the season finale of the Fox Broadcasting medical drama “House.”

Despite its success and NBC’s need for highly watched programming as it attempts to move out of fourth place in the ratings, NBC has no plans to air “America’s Got Talent” during television’s official season, and it will remain a summer series, a network official said.

“America’s Got Talent” helped lead to NBC’s 1-2-3 sweep of the top prime-time programs among viewers ages 18 to49 between Aug. 20 and Sunday, enabling NBC to end Fox’s 28-week winning streak among the group targeted by both networks and ABC and coveted by advertisers.

However, NBC couldn’t end CBS’ winning ways among all viewers, as CBS finished first overall for the 12th time in the 13 weeks of television’s summer season, averaging 6.92 million viewers.

Viewership for the premiere of Fox’s unscripted series “Anchorwoman” resulted in it joining the small list of programs canceled after one episode, finishing 88th for the week among all programs broadcast on the five major English-language networks and Univision with 2.66 million viewers.

What NBC said would be its final broadcast of the Miss Teen USA Pageant drew a record-low 4.32 million viewers Friday, 20% less than the previous low of 5.34 million for the 2004 pageant.

With Elizabeth Vargas substituting for Charles Gibson all week, ABC’s “World News” was first among the network nightly newscasts for the 17th time in the last 18 weeks, averaging 8.08 million viewers, 11% more than the corresponding week a year ago.

“NBC Nightly News” was second with 7.93 million.

Begin test of infobox

Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (Aug. 20-26) 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 286 million potential viewers in the U.S. ages 2 and older. Viewership is listed in millions.

*--* Program Net- work View- ers Program Net- work View- ers *--*

*--* 1 America’s Got Talent (Tue.) NBC 13.94 2 CSI CBS 10.37 3 Without a Trace CBS 9.30 4 Two and a Half Men CBS 9.25 5 “NFL Preseason Football” (Sun.) NBC 9.20

6 60 Minutes CBS 9.05 7 Singing Bee NBC 8.87 8 Power of 10 (Wed.) CBS 8.70 9 Cold Case CBS 8.45 10 Criminal Minds CBS 8.30

11 CSI: NY CBS 7.85 12 Big Brother 8 (Thu.) CBS 7.78 13 Just for Laughs (8:30 p.m.) ABC 7.68 14 CSI: Miami CBS 7.65 15 Big Brother 8 (Sun.) CBS 7.41

16 Big Brother 8 (Tue.) CBS 7.30 17 Last Comic Standing 5 NBC 7.25 18 “TV’s Funniest Moments” FOX 7.24 19 Just for Laughs (8 p.m.) ABC 6.83 20 “NFL Preseason Pre-Game” (Sun.) NBC 6.77

21 Rules of Engagement CBS 6.65 22 Shark CBS 6.64 23 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition ABC 6.61 24 America’s Funniest Home Videos ABC 6.54 25 NCIS CBS 6.53

26 Most Outrageous Moments NBC 6.50 27 Primetime: Crime ABC 6.33 28 Wife Swap ABC 6.25 29 Dateline: NBC (Wed.) NBC 6.18 30 “NFL Preseason Football” (Thu.) FOX 6.17

20/20 ABC 6.17 32 Power of 10 (Tue.) CBS 6.13 33 House FOX 5.62 34 Destilando Amor (Wed.) UNI 5.31 35 Destilando Amor (Thu.) UNI 5.25

36 “NFL Preseason Football” (Fri.) CBS 5.22 37 Law & Order: SVU NBC 5.20 38 Destilando Amor (Mon.) UNI 5.20 39 My Name Is Earl NBC 5.13 40 Destilando Amor (Tue.) UNI 5.10

41 America’s Most Wanted FOX 5.03 42 i-Caught ABC 5.00 43 How I Met Your Mother CBS 4.99 44 Fat March ABC 4.89 45 Old Christine CBS 4.81

46 The Office NBC 4.76 47 Dateline: NBC (Mon.) NBC 4.72 48 According to Jim (8 p.m.) ABC 4.71 49 48 Hours Mystery CBS 4.61 50 According to Jim (8:30 p.m.) ABC 4.49

51 Supernanny ABC 4.46 52 “NFL Preseason Post-Game” (Thu.) FOX 4.45 53 “NFL Preseason Pre-Game” (Thu.) FOX 4.43 54 Cops (8:30 p.m.) FOX 4.41 55 “Miss Teen USA” NBC 4.31

56 Destilando Amor (Fri.) UNI 4.27 57 Ugly Betty ABC 4.26 58 Boston Legal ABC 4.04 59 “2007 Teen Choice Awards” FOX 3.97 60 30 Rock NBC 3.93

61 Grey’s Anatomy ABC 3.89 62 Desperate Housewives ABC 3.80 63 Friday Night Smackdown CW 3.76 64 Bones FOX 3.75 65 Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader FOX 3.68

66 Set for Life ABC 3.67 67 “The Animal” FOX 3.56 68 Thank God You’re Here NBC 3.54 69 Scrubs NBC 3.54 70 Cops (8 p.m.) FOX 3.50

71 NASCAR in Primetime ABC 3.47 72 Familia P. Luche UNI 3.44 73 Don Francisco Presenta UNI 3.37 74 Aqui y Ahora UNI 3.26 75 Cristina UNI 3.25

76 Primetime: The Outsiders ABC 3.23 77 George Lopez (9:30 p.m.) ABC 3.15 78 “The Cat in the Hat” ABC 3.07 79 ER NBC 3.05 80 “Countdown With Keith Olbermann” NBC 3.01

81 Brothers & Sisters ABC 2.88 82 Heroes NBC 2.84 83 George Lopez (9 p.m.) ABC 2.84 84 Amar Sin Limites (Mon.) UNI 2.83 85 Crimetime Saturday CBS 2.83

86 Amar Sin Limites (Wed.) UNI 2.76 87 Amar Sin Limites (Thu.) UNI 2.72 88 Anchorwoman FOX 2.66 89 Amar Sin Limites (Tue.) UNI 2.60 90 SOS: Sexo y Otros Secretos UNI 2.57

91 America’s Got Talent (Sat.) NBC 2.51 92 Yo Amo Juan Querendon (Thu.) UNI 2.44 93 On the Lot FOX 2.39 94 Familia de Diez UNI 2.39 95 Yo Amo Juan Querendon (Mon.) UNI 2.37

96 Yo Amo Juan Querendon (Tue.) UNI 2.30 97 Yo Amo Juan Querendon (Wed.) UNI 2.25 98 Supernatural CW 2.23 99 America’s Top Model 1 (9 p.m.) CW 2.18 100 Medium NBC 2.17

101 Masters of Science Fiction ABC 2.14 102 Amar Sin Limites (Fri.) UNI 2.13 103 America’s Top Model 1 (8 p.m.) CW 2.07 104 Smallville (Thu.) CW 2.05 105 “Rumbo al Mundial” TEL 1.93

106 Sabado Gigante UNI 1.88 107 The Game CW 1.86 108 Everybody Hates Chris CW 1.86 109 Yo Amo Juan Querendon (Fri.) UNI 1.85 110 Girlfriends CW 1.83

111 Hora Pico UNI 1.65 112 Buscando Timbiriche UNI 1.62 113 All of Us CW 1.59 114 Madre Luna (Tue.) TEL 1.42 115 Gilmore Girls CW 1.38

116 Smallville (Sun.) CW 1.30 117 Madre Luna (Mon.) TEL 1.23 118 Madre Luna (Thu.) TEL 1.13 119 Esclava Isaura (Tue.) TEL 1.12 120 Dame Chocolate (Mon.) TEL 1.10

121 Dame Chocolate (Tue.) TEL 1.10 122 7th Heaven CW 1.07 123 Madre Luna (Fri.) TEL 1.06 124 Dame Chocolate (Thu.) TEL 1.05 125 Esclava Isaura (Thu.) TEL 1.05

126 Esclava Isaura (Mon.) TEL 1.03 127 Pussycat Dolls CW 1.03 128 Madre Luna (Wed.) TEL 1.01 129 Beauty and the Geek CW 1.01 130 Casos Familia UNI 1.00

131 Esclava Isaura (Fri.) TEL 0.93 132 Cine Millonario TEL 0.91 133 Dame Chocolate (Wed.) TEL 0.90 134 Dame Chocolate (Fri.) TEL 0.89 135 Amor Mio (Mon.) TEL 0.88

136 “Rumbo Pregame” TEL 0.86 137 “Junto al Tri” TEL 0.81 138 Amor Mio (Fri.) TEL 0.81 139 Amor Mio (Tue.) TEL 0.77 140 Amor Mio (Thu.) TEL 0.64

141 Cine de Impacto TEL 0.60 142 Cine Nuestro TEL 0.41 *--*

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 6.92 10.70

NBC 5.96 7.78

FOX 4.68 8.96

ABC 4.48 8.31