‘Monday Night Football’ sets cable record for ESPN

ESPN’s “Monday Night Football” game between the New England Patriots and the Baltimore Ravens was the most-watched program in cable television history, according to figures released Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research.

The Patriots’ last-minute 27-24 victory Dec. 3 averaged 17.52 million viewers, breaking the previous record of 17.24 million for the premiere of the Disney Channel movie “High School Musical 2” on Aug. 17.

That was a bigger audience than for all but two of the programs shown on the broadcast networks last week.

Spared from having to compete with ABC’s “Dancing With the Stars,” CBS won the prime-time ratings race for the seventh time in the season’s 11 weeks, averaging 10.47 million viewers between Dec. 3 and Sunday.

A week after “Dancing With the Stars’ ” fall season ended, ABC’s weekly viewership dropped 29% from 12.45 million to 8.84 million, but it was still enough for second place, edging NBC.

The ABC comedy “Samantha Who?” was especially affected by the absence of “Dancing,” drawing a series-low 7.16 million viewers to finish third among the English-language broadcast networks in its 9-9:30 p.m. slot Dec. 3 and 49th for the week, ending its streak of being the most-watched new series at seven weeks.

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Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (Dec. 3-9) 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 NETWORK VIEWERS 1 CSI CBS 18.80 2 Grey’s Anatomy (Thu.) ABC 17.77 3 60 Minutes CBS 16.50 4 “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” CBS 14.55 5 Survivor: China CBS 13.86

6 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition ABC 12.78 7 Sunday Night Football NBC 12.73 8 Without a Trace CBS 12.68 9 “For One More Day” ABC 12.53 10 Amazing Race 12 CBS 11.95

11 Two and a Half Men CBS 11.88 12 Law & Order: SVU NBC 11.73 13 Cold Case CBS 11.57 14 Deal or No Deal (Wed.) NBC 11.33 15 “Barbara Walters Presents” ABC 11.31

16 NCIS CBS 11.08 17 Heroes NBC 11.06 18 “NFL Pre-Game” (Sun.) NBC 10.51 19 House (Tue.) FOX 10.46 20 Private Practice ABC 10.40

21 CSI: NY CBS 10.37 22 Shark CBS 9.83 23 Rules of Engagement CBS 9.78 24 CSI: Miami CBS 9.69 25 Deal or No Deal (Fri.) NBC 9.41

26 Ugly Betty ABC 9.37 27 “Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town” ABC 9.34 28 Criminal Minds CBS 9.20 29 America’s Funniest Home Videos (Sun.) ABC 9.06 30 Destilando Amor UNI 8.98

31 Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? FOX 8.69 32 Boston Legal ABC 8.62 33 Women’s Murder Club (Fri.) ABC 8.54 34 “A Charlie Brown Christmas” ABC 8.52 35 Chuck (Mon.) NBC 8.41

36 House (Mon.) FOX 8.35 37 Biggest Loser 4 NBC 8.32 38 Bones FOX 8.17 39 ER NBC 8.15 40 “Frosty the Snowman” CBS 8.05

41 Football Night in America, Part 3 NBC 8.01 42 Family Guy FOX 7.90 43 20/20 ABC 7.84 44 Life (Wed.) NBC 7.63 45 The Simpsons FOX 7.57

46 “Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show 2007” CBS 7.48 -- America’s Funniest Home Videos (Tue.) ABC 7.48 48 My Name Is Earl NBC 7.38 49 “Frosty Returns” CBS 7.34 50 Samantha Who? ABC 7.16

51 Kid Nation CBS 7.10 52 “Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas” ABC 7.01 53 Las Vegas NBC 6.82 54 48 Hours Mystery CBS 6.81 55 Dirty Sexy Money ABC 6.74

-- Don’t Forget the Lyrics (Thu.) FOX 6.74 57 Cristina UNI 6.71 58 Crimetime Saturday (9 p.m.) CBS 6.70 59 King of the Hill (8:30 p.m.) FOX 6.58 60 American Dad FOX 6.51

61 Life (Mon.) NBC 6.48 62 The Big Bang Theory CBS 6.41 63 How I Met Your Mother CBS 6.30 64 Cops (8:30 p.m.) FOX 6.17 -- Football Night in America, Part 2 NBC 6.17

66 America’s Most Wanted FOX 6.11 67 “Movies Rock!” CBS 5.89 68 30 Rock (Thu.) NBC 5.84 69 Cops (8 p.m.) FOX 5.78 70 Grey’s Anatomy (Tue.) ABC 5.72

71 Men in Trees ABC 5.60 72 Back to You FOX 5.53 73 Kitchen Nightmares FOX 5.32 74 Friday Night Lights NBC 5.14 75 Til Death FOX 5.01

76 Notes From the Underbelly ABC 5.00 77 The Office NBC 4.99 78 Women’s Murder Club (Sat.) ABC 4.95 79 October Road ABC 4.94 80 Scrubs NBC 4.85

81 K-Ville FOX 4.82 82 America’s Top Model 3 (Wed.) CW 4.63 83 King of the Hill (7:30 p.m.) FOX 4.58 84 Friday Night Smackdown CW 4.51 85 Crimetime Saturday (8 p.m.) CBS 4.43

86 Don Francisco Presenta UNI 4.23 87 Cristina UNI 3.93 88 Don’t Forget the Lyrics (Fri.) FOX 3.92 89 Amar Sin Limites (Thu.) UNI 3.80 90 Pasion (Tue.) UNI 3.72

91 Yo Amo Juan Querendon (Thu.) UNI 3.66 92 Yo Amo Juan Querendon (Mon.) UNI 3.54 93 King of the Hill (7 p.m.) FOX 3.46 -- Amar Sin Limites (Wed.) UNI 3.46 95 Familia P. Luche UNI 3.38

96 Pasion (Thu.) UNI 3.37 -- Pasion (Wed.) UNI 3.37 98 Yo Amo Juan Querendon (Tue.) UNI 3.36 -- Yo Amo Juan Querendon (Wed.) UNI 3.36 100 Amar Sin Limites (Tue.) UNI 3.34

101 Saturday Night Live NBC 3.31 102 Retro P. Luche UNI 3.22 103 Aqui y Ahora UNI 3.18 -- Amar Sin Limites (Fri.) UNI 3.18 105 Pasion (Fri.) UNI 3.09

106 Yo Amo Juan Querendon (Fri.) UNI 3.06 107 Next Great American Band FOX 3.04 108 Smallville CW 2.81 109 “Gran Estreno” UNI 2.76 110 Reaper CW 2.62

111 Beauty and the Geek CW 2.49 112 Sabado Gigante UNI 2.44 113 Gossip Girl CW 2.43 114 Chuck (Sat.) NBC 2.08 115 Supernatural CW 2.04

116 Everybody Hates Chris CW 1.90 -- The Game CW 1.90 118 “Destino 2008” UNI 1.82 119 30 Rock (Sat.) NBC 1.81 120 America’s Top Model 3 (Sun.) CW 1.79

121 Girlfriends CW 1.76 122 Aliens In America (Mon.) CW 1.59 123 Life Is Wild CW 1.11 124 CW Now CW 0.84 125 Aliens In America (Sun.) CW 0.83 *--*

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 10.47 11.53

ABC 8.84 11.10

NBC 8.09 8.38

FOX 6.35 8.65

UNI 3.85 3.61

CW 2.57 2.80 *--*