‘Choirs’ bests ‘Duel,’ and CBS holds prime-time lead

NBC’s “Clash of the Choirs” topped ABC’s “Duel” in a pre-Christmas Week matchup of new unscripted programming, Nielsen Media Research reported Thursday.

“Clash of the Choirs,” which had five music stars return to their hometowns to assemble amateur choirs and prepare them to compete for the title of America’s best choir, averaged 8.1 million viewers for its four episodes. “Duel,” a game show featuring a series on one-on-one challenges, averaged 6.8 million for its six episodes.

CBS, meanwhile, had 10 of the top 12 prime-time programs between Dec. 17 and Sunday to become the most-watched network for the ninth time in the season’s 13 weeks.

The only programs interrupting CBS’ sweep of the top 12 were both on NBC: The “Sunday Night Football” game between the Minnesota Vikings and the Washington Redskins, and the two-hour season finale of “The Biggest Loser.”

It was the first time an NBC program has topped the week’s prime-time ratings since the week of Sept. 17 to 23.

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Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (Dec. 17-23) 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 Viewers 1 Sunday Night Football NBC 14.10 2 CSI: Miami CBS 14.01 3 60 Minutes CBS 13.52 4 NCIS CBS 13.01 5 Criminal Minds CBS 11.66 6 Biggest Loser 4 NBC 11.42 7 Two and a Half Men (9:30 p.m.) CBS 11.28 8 CSI: NY CBS 11.19 9 Two and a Half Men (9 p.m.) CBS 11.10 10 The Unit CBS 10.74 11 Without a Trace CBS 10.52 12 CSI (9 p.m.) CBS 10.30 13 House (Tue.) FOX 9.92 14 Sunday Night NFL Pregame NBC 9.75 15 Amazing Race 12 CBS 8.97 16 “Wonderful World of Disney” ABC 8.72 17 Clash of the Choirs (Wed.) NBC 8.26 18 CSI (8 p.m.) CBS 8.10 Clash of the Choirs (Tu.) NBC 8.10 20 House (Mon.) FOX 8.01 21 Clash of the Choirs (Mon.) NBC 7.95 22 Clash of the Choirs (Tue.) NBC 7.80 23 Boston Legal ABC 7.64 24 Duel (Wed.) ABC 7.45 25 “Frosty the Snowman” CBS 7.43 26 Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? FOX 7.41 27 Football Night in America, Part 3 NBC 7.39 28 Duel (Tue.) ABC 7.20 29 Cane CBS 7.13 30 Don’t Forget the Lyrics (Thu.) FOX 7.03 31 “Frosty Returns” CBS 6.93 32 Duel (Mon.) ABC 6.72 33 Duel (Fri.) ABC 6.71 34 The Big Bang Theory CBS 6.65 35 Dateline: NBC (Fri.) NBC 6.52 36 How I Met Your Mother CBS 6.44 37 Duel (Thu.) ABC 6.42 38 Duel (Sun.) ABC 6.16 39 Numb3rs CBS 6.01 40 Cops (8:30 p.m.) FOX 5.92 41 Bones FOX 5.86 42 48 Hours Mystery CBS 5.83 43 Grey’s Anatomy ABC 5.82 44 America’s Most Wanted FOX 5.66 45 Football Night in America, Part 2 NBC 5.62 46 “Elf” CBS 5.61 47 Women’s Murder Club ABC 5.60 48 K-Ville FOX 5.27 49 Cops (8 p.m.) FOX 5.23 50 Private Practice ABC 5.14 51 Til Death FOX 5.09 52 Private Practice (Thu.) ABC 5.05 53 20/20 ABC 5.02 Friday Night CW 5.02 Smackdown! 55 “A Holiday Celebration at Ford’s ABC 4.75 Theatre” 56 “Elmo’s Christmas Countdown” ABC 4.67 57 Back to You FOX 4.63 58 Journeyman (Wed.) NBC 4.62 59 The Office NBC 4.59 60 “Spider-Man 2” FOX 4.55 61 Don’t Forget the Lyrics (Fri.) FOX 4.54 62 Kitchen Nightmares FOX 4.46 63 According to Jim ABC 4.36 64 “Home for the Holidays” CBS 4.31 65 Journeyman (Mon.) NBC 4.23 66 “A Series of Unfortunate Events” ABC 4.07 67 October Road ABC 4.06 68 “In God’s Name” CBS 3.97 69 Moonlight CBS 3.91 70 Women’s Murder Club (Sat.) ABC 3.83 71 Pasion (Tue.) UNI 3.80 72 Saturday Night Live Primetime NBC 3.71 (9:30 p.m.) 73 Pasion (Wed.) UNI 3.61 74 Amar Sin Limites (Tue.) UNI 3.59 75 Amar Sin Limites (Thu.) UNI 3.55 76 Pasion (Mon.) UNI 3.48 77 Amar Sin Limites (Wed.) UNI 3.46 78 Pasion (Thu.) UNI 3.39 79 Amar Sin Limites (Fri.) UNI 3.36 80 Yo Amo Juan Querendon (Mon.) UNI 3.34 81 Yo Amo Juan Querendon T(Thu.) UNI 3.31 “Navidad P. Luche” UNI 3.31 83 Yo Amo Juan Querendon (Fri.) UNI 3.30 Bailando UNI 3.30 Yo Amo Juan UNI 3.30 Querendon (Tue.) *--*

*--* 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 Season week to date CBS 8.60 11.27

NBC 7.50 8.33

ABC 5.85 10.33

FOX 5.62 8.34

UNI 3.11 3.54

CW 2.01 2.74 *--*