College kids score in retooled Nielsens

As anticipated, the Super Bowl and “American Idol” overshadowed everything on television last week.

But for executives in the TV industry, there was another reason why it was an important week: They finally got the chance to learn what college students think. It was the first week that Nielsen Media Research figured the viewing habits of students away at school into its weekly averages. And it also coincided with strong showings for some of TV’s hottest new shows.

ABC’s “Grey’s Anatomy” was seen by 24.2 million viewers, its biggest audience since the season premiere in September. “Ugly Betty” on ABC had its third-highest audience ever.

Seven prime-time programs, including those two ABC Thursday dramas, saw their ratings among 18-to-24-year-olds increase by 50% or more over the previous two weeks, indicating they are the ones most likely helped by the new college measurements. NBC’s “Scrubs” saw its youthful ratings double, Nielsen said. Other shows to get a lift include “The Office” on NBC, “What About Brian” on ABC, “ ‘Til Death” on Fox and “Gilmore Girls” on the CW.

The Super Bowl between Indianapolis and Chicago on CBS was seen by 93.2 million people, behind only the 1982 “MASH” finale and the 1996 Super Bowl as the most-watched TV broadcast of all time.

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Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (Jan. 29-Feb. 4) 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 Net- work View- ers Program Net- work View- ers

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*--* 1 Super Bowl XLI CBS 93.18 2 Super Bowl XLI Postgame 1 CBS 81.54 3 Super Bowl XLI Postgame 2 CBS 57.34 4 American Idol (Tue.) FOX 33.65 5 American Idol (Wed.) FOX 31.85

6 House FOX 27.34 7 Criminal Minds (Sun.) CBS 26.31 8 Grey’s Anatomy (Thu.) ABC 24.18 9 CSI (9 p.m.) CBS 21.49 10 Deal or No Deal (Mon.) NBC 16.92

11 Shark CBS 14.08 12 24 FOX 14.04 13 Ugly Betty ABC 14.00 14 Heroes NBC 13.63 15 CSI: Miami CBS 13.53

16 Two and a Half Men CBS 12.70 17 Bones FOX 12.40 18 NCIS CBS 12.25 19 CSI (8 p.m.) CBS 11.92 20 ER NBC 11.79

21 Deal or No Deal (Wed.) NBC 11.37 22 Numb3rs CBS 10.91 23 My Name Is Earl NBC 10.68 24 Ghost Whisperer CBS 10.66 25 CSI: NY (10 p.m.) CBS 10.49

26 1 vs. 100 NBC 10.18 27 The Office NBC 10.11 28 “Super Bowl’s Greatest Commercials” CBS 10.05 29 Old Christine CBS 10.01 30 Prison Break FOX 9.90

31 Medium NBC 9.89 32 Men in Trees ABC 9.74 33 Criminal Minds CBS 9.61 34 Law & Order NBC 9.53 35 Las Vegas NBC 9.52

36 Boston Legal ABC 9.48 37 The Unit CBS 8.96 38 48 Hours Mystery (Tue.) CBS 8.82 39 Supernanny ABC 8.72 40 Law & Order: SVU (Tue.) NBC 8.29

41 CSI: NY (8 p.m.) CBS 8.20 42 48 Hours Mystery (Sat.) CBS 8.18 43 Wife Swap ABC 7.82 44 20/20 (10 p.m.) ABC 7.79 45 George Lopez ABC 7.71

46 How I Met Your Mother CBS 7.53 47 Law & Order: Criminal Intent (Sat.) NBC 7.44 48 Cops (8:30 p.m.) FOX 7.24 49 Crimetime Saturday (9 p.m.) CBS 7.21 50 20/20 Spec (9 p.m.) ABC 7.00

America’s Most Wanted FOX 7.00 52 Scrubs NBC 6.90 53 Studio 60 NBC 6.86 54 Friday Night Lights NBC 6.73 55 Law & Order: Criminal Intent (Tue.) NBC 6.48

56 “World’s Greatest Sports Bloopers” ABC 6.47 57 The Class CBS 6.40 58 La Fea Mas Bella (Mon.) UNI 6.31 59 Cops (8 p.m.) FOX 6.21 60 Grey’s Anatomy (Fri.) ABC 6.20

61 La Fea Mas Bella (Wed.) UNI 6.16 62 Crimetime Saturday (8 p.m.) CBS 6.13 63 Primetime ABC 6.07 64 La Fea Mas Bella (Thu.) UNI 6.06 65 La Fea Mas Bella (Tue.) UNI 5.96

66 Dateline: NBC (Sat.) NBC 5.82 67 La Fea Mas Bella (Fri.) UNI 5.74 68 What About Brian ABC 5.71 69 According to Jim (9 p.m.) ABC 5.71 America’s Funniest Home Videos (Tue.) ABC 5.71

30 Rock NBC 5.71 72 Law & Order: SVU (Sat.) NBC 5.58 Dateline: NBC (Tue.) NBC 5.58 74 Trading Spouses FOX 5.49 75 ‘Til Death FOX 5.47

76 America’s Funniest Home Videos (Sun.) ABC 5.42 77 Knights of Prosperity (Wed.) ABC 5.09 78 Friday Night Smackdown CW 5.06 79 Nanny 911 FOX 4.92 80 Smallville CW 4.91

81 “Old School” ABC 4.89 82 “Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy” ABC 4.58 83 Mundo de Fieras (Thu.) UNI 4.51 84 War at Home FOX 4.47 85 In Case of Emergency ABC 4.43

86 Big Day ABC 4.27 Gilmore Girls CW 4.27 88 Extreme Makeover ABC 4.22 89 Mundo de Fieras (Wed.) UNI 4.12 90 Mundo de Fieras (Tue.) UNI 4.03

91 Grease: You’re the One That I Want (9 p.m.) NBC 3.96 92 Mundo de Fieras (Fri.) UNI 3.95 93 The O.C. FOX 3.82 94 Beauty and the Geek (Wed.) CW 3.78 95 Mundo de Fieras (Mon.) UNI 3.68

96 Duelo de Pasiones (Tue.) UNI 3.57 97 Knights of Prosperity (Tue.) ABC 3.48 98 Duelo de Pasiones (Wed.) UNI 3.46 99 Duelo de Pasiones (Thu.) UNI 3.40 100 Supernatural CW 3.37

101 Duelo de Pasiones (Mon.) UNI 3.31 102 Bailando Boda Suenos UNI 3.26 103 Aqui y Ahora UNI 3.20 104 Casos Vida UNI 3.06 105 “X-Men: X-Men United” FOX 3.05

106 Duelo de Pasiones (Fri.) UNI 3.00 107 Ver Para Creer UNI 2.91 108 Cristina UNI 2.81 109 Everybody Hates Chris CW 2.79 110 The Simpsons FOX 2.76

111 Sabado Gigante UNI 2.75 112 Veronica Mars CW 2.69 113 Hora Pico UNI 2.46 114 Don Francisco Presenta UNI 2.45 Grease: You’re the One That I Want (7 p.m.) NBC 2.45

116 All of Us CW 2.38 117 Girlfriends CW 2.35 118 The Game CW 2.27 119 “Alejandro Fernandez desde Vina del Mar” UNI 1.73 120 Beauty and the Geek (Sun., 9 p.m.) CW 1.50

121 One Tree Hill CW 1.48 122 Marina (Fri.) TEL 1.26 123 Viuda de Blanco (Mon.) TEL 1.25 124 Marina (Thu.) TEL 1.23 Marina (Mon.) TEL 1.23

126 Viuda de Blanco (Fri.) TEL 1.22 127 Viuda de Blanco (Thu.) TEL 1.20 128 Beauty and the Geek (Sun., 8 p.m.) CW 1.19 129 Marina (Tue.) TEL 1.10 130 Viuda de Blanco (Wed.) TEL 1.06

131 Marina (Wed.) TEL 1.03 132 Viuda de Blanco (Tue.) TEL 0.98 133 Amor Mio (Tue.) TEL 0.97 134 Amor Mio (Mon.) TEL 0.96 135 Beauty and the Geek (Sun., 7 p.m.) CW 0.94

136 Amor Mio (Fri.) TEL 0.93 137 Decisiones (Wed.) TEL 0.90 Decisiones (Mon.) TEL 0.90 139 Decisiones (Thu.) TEL 0.88 140 Amor Mio (Thu.) TEL 0.84

141 Amor Mio (Wed.) TEL 0.83 142 Decisiones (Tue.) TEL 0.73 143 Cinemundo Premier TEL 0.65 Decisiones (Fri.) TEL 0.65 145 “Vicente Fernandez” TEL 0.64

Marav Mundo Disney TEL 0.64 147 Vas o No Vas TEL 0.40 148 Seguro y Urgente TEL 0.37

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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 CBS

ABC

NBC

FOX

UNI

CW

TEL

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