Even with ‘Idol,’ Fox can’t top CBS’ draw

Fox swept the top three places in the prime-time television ratings last week with its two “American Idol” episodes and the medical drama “House,” but CBS narrowly won the network race, thanks to its customary dominance among older viewers.

With eight of the 15 most-watched programs between Feb. 12 and last Sunday, CBS averaged 12.28 million viewers for its prime-time programming. Fox was second with 12.22 million, followed by ABC with 9.56 million, NBC with 8.64 million and the CW with 3.44 million, Nielsen Media Research reported.

CBS was a distant third among viewers ages 18 to 49, the group coveted by advertisers and targeted by ABC, Fox and NBC. However, CBS drew twice as many viewers 55 and older as Fox did, enabling it to finish first overall for the 19th time in the season’s 22 weeks.

Tuesday’s “American Idol” was the week’s most-watched show, with 31.2 million viewers, while the conclusion of its “Hollywood Week” a day later was second with 28.89 million.

Viewership for “American Idol,” now in its sixth season, is up 6% over last year, a rare exception to the usual dwindling viewership once a series has been on for several seasons.

“NBC Nightly News With Brian Williams” reclaimed the top spot among the network nightly newscasts, averaging 10.17 million viewers, a week after finishing second behind “ABC’s World News With Charles Gibson,” which was second with 10.06 million. “NBC Nightly News” has finished first 21 of the last 22 weeks and 132 of the last 137.

The “CBS Evening News With Katie Couric” was in third place for the 21st consecutive week with 7.78 million viewers.

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Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (Feb. 12-18) 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.

*--* 1 American Idol (Tue.) FOX 31.19 2 American Idol (Wed.) FOX 28.89 3 House FOX 25.99 4 Grey’s Anatomy (Thu.) ABC 25.76 5 CSI CBS 22.71

6 CSI: Miami CBS 19.90 7 Desperate Housewives ABC 18.51 8 “Fox Daytona Winners Circle” FOX 16.39 9 Survivor: Fiji CBS 16.08 10 Deal or No Deal (Mon.) NBC 16.07

11 Two and a Half Men CBS 15.50 12 NCIS CBS 15.35 13 Criminal Minds CBS 15.16 14 Shark CBS 15.12 15 CSI: NY CBS 14.81

16 Heroes NBC 14.68 17 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition ABC 14.15 18 24 FOX 13.73 19 Ugly Betty ABC 13.66 20 Rules of Engagement CBS 13.43

21 24 (Mon., 8 p.m.) FOX 13.12 22 Law & Order: SVU (Tue.) NBC 12.94 23 Lost (10 p.m.) ABC 12.84 24 60 Minutes CBS 12.45 25 Bones FOX 12.28

26 The Unit CBS 11.86 27 Cold Case CBS 11.60 ER NBC 11.60 29 Without a Trace (Sun.) CBS 11.42 30 Ghost Whisperer CBS 11.35

31 Brothers & Sisters ABC 11.28 32 Men in Trees ABC 10.87 33 Numb3rs CBS 10.69 34 Close to Home CBS 10.34 35 Amazing Race 11 CBS 10.29

36 Supernanny ABC 9.83 37 How I Met Your Mother CBS 9.68 38 Deal or No Deal (Wed.) NBC 9.58 39 Boston Legal ABC 9.50 40 Deal or No Deal (Sun.) NBC 9.49

41 1 vs. 100 NBC 9.35 42 My Name Is Earl NBC 9.10 43 Law & Order NBC 9.00 44 America’s Funniest Home Videos ABC 8.99 45 The Class CBS 8.85

46 The Office NBC 8.84 47 The Simpsons (8 p.m.) FOX 8.74 48 Primetime: The Outsiders ABC 8.64 49 Medium NBC 8.62 50 Family Guy FOX 8.53

51 Law & Order: Criminal Intent (Tue.) NBC 8.50 52 Without a Trace (Tue.) CBS 8.43 53 20/20 ABC 8.33 54 Wife Swap ABC 8.31 55 Crimetime Saturday (9 p.m.) CBS 8.22

56 Las Vegas NBC 8.09 57 48 Hours Mystery CBS 7.77 58 Friday Night Lights NBC 7.43 59 Law & Order: Criminal Intent (Sat.) NBC 7.42 60 Return to Jericho CBS 7.36

61 King of the Hill FOX 7.19 62 George Lopez ABC 7.13 63 American Dad FOX 7.06 64 Crimetime Saturday (8 p.m.) CBS 7.03 65 Crossing Jordan NBC 7.01

66 Grease: You’re the One That I Want NBC 6.70 67 The Simpsons (7:30 p.m.) FOX 6.51 68 Studio 60 NBC 6.39 69 Cops (8:30 p.m.) FOX 6.33 70 Dateline: NBC (Tue.) NBC 6.32

71 America’s Most Wanted FOX 6.25 72 America’s Funniest Home Videos (Tue.) ABC 6.24 73 Scrubs NBC 6.23 74 Apprentice 6 NBC 6.04 75 Cops (8 p.m.) FOX 5.95

76 Grey’s Anatomy (Fri., 9 p.m.) ABC 5.69 77 La Fea Mas Bella (Tue.) UNI 5.67 78 La Fea Mas Bella (Wed.) UNI 5.64 79 What About Brian ABC 5.56 80 La Fea Mas Bella (Mon.) UNI 5.55

81 La Fea Mas Bella (Thu.) UNI 5.45 82 Dateline: NBC (Sat.) NBC 5.39 83 La Fea Mas Bella (Fri.) UNI 5.24 84 Til Death FOX 5.21 85 “Cast Away” ABC 5.20

86 30 Rock NBC 5.01 87 Trading Spouses FOX 4.96 Lost (9 p.m.) ABC 4.96 89 The Knights of Prosperity ABC 4.90 90 Grey’s Anatomy (Fri., 8 p.m.) ABC 4.89

91 Law & Order: SVU (Sat.) NBC 4.82 92 War at Home FOX 4.79 93 Friday Night Smackdown CW 4.78 94 Smallville CW 4.76 95 Nanny 911 FOX 4.48

96 Reba (7:30 p.m.) CW 4.44 97 Gilmore Girls CW 4.37 98 Beauty and the Geek (Wed.) CW 4.19 99 Mundo de Fieras (Tue.) UNI 4.16 100 Mundo de Fieras (Wed.) UNI 3.94

101 Mundo de Fieras (Thu.) UNI 3.91 102 Mundo de Fieras (Fri.) UNI 3.87 103 Cristina UNI 3.84 104 The O.C. FOX 3.65 105 Bailando Boda Suenos UNI 3.62

106 7th Heaven CW 3.57 107 Reba (7 p.m.) CW 3.40 108 Duelo de Pasiones (Wed.) UNI 3.38 109 Ver Para Creer UNI 3.34 110 Duelo de Pasiones (Mon.) UNI 3.20

111 Duelo de Pasiones (Thu.) UNI 3.13 Duelo de Pasiones (Tue.) UNI 3.13 Aqui y Ahora UNI 3.13 114 Supernatural CW 3.03 115 Don Francisco Presenta UNI 3.01

116 Duelo de Pasiones (Fri.) UNI 2.98 117 Everybody Hates Chris CW 2.83 118 Casos Vida UNI 2.82 119 Girlfriends CW 2.64 120 All of Us CW 2.58

121 Sabado Gigante UNI 2.54 122 The Game CW 2.52 123 Veronica Mars CW 2.37 124 One Tree Hill CW 2.25 125 Hora Pico UNI 2.14

126 Casos Familia UNI 1.80

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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 12.28 12.88

FOX 12.22 9.29

ABC 9.56 9.81

NBC 8.64 9.49

UNI 3.91 3.56

CW 3.44 3.20

TEL 0.91 0.84

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