‘Idol’ again boosts Fox to top

Three “American Idol” broadcasts enabled Fox Broadcasting to defeat ABC in the Oscar week ratings race, both among all viewers and the young adults coveted by advertisers and targeted by both networks, according to figures released Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research.

Fox averaged 14.95 million viewers for its prime-time programming between Feb. 19 and Sunday. ABC finished second with 13.03 million, followed by CBS with 11.19 million, NBC with 7.95 million, Spanish-language Univision with 4.27 million and the CW with 3.02 million.

Fox broadcasts 15 hours a week of prime-time programming, compared with 22 each for ABC, CBS and NBC, meaning that each hour of its programming has 32% more influence on its weekly average than an hour on ABC, CBS or NBC.

ABC’s coverage of Sunday’s Academy Awards drew 40.17 million viewers, 3% more than last year’s 38.94 million, the second-lowest since 1988.

Since 1974, the 1998 Oscars, which had box office record-setter “Titanic” win best picture, drew the highest audience, 55.25 million.

There has long been a correlation between the best picture nominees’ box office success and the ratings for the Academy Awards telecast.

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Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (Feb. 19-25) 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 Academy Awards ABC 40.17 2 American Idol (Wed.) FOX 30.46 3 American Idol (Tue.) FOX 29.53 4 Grey’s Anatomy (Thu., 9 p.m.) ABC 27.39 5 “Road to the Oscars 2007” ABC 27.10

6 American Idol (Thu.) FOX 24.44 7 CSI CBS 21.78 8 CSI: Miami (Mon.) CBS 19.23 9 Deal or No Deal (Mon.) NBC 17.62 10 Two and a Half Men CBS 16.56

11 “Oprah Winfrey Oscar Special” ABC 15.45 12 NCIS CBS 15.41 13 “Barbara Walters Special” ABC 14.53 14 Shark CBS 14.19 15 Heroes NBC 14.06

16 Rules of Engagement CBS 13.86 17 Criminal Minds CBS 13.70 18 CSI: NY CBS 13.67 19 Survivor: Fiji CBS 13.47 20 24 FOX 13.05

21 Lost (10 p.m.) ABC 12.95 22 Law & Order: SVU NBC 11.93 23 The Unit CBS 11.70 24 Numb3rs CBS 11.02 25 “Fox Nextel Cup Winners Circle” FOX 10.86

26 Close to Home CBS 10.10 27 ER NBC 10.00 28 Grey’s Anatomy (Thu., 8 p.m.) ABC 9.72 29 Prison Break FOX 9.55 30 Ghost Whisperer CBS 9.54

31 Boston Legal ABC 9.43 32 Law & Order: Criminal Intent (Tue.) NBC 9.39 33 60 Minutes CBS 9.31 34 1 vs. 100 NBC 9.03 35 Wife Swap ABC 9.01

36 How I Met Your Mother CBS 8.95 37 Supernanny ABC 8.94 38 My Name Is Earl NBC 8.71 39 The Class CBS 8.68 40 Law & Order NBC 8.67

41 The Simpsons (8 p.m.) FOX 8.36 42 Las Vegas NBC 8.35 43 Without a Trace CBS 8.31 44 Jericho CBS 8.30 45 The Office NBC 8.25

46 Amazing Race 11 CBS 8.17 47 CSI: Miami (Tue.) CBS 8.07 48 Deal or No Deal (Wed.) NBC 7.94 49 Family Guy (9:30 p.m.) FOX 7.89 50 Family Guy (9 p.m.) FOX 7.88

51 The Simpsons (8:30 p.m.) FOX 7.85 52 Medium NBC 7.83 53 48 Hours Mystery CBS 7.81 54 Law & Order: Criminal Intent (Sat.) NBC 7.50 55 Cold Case CBS 7.29

56 Crimetime Saturday (9 p.m.) CBS 7.15 57 Crossing Jordan (10 p.m.) NBC 6.74 58 20/20 (10 p.m.) ABC 6.63 59 Cops (8:30 p.m.) FOX 6.61 60 The O.C. FOX 6.59

61 “Premio Lo Nuestro ‘07” UNI 6.33 62 America’s Most Wanted FOX 6.26 63 Studio 60 on Sunset Strip NBC 6.10 64 20/20 (9 p.m.) ABC 6.06 65 “Forrest Gump” ABC 5.89

66 George Lopez ABC 5.83 67 Dateline: NBC (Tue.) NBC 5.81 68 Dateline: NBC (Sat.) NBC 5.77 69 La Fea Mas Bella (Mon.) UNI 5.74 70 La Fea Mas Bella (Tue.) UNI 5.67

71 Scrubs NBC 5.66 72 What About Brian ABC 5.65 73 La Fea Mas Bella (Fri.) UNI 5.64 74 America’s Funniest Home Videos (Tue.) ABC 5.54 75 Law & Order: SVU (Sat.) NBC 5.51

76 Cops (8 p.m.) FOX 5.44 77 Friday Night Smackdown CW 5.42 78 Grey’s Anatomy (Fri.) ABC 5.32 79 Lost (9 p.m.) ABC 5.27 80 La Fea Mas Bella (Wed.) UNI 5.19

81 Friday Night Lights NBC 5.16 82 Dateline: NBC (Sun.) NBC 5.03 83 Primetime: The Outsiders ABC 5.02 84 30 Rock NBC 4.61 85 Nanny 911 FOX 4.56

86 Grease: You’re the One That I Want NBC 4.53 87 Mundo de Fieras (Tue.) UNI 4.44 88 “Noche de Estrellas” UNI 4.31 89 Trading Spouses FOX 4.29 90 Mundo de Fieras (Wed.) UNI 4.20

91 The Knights of Prosperity ABC 4.12 Mundo de Fieras (Mon.) UNI 4.12 93 Crossing Jordan (9 p.m.) NBC 4.07 94 Gilmore Girls CW 4.05 95 Bailando Boda Suenos UNI 3.93

96 Crimetime Saturday (8 p.m.) CBS 3.75 97 Casos de la Vida Real UNI 3.60 98 Duelo de Pasiones (Fri.) UNI 3.23 99 Reba (7:30 p.m.) CW 3.22 100 Duelo de Pasiones (Mon.) UNI 3.09

Cristina UNI 3.09 102 Duelo de Pasiones (Tue.) UNI 3.06 103 Duelo de Pasiones (Wed.) UNI 3.05 104 Beauty and the Geek (Wed.) CW 2.99 105 Everybody Hates Chris CW 2.97

106 Don Francisco Presenta UNI 2.94 107 Smallville CW 2.93 108 One Tree Hill CW 2.88 109 Reba (7 p.m.) CW 2.62 Sabado Gigante UNI 2.62

111 All of Us CW 2.52 112 7th Heaven CW 2.45 113 “Camino P. Lo Nuestro” UNI 2.40 114 Hora Pico UNI 2.34 115 The Game CW 2.28

116 Veronica Mars CW 2.27 117 Girlfriends CW 2.24 118 Supernatural CW 1.72 119 Casos Familia UNI 1.70 120 Viuda de Blanco (Fri.) TEL 1.26

121 Beauty and the Geek (Sun.) CW 1.25 122 Zorro (Mon.) TEL 1.22 123 Viuda de Blanco (Wed.) TEL 1.14 124 Viuda de Blanco (Tue.) TEL 1.13 125 Viuda de Blanco (Thu.) TEL 1.10

126 Viuda de Blanco (Mon.) TEL 1.09 127 Marina (Fri.) TEL 1.06 128 Zorro (Wed.) TEL 1.05 129 Zorro (Fri.) TEL 1.04 130 Marina (Tue.) TEL 1.03

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Network averages

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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 FOX 14.95 9.68

ABC 13.03 10.14

CBS 11.19 13.05

NBC 7.95 9.62

UNI 4.27 3.60

CW 3.02 3.27

TEL 0.84 0.84

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