Holiday a good deal for NBC

In a week with little original programming, viewers flocked to first-run episodes of the NBC game shows “Deal or No Deal” and “1 vs. 100,” along with reruns of CBS crime dramas, according to figures from Nielsen Media Research.

A two-hour Christmas edition of “Deal or No Deal” was the most-watched prime-time program from Dec. 25 through Sunday, drawing 16.43 million viewers. It was also the most-watched show among viewers ages 18 to 49, the group coveted by advertisers.

The episode of “1 vs. 100” that followed was fifth for the week, with 11.81 million viewers, helping NBC average 15.1 million viewers for the night -- the most by any network on a Christmas since 2000, when ABC broadcast a “Monday Night Football” game.

With each of the week’s six most-watched scripted programs and seven of the 11 most-watched overall, CBS remained undefeated for the season in the weekly ratings race, averaging 8.48 million for its 15th consecutive victory on what is traditionally a little-watched week. NBC was second with 7.67 million, followed by Fox with 6.78 million.

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Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (Dec. 25-31) 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 Deal or No Deal (Mon.) NBC 16.43 2 CSI CBS 14.03 3 Sunday Night Football NBC 13.44 4 NCIS CBS 11.92 5 1 vs. 100 NBC 11.81

6 “NFL Sunday Postgame” FOX 11.12 7 CSI: NY CBS 10.68 8 Criminal Minds (Wed.) CBS 10.17 9 “Kennedy Center Honors” CBS 10.00 10 Criminal Minds (Thu.) CBS 9.86

11 Shark (Thu.) CBS 9.74 12 House (Tue.) FOX 9.25 13 Law & Order: SVU NBC 9.15 14 “NFL Postgame” CBS 8.91 15 Cold Case CBS 8.79

16 “Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the ABC 8.66 Black Pearl” 17 “NFL Pregame” NBC 8.57 18 Without a Trace (Sun.) CBS 8.52 19 “New Year’s Rockin’ Eve ‘07” ABC 8.29 20 Numb3rs CBS 8.21

21 60 Minutes CBS 8.18 22 Two and a Half Men (Wed.) CBS 8.10 23 Law & Order: Criminal Intent NBC 8.08 24 Grey’s Anatomy ABC 8.00 25 House (Tue., 9 p.m.) FOX 7.96

26 America’s Funniest Home Videos (Sun.) ABC 7.89 27 Close to Home CBS 7.87 28 Primetime ABC 7.73 29 King of Queens CBS 7.72 30 20/20 ABC 7.60

31 America’s Funniest Home Videos (Fri.) ABC 7.59 32 House (Tue., 8 p.m.) FOX 7.58 33 Dateline: NBC (Tue.) NBC 7.54 34 Extreme Makeover Home Edition ABC 7.32 35 Crimetime Saturday (9:30 p.m.) CBS 7.29

36 “Sweet Home Alabama” FOX 7.20 37 Ghost Whisperer CBS 7.14 38 Shark (Sun.) CBS 7.06 39 My Name Is Earl NBC 6.96 40 48 Hours Mystery CBS 6.80

41 Bones (8 p.m.) FOX 6.74 42 Ugly Betty (Thu.) ABC 6.57 43 CSI: Miami CBS 6.50 44 Men in Trees ABC 6.46 45 Cops (8:30 p.m.) FOX 6.42

46 Bones (9 p.m.) FOX 6.40 47 America’s Most Wanted FOX 6.32 48 La Fea Mas Bella (Wed.) UNI 5.93 49 La Fea Mas Bella (Thu.) UNI 5.92 50 Two and a Half Men (Mon.) CBS 5.90

51 Crimetime Saturday (8 p.m.) CBS 5.84 52 The Office NBC 5.67 53 The Simpsons FOX 5.62 54 Law & Order (Fri.) NBC 5.61 55 La Fea Mas Bella (Fri.) UNI 5.48

56 Law & Order (Sat.) NBC 5.46 57 Dateline: NBC (Fri.) NBC 5.39 58 George Lopez (9:30 p.m.) ABC 5.15 59 George Lopez (9:30 p.m.) ABC 5.07 60 La Fea Mas Bella (Tue.) UNI 4.99

61 “Rudolph’s Shiny New Year” ABC 4.95 62 Boston Legal ABC 4.92 63 Cops (8 p.m.) FOX 4.87 “The Rundown” FOX 4.87 65 Desperate Housewives ABC 4.79

66 George Lopez (8:30 p.m.) ABC 4.65 67 George Lopez (8 p.m.) ABC 4.58 68 How I Met Your Mother (9:30 p.m.) CBS 4.54 69 Mundo de Fieras (Wed.) UNI 4.48 Football Night in America, Part 3 NBC 4.48

71 E.R. NBC 4.45 72 Ugly Betty (Sat., 10 p.m.) ABC 4.30 73 Scrubs NBC 4.29 74 Mundo de Fieras (Thu.) UNI 4.27 75 Las Vegas NBC 4.25

76 American Dad (8:30 p.m.) FOX 3.98 77 Big Day (9 p.m.) ABC 3.97 Mundo de Fieras (Fri.) UNI 3.97 79 Dateline: NBC (Sat.) NBC 3.91 80 30 Rock NBC 3.83

Big Day (9:30 p.m.) ABC 3.83 82 “Radio” FOX 3.81 83 Friday Night Smackdown CW 3.77 84 Family Guy FOX 3.75 85 Ugly Betty (Sat. 9 p.m.) ABC 3.68

86 American Dad (9:30 p.m.) FOX 3.65 Heridas de Amor (Wed.) UNI 3.65 88 Mundo de Fieras (Tue.) UNI 3.61 89 Friday Night Lights (8 p.m.) NBC 3.59 90 Friday Night Lights (10 p.m.) NBC 3.54

How I Met Your Mother (8 p.m.) CBS 3.54 92 How I Met Your Mother 8:30 p.m.) CBS 3.46 93 Heridas de Amor (Fri.) UNI 3.38 94 Aqui y Ahora (Thu.) UNI 3.32 95 Friday Night Lights (9 p.m.) NBC 3.28

96 Don Francisco Presenta UNI 3.26 97 Heridas de Amor (Thu.) UNI 3.21 98 Ver Para Creer UNI 3.02 99 Football Night in America, Part 2 NBC 3.01 100 Ugly Betty (Sat., 8:30 p.m.) ABC 2.94

101 Sabado Gigante UNI 2.93 102 Heridas de Amor (Tue.) UNI 2.84 103 Casos Vida UNI 2.71 104 “Feliz 2007” UNI 2.66 105 Smallville (8 p.m.) CW 2.49

106 Smallville (9 p.m.) CW 2.37 107 “Premio Lo Nuestro” UNI 2.35 108 Top Chef NBC 2.26 109 Reba (7:30 p.m.) CW 2.20 110 Cristina UNI 2.13

111 Casos Familia UNI 2.03 112 “Latin Grammy 06” UNI 1.88 113 Gilmore Girls CW 1.81 114 Reba (7 p.m.) CW 1.79 115 7th Heaven CW 1.60

116 Girlfriends CW 1.57 117 All of Us CW 1.50 118 One Tree Hill (8 p.m.) CW 1.48 119 One Tree Hill (9 p.m.) CW 1.44 120 The Game CW 1.40

121 Everybody Hates Chris CW 1.38 122 Veronica Mars CW 1.29 123 Marina (Thu.) TEL 1.13 124 Amor Mio (Thu.) TEL 1.10 >125 “Keith Barry Extraordinary” CW 1.09

126 Viuda de Blanco (Thu.) TEL 1.09 127 Viuda de Blanco (Fri.) TEL 1.05 128 Marina (Fri.) TEL 0.99 129 Viuda de Blanco (Wed.) TEL 0.95 130 Viuda de Blanco (Tue.) TEL 0.94

131 Marina (Wed.) TEL 0.90 132 Amor Mio (Tue.) TEL 0.88 133 Amor Mio (Fri.) TEL 0.85 134 Amor Mio (Wed.) TEL 0.84 Marina (Tue.) TEL 0.84

136 Christmas Film (7 p.m.) TEL 0.83 Christmas Film V (9 p.m.) TEL 0.83

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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 8.48 12.32

NBC 7.67 9.92

FOX 6.78 7.86

ABC 6.45 10.52

UNI 3.41 3.39

CW 2.00 3.31

TEL 0.77 0.82

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