Fox plays macho and wins week’s ratings war

Football, Dr. House and Agent Bauer helped the Fox network to a ratings win last week, according to Nielsen Media Research.

It was a largely routine week in prime time, with few specials and one series premiere, CBS’ reality show “Armed & Famous” (which, in two editions, notched lukewarm rankings of 45th and 51st).

Fox claimed the top two slots with big football games. Its Bowl Championship Series faceoff between Ohio State and the University of Florida drew 28.8 million viewers, followed by the week’s second-ranked broadcast, the divisional playoff game between the Philadelphia Eagles and the New Orleans Saints, seen by 27.4 million viewers.

Also in the top 10 were Fox’s medical drama “House” (ranked fifth) and the two-hour season premiere of “24,” with the exploits of agent Jack Bauer landing this thriller in ninth place.

For the week, Fox averaged 15.27 million viewers (9.1 household rating, 14 share). In second place, CBS averaged 12.84 million viewers (8.3 rating, 13 share). ABC had 8.74 million viewers (5.7 rating, 9 share) and NBC had 8.44 million viewers (5.5 rating, 9 share). The CW had 2.87 million viewers (1.9 rating, 3 share).

Among the Spanish-language networks, Univision averaged 3.89 million viewers (2.1 rating, 3 share), Telemundo had 840,000 (0.5 rating, 1 share), and TeleFutura had 620,000 (0.4 rating, 1 share).

NBC’s “Nightly News” won the evening-news ratings race, averaging 9.8 million viewers (6.7 ratings, 12 share).

ABC’s “World News” had 9.1 million viewers (6.3 ratings, 12 share), and the “CBS Evening News” had 7.4 million viewers (5.2 ratings, 9 share).

A ratings point represents 1,114,000 households, or 1% of the nation’s estimated 111.4 million TV homes.

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Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (Jan. 8-14) 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 “BCS National Championship” FOX 28.79 2 “NFL Playoff: Philadelphia-New Orleans” FOX 27.44 3 “NFL Playoff Postgame” (Sun). CBS 24.64 4 Grey’s Anatomy (Thu.) ABC 23.03 5 House (9 p.m.) FOX 17.78

6 60 Minutes CBS 17.47 7 Desperate Housewives (Sun.) ABC 16.76 8 CSI: Miami CBS 16.01 9 24 (Sun., 8 p.m.) FOX 15.79 10 Two and a Half Men CBS 14.78

11 Cold Case CBS 14.53 12 Law & Order: SVU (Tue.) NBC 14.40 13 Deal or No Deal (Mon.) NBC 14.06 14 Ugly Betty ABC 13.49 15 Without a Trace CBS 13.39

16 NCIS CBS 12.84 17 Brothers & Sisters ABC 12.32 18 ER NBC 12.18 19 Old Christine CBS 12.08 20 CSI CBS 12.03

21 Law & Order: Criminal Intent NBC 11.78 22 Numb3rs CBS 11.58 23 “People’s Choice Awards” CBS 11.33 24 My Name Is Earl NBC 10.85 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition ABC 10.85

26 Criminal Minds CBS 10.84 27 Ghost Whisperer CBS 10.44 28 Deal or No Deal (Wed.) NBC 10.42 29 Close to Home CBS 10.37 30 Shark CBS 10.20

31 The Office NBC 10.15 32 Men in Trees ABC 9.94 33 CSI: NY CBS 9.68 34 Dateline: NBC (Tue.) NBC 9.52 35 1 vs. 100 NBC 9.29

36 Deal or No Deal (Sun.) NBC 9.23 37 Law & Order NBC 9.02 House (8 p.m.) FOX 9.02 39 Boston Legal ABC 8.90 40 Las Vegas NBC 8.63

41 According to Jim (8:30 p.m.) ABC 8.62 42 How I Met Your Mother CBS 8.37 43 Grease: You’re the One That I Want NBC 8.28 44 Supernanny ABC 8.17 45 Armed & Famous (Wed.) CBS 8.07

46 Crimetime Saturday (8 p.m.) CBS 8.06 47 Wife Swap ABC 7.94 48 20/20 ABC 7.92 49 According to Jim (8 p.m.) ABC 7.81 50 Scrubs NBC 7.77

51 Armed & Famous (Thu.) CBS 7.69 52 America’s Funniest Home Videos (Sun.) ABC 7.67 53 The Class CBS 7.65 54 Crimetime Saturday (9 p.m.) CBS 7.60 55 America’s Funniest Home Videos (Tue.) ABC 7.58

56 Medium NBC 7.56 57 48 Hours Mystery CBS 7.42 58 Apprentice 6 NBC 7.28 59 Bones FOX 7.09 60 Crossing Jordan NBC 6.65

61 La Fea Mas Bella (Tue.) UNI 6.45 62 Friday Night Lights NBC 6.41 63 Primetime ABC 6.24 64 La Fea Mas Bella (Thu.) UNI 6.11 65 30 Rock NBC 6.10

66 “The Terminal” ABC 6.09 67 La Fea Mas Bella (Mon.) UNI 6.06 68 La Fea Mas Bella (Wed.) UNI 5.76 69 Heroes (9 p.m.) NBC 5.72 70 Dateline: NBC (Sat.) NBC 5.63

71 La Fea Mas Bella (Fri.) UNI 5.56 72 Grey’s Anatomy (Fri.) ABC 5.31 73 In Case of Emergency ABC 5.22 74 Knights of Prosperity ABC 5.20 75 Law & Order: SVU (Sat.) NBC 5.16

76 Trading Spouses FOX 5.14 77 The Simpsons (7:30 p.m.) FOX 5.05 78 What About Brian ABC 4.69 79 Smallville CW 4.68 ‘Til Death (Thu.) FOX 4.68

81 Nanny 911 FOX 4.62 82 Desperate Housewives (Fri.) ABC 4.50 83 Heroes (8 p.m.) NBC 4.45 84 War at Home FOX 4.36 85 Heridas de Amor (Fri.) UNI 4.27

86 Mundo de Fieras (Thu.) UNI 4.25 87 Big Day (9 p.m.) ABC 4.20 88 Mundo de Fieras (Tue.) UNI 4.17 89 Heridas de Amor (Thu.) UNI 4.04 90 Heridas de Amor (Wed.) UNI 4.03

91 Mundo de Fieras (Mon.) UNI 3.93 92 Big Day (9:30 p.m.) ABC 3.92 93 Beauty and the Geek CW 3.91 94 The Simpsons (7 p.m.) FOX 3.90 95 Mundo de Fieras (Fri.) UNI 3.88

96 The O.C. FOX 3.83 Heridas de Amor (Mon.) UNI 3.83 98 Friday Night Smackdown CW 3.82 99 Mundo de Fieras (Wed.) UNI 3.72 100 Heridas de Amor (Tue.) UNI 3.56

101 Reba (7:30 p.m.) CW 3.53 102 Psych NBC 3.36 103 Bailando Boda Suenos UNI 3.33 Cristina UNI 3.33 105 ‘Til Death (Wed.) FOX 3.32

106 Supernatural CW 3.23 107 7th Heaven CW 3.13 108 Don Francisco Presenta UNI 3.09 109 Aqui y Ahora (Thu.) UNI 3.08 110 Casos Vida UNI 2.89

111 Sabado Gigante UNI 2.57 112 Hora Pico UNI 2.51 113 Everybody Hates Chris CW 2.44 114 Reba (7 p.m.) CW 2.43 115 Gilmore Girls CW 2.40

Lo Que No Vio UNI 2.40 117 One Tree Hill CW 2.18 118 All of Us CW 2.11 119 Casos Familia UNI 1.98 120 Girlfriends CW 1.80

121 Beauty and the Geek-Encore CW 1.72 122 The Game CW 1.53 123 Veronica Mars CW 1.48 124 Amor Mio (Mon.) TEL 1.08 Viuda de Blanco (Thu.) TEL 1.08

126 Marina (Thu.) TEL 1.05 127 Viuda de Blanco (Tue.) TEL 1.00 128 Viuda de Blanco (Mon.) TEL 0.99 129 Marina (Mon.) TEL 0.98 Viuda de Blanco (Wed.) TEL 0.98

131 Amor Mio (Tue.) TEL 0.97

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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 FOX 15.27 8.51

CBS 12.84 12.31

ABC 8.74 10.28

NBC 8.44 9.94

UNI 3.89 3.44

CW 2.87 3.27

TEL 0.84 0.83

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