CBS on top in a week that sunk to the bottom

CBS likely had a record-low winning total of 6.27 million viewers last week in what has historically been the least watched week of the year because of the Independence Day holiday and little original prime-time programming, according to figures released Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research.

That was the lowest winning figure since at least September 1991, the earliest records that were readily available, and possibly since the early days of network television, when there were relatively few sets.

The other networks fared even worse. NBC was second, averaging 4.87 million viewers from July 2 through Sunday, followed by Fox, ABC and the CW.

In winning the prime-time rankings race for the sixth time in the six weeks of television’s summer season, CBS accounted for four of the week’s five most-watched shows, topped by a rerun of “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.”

NBC aired a rerun of “America’s Got Talent,” which had been the most-watched prime-time program for each of the last four weeks. It finished 14th with 6.75 million viewers.

The TNT police drama “The Closer” was the week’s most-watched program on cable television for the third consecutive week, with 7.19 million viewers, which would have put it 13th among the programs on the five major English-language broadcast networks.

TNT was also the week’s most-watched cable channel, averaging 3.12 million for its prime-time programming. It was boosted by strong showings for the Pepsi 400 auto race, which drew 6.16 million viewers, and for Sunday’s showing of the film “The Bourne Supremacy.”

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Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (July 2-8) 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 CSI (10 p.m.) CBS 9.42 2 Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? (Thu.) FOX 8.47 3 CSI: Miami CBS 8.38 4 60 Minutes CBS 8.19 5 Two and a Half Men CBS 8.17

6 Hell’s Kitchen (9 p.m.) FOX 8.12 7 Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? (8 p.m.) FOX 7.86 8 “Macy’s 4th of July Fireworks” NBC 7.57 NCIS CBS 7.57 10 Big Brother 8 (Thu.) CBS 7.40

11 Without a Trace CBS 7.37 12 Cold Case CBS 7.24 13 Law & Order: SVU (Tue.) NBC 6.86 14 America’s Got Talent NBC 6.75 15 48 Hours Mystery (Sat.) CBS 6.68

16 “Boston Pops Fireworks” CBS 6.65 17 Law & Order: SVU (Sun.) NBC 6.64 18 Dateline: NBC (Wed.) NBC 6.52 19 Family Guy (9:30 p.m.) FOX 6.28 20 20/20 ABC 6.07

21 48 Hours Mystery (Tue.) CBS 6.04 How I Met Your Mother CBS 6.04 23 Extreme Makeover (Mon.) ABC 6.03 24 Law & Order (Sun.) NBC 6.02 25 Numb3rs CBS 5.92

Family Guy (9 p.m.) FOX 5.92 27 Big Brother 8 (Sun.) CBS 5.85 28 Primetime: Family Secrets ABC 5.71 29 House FOX 5.62 30 Wife Swap ABC 5.55

31 The Unit CBS 5.53 32 Supernanny ABC 5.51 33 Dateline: NBC (Mon.) NBC 5.45 34 Old Christine (8:30 p.m.) CBS 5.41 35 Extreme Makeover (Sun.) ABC 5.25

36 The Simpsons FOX 5.21 37 Criminal Minds CBS 5.13 38 Dateline: NBC (Sun.) NBC 5.11 39 “Pirate Master” CBS 5.09 40 Ghost Whisperer CBS 5.08

41 America’s Funniest Home Videos (Sun.) ABC 5.07 42 Grey’s Anatomy ABC 5.03 43 48 Hours Mystery (Sun.) CBS 5.01 44 Old Christine (8 p.m.) CBS 4.92 45 “Shaq’s Big Challenge” ABC 4.81

46 American Dad FOX 4.80 47 Age of Love (9 p.m.) NBC 4.76 48 Law & Order: Criminal Intent (Fri.) NBC 4.73 49 America’s Most Wanted FOX 4.67 50 “Copa America 2007” (Wed.) UNI 4.59

51 CSI: NY CBS 4.57 Jericho CBS 4.57 53 Cops (8:30 p.m.) FOX 4.53 54 1 vs. 100 NBC 4.48 55 Most Outrageous Moments NBC 4.38

56 Destilando Amor (Tue.) UNI 4.35 57 My Name Is Earl NBC 4.29 58 The Office NBC 4.25 59 Cristina UNI 4.24 60 Friday Night Smackdown CW 4.20

61 Hell’s Kitchen (8 p.m.) FOX 4.04 62 Crimetime Saturday CBS 3.98 63 Ugly Betty ABC 3.95 64 Cops (8 p.m.) FOX 3.89 65 Next Best Thing ABC 3.80

66 Destilando Amor (Mon.) UNI 3.79 67 Destilando Amor (Thu.) UNI 3.78 68 According to Jim (8:30 p.m.) ABC 3.75 According to Jim (8 p.m.) ABC 3.75 70 Destilando Amor (Fri.) UNI 3.65

71 Men in Trees ABC 3.63 72 Las Vegas NBC 3.60 73 Age of Love (8 p.m.) NBC 3.59 74 America’s Funniest Home Videos (Sat.) ABC 3.54 75 Scrubs NBC 3.51

76 Bones FOX 3.47 77 Duelo de Pasiones (Thu.) UNI 3.41 78 Wonderful World of Disney ABC 3.35 79 Desperate Housewives ABC 3.31 80 Duelo de Pasiones (Tue.) UNI 3.29

Duelo de Pasiones (Fri.) UNI 3.29 82 Ver Para Creer UNI 3.26 83 George Lopez (8 p.m.) ABC 3.20 84 “Anger Management” FOX 3.19 85 30 Rock NBC 3.11

86 George Lopez (8:30 p.m.) ABC 3.10 87 “Copa America 2007” (6:30 p.m.) UNI 3.08 88 American Inventor ABC 3.04 89 Standoff FOX 2.96 90 E.R. NBC 2.94

91 Primer Impacto UNI 2.75 “Live Earth Concert” NBC 2.75 93 Brothers & Sisters ABC 2.74 94 Kyle XY ABC 2.63 95 Aqui y Ahora UNI 2.48

96 Traveler ABC 2.44 King of the Hill FOX 2.44 98 Casos Vida UNI 2.43 99 On the Lot FOX 2.14 100 Reba (7:30 p.m.) CW 2.07

101 War at Home FOX 2.04 102 Yo Amo Juan Querendon (Thu.) UNI 1.99 Smallville CW 1.99 104 Supernatural CW 1.92 105 Don Francisco Presenta UNI 1.89

106 Buscando Timbiriche UNI 1.88 107 Yo Amo Juan Querendon (Tue.) UNI 1.85 108 Yo Amo Juan Querendon (Mon.) UNI 1.83 109 Reba (7 p.m.) CW 1.80 110 Yo Amo Juan Querendon (Fri.) UNI 1.77

111 Sabado Gigante UNI 1.73 112 Copa America 2007 (Sat.) UNI 1.64 113 Everybody Hates Chris CW 1.52 114 Yo Amo Juan Querendon (Wed.) UNI 1.47 115 All of Us CW 1.42

116 Esclava Isaura (Fri.) TEL 1.36 117 Girlfriends CW 1.35 Zorro (Fri.) TEL 1.35 119 The Game CW 1.29 120 Zorro (Thu.) TEL 1.22

Zorro (Tue.) TEL 1.22 122 Cinemundo Especial TEL 1.20 Dame Chocolate (Fri.) TEL 1.20 124 Esclava Isaura (Thu.) TEL 1.18 125 America’s Top Model CW 1.10

Dame Chocolate (Tue.) TEL 1.10 127 Madre Luna (Mon.) TEL 1.09 128 7th Heaven CW 1.08 Esclava Isaura (Tue.) TEL 1.08 130 Zorro (Mon.) TEL 1.06

131 Supernatural CW 1.04 132 Madre Luna (Fri.) TEL 1.00 133 Gilmore Girls CW 0.99 134 Dame Chocolate (Thu.) TEL 0.98 Hidden Palms CW 0.98

136 Madre Luna (Tue.) TEL 0.97 137 Veronica Mars CW 0.96 138 Esclava Isaura (Mon.) TEL 0.94 139 12 Corazones TEL 0.93 140 Cine Millonario TEL 0.91

141 Dame Chocolate (Mon.) TEL 0.90 142 Madre Luna (Thu.) TEL 0.80 143 Cine en Familia TEL 0.64

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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 6.27 11.38

NBC 4.87 8.15

FOX 4.76 9.52

ABC 4.17 8.94

UNI 2.91 3.60

CW 1.78 2.93

TEL 0.97 0.89

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