‘Singing Bee’ helps NBC score with youthful set

Finally, beleaguered NBC has something to sing about.

Its premiere of “The Singing Bee” was last week’s most popular television show, with the biggest audience among young viewers of any new summer series in five years, according to Nielsen Media Research.

Former ‘N Sync member Joey Fatone earned strong reviews for his work as host of the game, which tests contestants’ memories of song lyrics. Fox’s version of the same show, “Don’t Forget the Lyrics!,” did well last week -- with episodes finishing at No. 11 and 12 -- but it didn’t come close to NBC.

Eager for any good news, NBC moved swiftly to announce the series would return in September.

Fox claimed the week’s ratings crown, however, due largely to the 12.5 million people who watched baseball’s All-Star Game. It was the second-smallest audience on record for the game, which was seen by 12.3 million in 2005.

The TNT police drama “The Closer” was the week’s most-watched program on cable television for the fourth consecutive week, with 7.41 million viewers, which would have put it 19th among the programs on the five major English-language broadcast networks.

With 16 of cable’s 25 most-watched programs, Disney Channel was the week’s most-watched cable channel in prime time, averaging 3.18 million viewers, thanks in large measure to its “Wish Gone Amiss” programming event of wish-related episodes of “Hannah Montana,” “The Suite Life of Zack & Cody” and “Cory in the House,” which premiered Friday and was rerun Saturday and Sunday.

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Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (July 9-15) 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 The Singing Bee (Tue.) NBC 13.31 2 “Major League All-Star Game” FOX 12.53 3 America’s Got Talent (Tue.) NBC 11.38 4 So You Think You Can Dance (Thu.) FOX 9.69 5 NCIS CBS 9.68

6 CSI CBS 9.39 7 CSI: NY CBS 8.71 8 “Major League All-Star Pre-Game” FOX 8.57 9 Two and a Half Men CBS 8.55 10 Law & Order: SVU (Tue.) NBC 8.49

11 Don’t Forget the Lyrics (Thu.) FOX 8.43 12 Don’t Forget the Lyrics (Thu.) FOX 8.28 13 Shark CBS 8.23 14 CSI: Miami CBS 8.08 15 60 Minutes CBS 7.98

16 So You Think You Can Dance (Wed.) FOX 7.74 17 America’s Got Talent (Wed.) NBC 7.56 18 Hell’s Kitchen FOX 7.51 19 Cold Case CBS 7.30 20 Criminal Minds CBS 7.21

21 Primetime: Family Secrets ABC 7.20 22 Dateline: NBC (Mon.) NBC 7.15 23 The Next Best Thing ABC 7.04 24 Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? FOX 6.96 25 Last Comic Standing 5 NBC 6.94

26 “Copa America 2007” UNI 6.91 27 How I Met Your Mother CBS 6.83 28 Big Brother 8 (Tue.) CBS 6.81 29 Without a Trace CBS 6.41 30 Big Brother 8 (Sun.) CBS 6.31

31 Law & Order: SVU (Sun.) NBC 6.22 32 The New Adventures of Old Christine (8:30 p.m.) CBS 6.20 33 The New Adventures of Old Christine (8 p.m.) CBS 6.02 34 Big Brother 8 (Thu.) CBS 6.00 35 Law & Order: Criminal Intent NBC 5.91

36 Dateline: NBC (Sun.) NBC 5.88 37 American Inventor ABC 5.71 38 Wife Swap ABC 5.65 39 20/20 ABC 5.60 40 Law & Order (Sun.) NBC 5.52

41 48 Hours Mystery CBS 5.49 42 America’s Most Wanted FOX 5.35 43 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition ABC 5.33 44 1 vs. 100 NBC 5.14 45 Numb3rs CBS 5.13

46 King of Queens (8:30 p.m.) CBS 5.10 47 Cops (8:30 p.m.) FOX 5.02 48 Most Outrageous Moments NBC 4.92 49 Extreme Makeover ABC 4.90 America’s Funniest Home Videos (Sun.) ABC 4.90

51 The Singing Bee (Wed.) NBC 4.75 52 Age of Love (9 p.m.) NBC 4.69 53 Cops (8 p.m.) FOX 4.67 54 Supernanny ABC 4.63 55 Pirate Master CBS 4.60

56 King of Queens (8 p.m.) CBS 4.59 57 Destilando Amor (Thu.) UNI 4.54 58 According to Jim (8:30 p.m.) ABC 4.43 59 Crimetime Saturday CBS 4.40 60 My Name Is Earl NBC 4.33

61 According to Jim (8 p.m.) ABC 4.30 62 Shaq’s Big Challenge ABC 4.22 63 Destilando Amor (Mon.) UNI 4.21 64 Destilando Amor (Fri.) UNI 4.01 65 America’s Got Talent (10 p.m. Sat.) NBC 3.99

66 Las Vegas NBC 3.93 67 Destilando Amor (Tue.) UNI 3.91 68 The Office (9 p.m.) NBC 3.90 69 “Lost World: Jurassic Park 2” FOX 3.85 70 Friday Night Smackdown CW 3.82

71 America’s Funniest Home Videos (Sat.) ABC 3.81 72 “Viva La Copa America” UNI 3.76 Age of Love (8 p.m.) NBC 3.76 74 Wonderful World of Disney ABC 3.75 75 The Office (10 p.m.) NBC 3.66

76 Duelo de Pasiones (Mon.) UNI 3.64 77 George Lopez (8 p.m.) ABC 3.63 78 George Lopez (8:30 p.m.) ABC 3.56 Ugly Betty ABC 3.56 80 Traveler ABC 3.55

81 Duelo de Pasiones (Thu.) UNI 3.49 82 Desperate Housewives ABC 3.48 83 Bones FOX 3.41 84 Primer Impacto UNI 3.39 85 Cristina UNI 3.37

86 Men in Trees ABC 3.32 87 Duelo de Pasiones (Fri.) UNI 3.31 88 Jericho CBS 3.24 89 Duelo de Pasiones (Tue.) UNI 3.21 90 Grey’s Anatomy ABC 3.20

91 30 Rock NBC 3.18 92 Aqui y Ahora UNI 3.10 America’s Got Talent (Sat., 8:30 p.m.) NBC 3.10 94 Standoff FOX 2.97 Return to Jericho CBS 2.97

96 Scrubs NBC 2.94 97 Yo Amo Juan Querendon (Wed.) UNI 2.91 98 The Unit CBS 2.91 99 Don Francisco Present UNI 2.77 100 Greek ABC 2.75

101 The Singing Bee (Sat.) NBC 2.56 102 On the Lot FOX 2.52 103 Brothers & Sisters ABC 2.40 104 Yo Amo Juan Querendon (Mon.) UNI 2.18 105 Yo Amo Juan Querendon (Thu.) UNI 2.10

106 Yo Amo Juan Querendon (Tue.) UNI 2.02

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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 6.69 9.45

CBS 6.34 11.27

NBC 5.76 8.09

ABC 4.40 8.84

UNI 3.32 3.59

CW 1.84 2.90

TEL 1.15 0.89

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