A big Fox in Peacock’s henhouse

Numbingly low Nielsen ratings for last week made it clear why NBC this week hired a new team to oversee its prime-time entertainment department.

The once-proud Peacock network averaged only 5.6 million viewers last week, less than half of prime-time leader Fox. Since 1991, NBC has had only two weeks with fewer viewers, and they were both during network TV’s summer slumber.

NBC Universal announced Tuesday that it was firing entertainment chief Kevin Reilly. The team of successful producer Ben Silverman and financial man Marc Graboff is assuming authority over all NBC programming.

The network that once boasted of its “must-see TV” saw most of its Thursday lineup last week -- “Scrubs,” “30 Rock,” “The Office” and “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip” -- attract fewer viewers than Univision’s telenovela, “Destilando Amor.” The one exception was “My Name Is Earl,” which had 90,000 more viewers than Univision’s Thursday hit.

NBC burned off an original episode of its much-touted and now dead Aaron Sorkin drama, “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip,” on Thursday to fewer than 4 million viewers.

Last week was dominated by the finales of “American Idol” (30.7 million viewers) and “Dancing With the Stars” (23 million) -- numbers the broadcast networks won’t likely see again until the fall winds blow.

For the week, Fox averaged 11.6 million viewers, CBS had 9 million, ABC 8.9 million and NBC 5.6 million.

ABC’s “World News” increased its winning streak in the evening-news ratings to five weeks, its longest since 1996. It averaged 7.8 million viewers, NBC’s “Nightly News” had 7.2 million and the “CBS Evening News” had 6 million.

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Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (May 21-27) 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 American Idol (Wed.) FOX 30.73 2 American Idol (Tue.) FOX 25.33 3 Dancing With the Stars Results (Tue.) ABC 22.96 4 Dancing With the Stars (Mon.) ABC 20.19 5 NCIS (Tue.) CBS 14.13

6 Lost ABC 13.86 7 CSI CBS 13.79 8 Heroes NBC 13.48 9 “Jesse Stone: Sea Change” CBS 13.01 10 The Bachelor: Officer and a Gentleman ABC 12.67

11 Two and a Half Men (9:30 p.m.) CBS 12.31 12 Two and a Half Men (9 p.m.) CBS 11.82 13 CSI: Miami CBS 11.51 14 Shark CBS 11.03 15 24 FOX 10.30

16 Law & Order: SVU (Tue.) NBC 10.28 17 CSI: NY CBS 10.25 18 Deal or No Deal (Mon.) NBC 9.87 19 Criminal Minds CBS 9.57 20 So You Think You Can Dance FOX 9.51

21 Without a Trace CBS 9.04 22 Law & Order: Criminal Intent (Mon.) NBC 8.85 23 Cold Case (9 p.m.) CBS 8.79 24 Two and a Half Men (8:30 p.m.) CBS 8.64 25 NCIS (Wed.) CBS 8.25

26 “The Bachelor: After the Final Rose” ABC 7.97 27 Two and a Half Men (8 p.m.) CBS 7.72 28 On the Lot (Tue.) FOX 7.60 29 Fox NASCAR Nextel Cup FOX 7.50 30 60 Minutes CBS 7.13

31 48 Hours Mystery (10 p.m.) CBS 7.10 32 Numb3rs CBS 7.04 33 Close to Home CBS 6.45 34 Cold Case (8 p.m.) CBS 6.40 35 Law & Order NBC 6.32

36 King of Queens CBS 6.24 37 Law & Order: Criminal Intent (Tue.) NBC 6.08 38 20/20 ABC 5.79 39 “Lost: The Answers” ABC 5.73 40 America’s Funniest Home Videos (Fri.) ABC 5.68

41 Ghost Whisperer CBS 5.51 National Bingo Night ABC 5.51 43 Dateline: NBC (Tue.) NBC 5.49 44 48 Hours Mystery (9 p.m.) CBS 5.46 45 Grey’s Anatomy (10 p.m.) ABC 5.45

46 Ugly Betty ABC 5.37 47 Cops (8:30 p.m.) FOX 5.34 48 My Name Is Earl NBC 5.29 49 1 vs. 100 NBC 5.28 50 Grey’s Anatomy (9 p.m.) ABC 5.26

51 On the Lot (Thu.) FOX 5.21 Destilando Amor (Thu.) UNI 5.21 53 Destilando Amor (Tue.) UNI 5.16 54 La Fea Mas Bella (Thu.) UNI 5.06 55 La Fea Mas Bella (Tue.) UNI 4.99

56 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition ABC 4.89 57 America’s Most Wanted FOX 4.86 58 Dateline: NBC (Wed.) NBC 4.85 La Fea Mas Bella (Mon.) UNI 4.85 60 La Fea Mas Bella (Wed.) UNI 4.78

61 Destilando Amor (Mon.) UNI 4.77 62 Destilando Amor (Wed.) UNI 4.75 63 “NBA Playoffs” (Sat., 8:30 p.m.) ABC 4.70 64 Dateline: NBC (Sun.) NBC 4.64 65 Nuestra Belleza (Tue.) UNI 4.56

66 Cops (8 p.m.) FOX 4.50 67 America’s Funniest Home Videos (Sun.) ABC 4.46 68 The Office NBC 4.37 69 30 Rock NBC 4.21 70 “Saturday Night Live in the ‘90s: Pop Culture Nation” NBC 4.12

71 Crimetime Saturday CBS 4.05 72 La Fea Mas Bella (Fri.) UNI 4.00 73 Cristina UNI 3.97 74 Destilando Amor UNI 3.96 75 Friday Night Smackdown CW 3.95

76 Studio 60 NBC 3.90 77 Scrubs NBC 3.87 78 Desperate Housewives ABC 3.45 79 Aqui y Ahora UNI 3.41 80 Duelo de Pasiones (Thu.) UNI 3.37

81 Law & Order: SVU (Sun.) NBC 3.32 82 “Lara Croft: Tomb Raider” FOX 3.21 83 Chicago NBC 3.19 84 Duelo de Pasiones (Mon.) UNI 3.08 85 Don Francisco Presenta UNI 3.06

86 Brothers & Sisters ABC 3.06 87 Duelo de Pasiones (Tue.) UNI 3.01 88 Duelo de Pasiones (Wed.) UNI 2.90 89 Nuestra Belleza UNI 2.87 90 Duelo de Pasiones (Fri.) UNI 2.46

91 Friday Night Lights NBC 2.23 “NBA Playoffs” (8 p.m.) ABC 2.23 Cine Especial (9 p.m.) UNI 2.23 94 Smallville (Thu.) CW 2.21 Sabado Gigante UNI 2.21

96 Veronica Mars CW 2.15 97 Everybody Hates Chris CW 2.06 98 Cine Especial (7 p.m.) UNI 1.89 99 All of Us CW 1.84 100 Veronica Mars CW 1.78

101 Supernatural (Thu.) CW 1.73 Girlfriends CW 1.73 103 La Hora Pico UNI 1.66 104 The Game CW 1.64 105 Smallville (Sun.) CW 1.53

106 Supernatural (Sun.) CW 1.52 107 One Tree Hill (8 p.m.) CW 1.38 108 One Tree Hill (9 p.m.) CW 1.28 109 Zorro (Mon.) TEL 1.27 110 Zorro (Tue.) TEL 1.23

111 Marina (Mon.) TEL 1.22 112 Dame Chocolate (Wed.) TEL 1.20 Zorro (Thu.) TEL 1.20 114 Marina (Tue.) TEL 1.19 115 Zorro (Wed.) TEL 1.17

116 Zorro (Fri.) TEL 1.15 Marina (Thu.) TEL 1.15 118 Esclava Isaura (Thu.) TEL 1.13 Dame Chocolate (Mon.) TEL 1.13 120 Esclava Isaura (Fri.) TEL 1.12

121 7th Heaven CW 1.11 122 Dame Chocolate (Tue.) TEL 1.08 123 Dame Chocolate (Thu.) TEL 1.06 Marina (Wed.) TEL 1.06 125 Esclava Isaura (Wed.) TEL 1.05

126 Dame Chocolate (Fri.) TEL 0.99 127 Marina (Fri.) TEL 0.97 128 Cinemundo del Sabado TEL 0.96 129 Esclava Isaura (Tue.) TEL 0.95 130 Esclava Isaura (Mon.) TEL 0.93

131 Cine en Familia TEL 0.74 132 Cine Nuestro TEL 0.73 133 Cine Millonario TEL 0.71

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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 11.56 10.12

CBS 9.00 12.11

ABC 8.86 9.63

NBC 5.55 8.58

UNI 3.66 3.62

CW 2.02 3.10

TEL 1.03 0.87

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