Network slippage continues
Another week, another set of negative ratings records for broadcast television.
NBC’s average prime-time audience of 4.8 million people last week was the smallest since at least 1991, the earliest Nielsen Media Research records that could immediately be traced. It’s likely you’d have to go back to the days of black-and-white sets to find a smaller number.
Meanwhile, the “CBS Evening News” reached only 5.5 million people last week, its smallest audience since at least 1987.
Poor ratings have been the story of the spring for TV networks, and it doesn’t look like anything will get better heading into the summer.
For instance, the “CBS Evening News” broke a record it had set only last week, when just fewer than 6 million viewers saw the broadcast.
NBC’s “Nightly News” ratings have been tumbling at the same time. ABC’s “World News” led last week with 7.9 million viewers. NBC had 7.4 million.
Meanwhile, Fox’s “On the Lot” and ABC’s “The Ex-Wives Club” and “National Bingo Night” have quickly fizzled.
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(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)
Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (May 28-June 3) 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 House FOX 17.23 2 CSI CBS 12.09 3 Two and a Half Men (Mon.) CBS 10.75 4 So You Think You Can Dance (Thu.) FOX 10.58 5 CSI: NY CBS 10.10
6 NCIS CBS 9.97 7 Boston Legal ABC 9.93 8 CSI: Miami CBS 9.40 9 So You Think You Can Dance (Wed.) FOX 9.33 10 Shark CBS 9.27
11 Cold Case CBS 9.03 12 Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? FOX 8.93 13 60 Minutes CBS 8.84 14 Criminal Minds CBS 8.80 15 Without a Trace (10 p.m.) CBS 8.79
16 King of Queens (Mon.) CBS 8.60 17 Law & Order: SVU NBC 8.47 18 The Next Best Thing ABC 7.75 19 Without a Trace (8 p.m.) CBS 7.74 20 Law & Order: Criminal Intent (Tue.) NBC 7.41
21 “Miss Universe Pageant” NBC 7.23 22 “Scripps National Spelling Bee” ABC 7.10 23 Pirate Master CBS 6.99 24 Most Outrageous Moments (9 p.m.) NBC 6.91 25 Numb3rs CBS 6.86
26 20/20 ABC 6.51 27 Law & Order (Tue.) NBC 6.48 28 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition ABC 6.40 29 Traveler (10 p.m.) ABC 6.28 30 Old Christine CBS 6.23
31 Wife Swap ABC 6.21 32 The Unit CBS 6.17 Close to Home CBS 6.17 34 America’s Funniest Home Videos (Sun.) ABC 6.02 35 “TV’s Funniest Moments” FOX 5.97
36 Law & Order (Fri.) NBC 5.87 37 “Ocean’s Twelve” CBS 5.56 38 Most Outrageous Moments (8 p.m.) NBC 5.54 39 Destilando Amor (Thu.) UNI 5.47 40 According to Jim (9:30 p.m.) ABC 5.38
41 The Ex-Wives Club ABC 5.31 America’s Funniest Home Videos (Fri.) ABC 5.31 43 Supernanny ABC 5.29 44 How I Met Your Mother CBS 5.27 45 America’s Most Wanted FOX 5.24
46 King of Queens (Wed., 8:30 p.m.) CBS 5.22 Ghost Whisperer CBS 5.22 48 According to Jim (9 p.m.) ABC 5.20 49 Dateline: NBC (Sun.) NBC 5.18 50 La Fea Mas Bella (Thu.) UNI 5.14
51 National Bingo Night ABC 5.06 52 King of Queens (Wed., 8 p.m.) CBS 5.05 53 George Lopez (8:30 p.m.) ABC 4.98 54 Traveler (9 p.m.) ABC 4.93 55 My Name Is Earl NBC 4.89
Destilando Amor (Tue.) UNI 4.89 57 La Fea Mas Bella (Wed.) UNI 4.88 58 Grey’s Anatomy ABC 4.84 59 La Fea Mas Bella (Tue.) UNI 4.83 60 Destilando Amor (Wed.) UNI 4.82
61 Cops (8:30 p.m.) FOX 4.69 Medium NBC 4.69 63 George Lopez (8 p.m.) ABC 4.68 64 “Flashpoint: Kimberly Dozier” CBS 4.61 65 1 vs. 100 NBC 4.57
66 “Bad Boys 2” FOX 4.56 67 Destilando Amor (Mon.) UNI 4.51 68 Cops (8:10 p.m.) FOX 4.47 Law & Order: Criminal Intent (Fri.) NBC 4.47 70 La Fea Mas Bella (Mon.) UNI 4.18
71 La Fea Mas Bella (Fri.) UNI 4.10 Studio 60 NBC 4.10 73 On the Lot (Tue.) FOX 4.06 74 “Real Wedding Crashers” NBC 3.94 75 Law & Order: SVU NBC 3.93
30 Rock NBC 3.93 77 The Office NBC 3.92 78 Desperate Housewives ABC 3.86 79 Scrubs NBC 3.82 80 Friday Night Smackdown CW 3.69
81 Duelo de Pasiones (Thu.) UNI 3.43 82 Ver Para Creer (Tue.) UNI 3.35 83 Aqui y Ahora UNI 3.27 84 Duelo de Pasiones (Wed.) UNI 3.18 85 Brothers & Sisters ABC 3.14
86 Duelo de Pasiones (Tue.) UNI 3.13 87 Destilando Amor (Fri.) UNI 3.07 88 Duelo de Pasiones (Fri.) UNI 2.97 89 Don Francisco Presenta UNI 2.96 90 On the Lot (Mon.) FOX 2.87
91 “Minority Report” ABC 2.79 92 Cristina UNI 2.78 93 War at Home FOX 2.52 94 Duelo de Pasiones (Mon.) UNI 2.49 Cine Especial UNI 2.49
96 Sabado Gigante UNI 2.26 97 Cine Especial UNI 2.21 98 Smallville CW 2.17 99 Friday Night Lights NBC 2.08 100 “Miss Universo 2007” TEL 2.06
One Tree Hill CW 2.06 102 Everybody Hates Chris CW 1.90 103 Supernatural (Thu.) CW 1.65 104 “NHL Stanley Cup Final, Game 3” NBC 1.63 The Game CW 1.63
106 Hidden Palms CW 1.60 107 All of Us CW 1.58 108 Gilmore Girls CW 1.50 109 Cops (8 p.m.) FOX 1.49 110 Girlfriends CW 1.47
111 Rumbo Al Mundial TEL 1.43 112 Camino a la Corona TEL 1.38 113 Dame Chocolate (Tue.) TEL 1.33 114 Hora Pico UNI 1.31 115 Veronica Mars CW 1.29
116 12 Corazones TEL 1.26 117 Marina (Tue.) TEL 1.25 118 Zorro (Wed.) TEL 1.19 7th Heaven CW 1.19 120 Supernatural (Sun.) CW 1.17
121 Zorro (Tue.) TEL 1.15 122 Zorro (Thu.) TEL 1.13 Esclava Isaura (Thu.) TEL 1.13 124 Zorro (Fri.) TEL 1.12 125 Esclava Isaura (Wed.) TEL 1.10
126 Hidden Palms CW 1.08 127 Dame Chocolate (Thu.) TEL 1.07 128 Marina (Wed.) TEL 1.06 Dame Chocolate (Wed.) TEL 1.06 130 Dame Chocolate (Fri.) TEL 1.04
131 Esclava Isaura (Tue.) TEL 1.02 132 Esclava Isaura (Fri.) TEL 1.01 133 Marina (Thu.) TEL 0.93 134 Marina (Fri.) TEL 0.87 135 Cinemundo del Sabado TEL 0.80
136 Cine Millonario TEL 0.67 137 “Rumbo Pregame” TEL 0.55 138 Nitido TEL 0.38
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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 7.60 11.99
FOX 6.66 10.03
ABC 5.43 9.52
NBC 4.84 8.48
UNI 3.54 3.62
CW 1.88 3.07
TEL 1.11 0.88
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