Summer ‘Talent’ boosts NBC

NBC had the No. 1 show just once during television’s official season -- an NFL playoff game -- but has done better at reaching the top during the summer season, with “America’s Got Talent” drawing 11.82 million viewers to become the most-watched show for the second consecutive week, according to figures released Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research.

Thanks to reruns of four dramas and the comedy “Two and a Half Men” making the top 10, CBS was the most-watched network for the third time in the three weeks of the summer season, averaging 7.33 million viewers for its prime-time programming between June 11 and Sunday.

CBS also was bolstered by its coverage of Friday’s Daytime Emmy Awards from the Kodak Theatre, which ended a seven-year streak of record lows with 8.33 million viewers, 37% more than last year’s 6.09 million, when the show aired April 28, 2006, on ABC against more first-run competition.

ABC’s coverage of the NBA Finals was the least-watched and lowest-rated among available records.

The San Antonio Spurs’ four-game sweep of the Cleveland Cavaliers averaged 9.3 million viewers and had a 6.2 rating, the percentage of television households tuned to the games.

Despite reduced coverage because of the NBA Finals, ABC’s “World News With Charles Gibson” was the most-watched nightly network newscast for the eighth consecutive week, averaging 7.46 million viewers, 4% more than the same week last year.

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Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (June 11-17) 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 America’s Got Talent (Tue.) NBC 11.82 2 So You Think You Can Dance (Thu.) FOX 10.63 3 Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? FOX 9.97 4 NBA Finals: Game Four (Thu.) ABC 9.91 5 NCIS CBS 9.79

6 CSI CBS 9.63 7 NBA Finals: Game Three (Tue.) ABC 9.49 8 Two and a Half Men CBS 9.38 9 CSI: Miami CBS 9.28 10 Cold Case (9 p.m.) CBS 9.03

11 So You Think You Can Dance (Wed.) FOX 8.94 12 Hell’s Kitchen (9 p.m.) FOX 8.85 13 Law & Order: SVU NBC 8.80 14 Without a Trace CBS 8.59 15 Shark CBS 8.46

16 “The Price Is Right” CBS 8.42 17 “Daytime Emmy Awards” CBS 8.33 18 CSI: NY CBS 8.01 19 Deal or No Deal (Wed.) NBC 7.98 20 Dateline: NBC (Mon.) NBC 7.41

21 How I Met Your Mother CBS 7.37 22 60 Minutes CBS 7.35 23 48 Hours Mystery (Tue.) CBS 7.31 24 Law & Order NBC 7.17 25 Cold Case (8 p.m.) CBS 7.08

26 Last Comic Standing 5 (Wed.) NBC 6.94 27 The Unit CBS 6.84 28 Criminal Minds CBS 6.69 29 America’s Got Talent (Mon.) NBC 6.45 30 House FOX 6.41

31 Dateline: NBC (Sun.) NBC 6.31 32 American Inventor ABC 6.29 33 The Next Best Thing ABC 6.19 34 48 Hours Mystery (Sat.) CBS 6.05 35 Pirate Master CBS 5.39

36 Law & Order: Criminal Intent (Fri.) NBC 5.33 37 Wonderful World of Disney ABC 5.18 38 20/20 ABC 5.12 39 La Fea Mas Bella (Wed.) UNI 5.08 40 Wife Swap ABC 5.04

41 My Name Is Earl NBC 4.93 42 Hell’s Kitchen (8 p.m.) FOX 4.89 43 Supernanny ABC 4.85 44 Last Comic Standing (Sun.) NBC 4.81 45 La Fea Mas Bella (Mon.) UNI 4.80

46 “Copa Oro 2007” UNI 4.77 47 Destilando Amor (Mon.) UNI 4.75 48 Yo Amo Juan Querendon (Mon.) UNI 4.72 49 Old Christine CBS 4.71 50 Destilando Amor (Thu.) UNI 4.70

51 La Fea Mas Bella (Thu.) UNI 4.68 52 La Fea Mas Bella (Fri.) UNI 4.64 53 Destilando Amor (Tue.) UNI 4.62 54 Creature Comforts CBS 4.53 La Fea Mas Bella (Tue.) UNI 4.53

56 The Office NBC 4.49 57 1 vs. 100 NBC 4.44 58 The Simpsons FOX 4.28 59 Cops (8:30 p.m.) FOX 4.25 60 Crimetime Saturday (8 p.m. CBS 4.22

Studio 60 NBC 4.22 62 The Ex-Wives Club ABC 4.11 63 30 Rock NBC 4.09 64 Traveler ABC 4.07 Yo Amo Juan Querendon (Tue.) UNI 4.07

66 America’s Most Wanted FOX 4.05 67 Destilando Amor (Fri.) UNI 4.03 68 Bones FOX 4.02 69 “Onstar NBA Countdown” (Thu.) ABC 4.01 70 Yo Amo Juan Querendon (Thu.) UNI 3.89

71 Family Guy FOX 3.88 72 Scrubs NBC 3.86 73 “Onstar NBA Countdown” (Tue.) ABC 3.77 74 Yo Amo Juan Querendon (Fri.) UNI 3.74 75 Friday Night Smackdown CW 3.73

76 America’s Got Talent (Sat.) NBC 3.66 77 Cops (8 p.m.) FOX 3.63 Destilando Amor (Wed.) UNI 3.63 79 “Fast Cars & Superstars” (Thu.) ABC 3.60 80 Duelo de Pasiones (Thu.) UNI 3.54

Yo Amo Juan Querendon (Wed.) UNI 3.54 82 National Bingo Night ABC 3.51 83 Standoff FOX 3.50 84 Creature Comforts (8 p.m.) CBS 3.48 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition ABC 3.48

86 Duelo de Pasiones (Fri.) UNI 3.28 87 Kyle XY ABC 3.16 88 Cristina UNI 3.13 89 “Fast Cars & Superstars” (Tue.) ABC 3.12 90 Duelo de Pasiones (Mon.) UNI 3.11

91 Creature Comforts (8:30 p.m.) CBS 3.10 Ver Para Creer UNI 3.10 93 America’s Funniest Home Videos ABC 3.07 94 Duelo de Pasiones (Tue.) UNI 3.06 95 Duelo de Pasiones (Wed.) UNI 3.01

96 Aqui y Ahora UNI 2.90 97 Casos Vida UNI 2.79 98 On the Lot FOX 2.77 99 Desperate Housewives ABC 2.68 Brothers & Sisters ABC 2.68

101 The Loop (8:30 p.m.) FOX 2.65 102 Medium NBC 2.63 103 King of the Hill FOX 2.51 The Loop (9:30 p.m.) FOX 2.51 105 “Pedro Infante Vive” UNI 2.33

One Tree Hill CW 2.33 107 Sabado Gigante UNI 2.31 108 “Fast Cars & Superstars” (Sun.) ABC 2.14 109 War at Home FOX 2.11 110 Reba (7:30 p.m.) CW 1.84

111 Smallville CW 1.81 112 Hora Pico UNI 1.66 113 Everybody Hates Chris CW 1.64 114 Supernatural CW 1.63 115 Hora Pico UNI 1.62

116 Gilmore Girls CW 1.54 117 The Game CW 1.53 118 All of Us CW 1.48 119 Girlfriends CW 1.45 120 Hidden Palms CW 1.37

121 Reba (7 p.m.) CW 1.35 122 Zorro (Thu.) TEL 1.22 123 Marina (Thu.) TEL 1.21 124 Veronica Mars CW 1.18 125 Esclava Isaura (Thu.) TEL 1.16

126 Zorro (Wed.) TEL 1.14 127 Esclava Isaura (Fri.) TEL 1.11 Zorro (Mon.) TEL 1.11 129 Zorro (Fri.) TEL 1.09 130 Esclava Isaura (Wed.) TEL 1.07

131 Marina (Mon.) TEL 1.05 132 7th Heaven CW 1.04 Dame Chocolate (Thu.) TEL 1.04 134 Zorro (Tue.) TEL 1.02 135 Supernatural CW 1.01

136 Marina (Fri.) TEL 0.96 Esclava Isaura (Tue.) TEL 0.96 138 Dame Chocolate (Tue.) TEL 0.94 139 Dame Chocolate (Wed.) TEL 0.92 Dame Chocolate (Mon.) TEL 0.92

141 Marina (Tue.) TEL 0.91 142 Marina (Wed.) TEL 0.88 Dame Chocolate (Fri.) TEL 0.88 144 Esclava Isaura (Mon.) TEL 0.86 Cine Millonario TEL 0.86

146 Cine Nuestro TEL 0.66 147 Cine En Familia TEL 0.51 148 “Wisin y Yandel Concert” TEL 0.44

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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 7.33 11.74

NBC 6.46 8.34

FOX 5.73 9.83

ABC 5.08 9.31

UNI 3.45 3.62

CW 1.85 3.01

TEL 0.92 0.88

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