NBC sweeps top 4 spots; ABC hits low

A talent show, a royal interview, a game show and a drama rerun enabled NBC to sweep the top four places on the weekly television ratings list, while ABC sunk to a record low in viewership, according to figures released Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research.

For the third consecutive week, “America’s Got Talent” was the most-watched prime-time program between June 18 and Sunday, drawing 12.51 million viewers, the third-largest audience in its two seasons.

Matt Lauer’s “Dateline NBC” interview with Prince William and Prince Harry was second with 12.21 million, “Dateline’s” largest audience since the Jan. 4, 2005, telecast featuring an interview with Amber Frey, former girlfriend of convicted killer Scott Peterson.

The game show “Deal or No Deal” was third, with 12.06 million, followed by a rerun of “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit,” with 9.46 million.

The premiere of the NBC dating series “Age of Love” drew 6.93 million viewers, retaining 57% of the 12.06 million watching the “Deal or No Deal” episode that preceded it, to finish 18th for the week and third in its 9-to-10 p.m. time period on June 18.

A combination of several factors led ABC to average 4.04 million viewers for its prime-time programming, its least amount of viewers for a week since Nielsen began using its People Meter system in September 1987.

The San Antonio Spurs’ four-game sweep of the Cleveland Cavaliers in the NBA Finals cost ABC two nights of highly watched programming had the series gone to the seven-game limit. “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Desperate Housewives” continue the trend -- dating back to the 1980s heyday of CBS’ “Dallas” -- of serialized hits whose summer reruns fare poorly in the ratings. Two “Grey’s” reruns, which aired in place on what would have been Game 7 of the NBA Finals, were 62nd and 82nd for the week, with 4.07 million and 3.53 million, while “Desperate Housewives” was 91st for the week, with 3.18 million.

ABC, which didn’t have a program among the week’s top 25, was also hurt by the absence of a breakout summer unscripted series.

For the fourth time in the four weeks of television’s summer season, CBS was the most-watched network, averaging 7.06 million viewers.

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(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (June 18-24) 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 12.51 2 Dateline: NBC (Mon.) NBC 12.21 3 Deal or No Deal (Mon.) NBC 12.06 4 Law & Order: SVU (Tue.) NBC 9.45 5 NCIS CBS 9.35

6 CSI CBS 9.30 7 Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? FOX 9.24 8 Two and a Half Men CBS 9.24 9 So You Think You Can Dance (Wed.) FOX 9.17 10 CSI: Miami CBS 9.09

11 So You Think You Can Dance (Thu.) FOX 8.97 12 60 Minutes CBS 8.52 13 Shark CBS 8.23 14 “AFI 100 Years, 100 Movies” CBS 7.71 15 Cold Case CBS 7.64

16 Hell’s Kitchen FOX 7.57 17 How I Met Your Mother CBS 7.41 18 Age of Love NBC 6.93 19 “Jesse Stone: Death in Paradise” CBS 6.88 20 48 Hours Mystery (Tue.) CBS 6.86

21 Without a Trace CBS 6.63 22 Dateline: NBC (Wed.) NBC 6.60 23 House FOX 6.58 24 Without a Trace (Sun.) CBS 6.51 25 Numb3rs CBS 6.22

26 The Next Best Thing ABC 6.21 27 American Inventor ABC 6.12 28 Last Comic Standing 5 (9 p.m.) NBC 5.98 29 48 Hours Mystery (Sat.) CBS 5.89 30 Pirate Master CBS 5.88

31 Law & Order: SVU (Sun.) NBC 5.77 32 20/20 ABC 5.76 33 The Unit CBS 5.73 34 Close to Home CBS 5.70 35 Wife Swap ABC 5.54

36 La Fea Mas Bella (Mon.) UNI 5.07 37 1 vs. 100 NBC 4.88 38 Destilando Amor (Thu.) UNI 4.85 39 La Fea Mas Bella (Fri.) UNI 4.83 40 America’s Most Wanted FOX 4.82

41 Law & Order: Criminal Intent NBC 4.80 42 Destilando Amor (Wed.) UNI 4.76 43 La Fea Mas Bella (Wed.) UNI 4.75 44 Law & Order (Sun.) NBC 4.74 45 La Fea Mas Bella (Tue.) UNI 4.70

46 Destilando Amor (Mon.) UNI 4.62 47 Family Guy FOX 4.59 48 Dateline: NBC (Sun.) NBC 4.52 49 Dateline: NBC (Sat.) NBC 4.50 Destilando Amor (Tue.) UNI 4.50

La Fea Mas Bella (Thu.) UNI 4.50 52 Traveler ABC 4.47 53 Studio 60 on Sunset Strip NBC 4.45 54 The Office (8:45 p.m.) NBC 4.33 55 Old Christine CBS 4.32

56 Ghost Whisperer CBS 4.27 57 The Office (9:30 p.m.) NBC 4.22 58 Creature Comforts CBS 4.20 59 Boston Legal ABC 4.18 60 Wonderful World of Disney ABC 4.14

61 The Office (8 p.m.) NBC 4.09 62 Grey’s Anatomy (10 p.m.) ABC 4.07 63 Cops (8:40 p.m.) FOX 4.06 64 Yo Amo Juan Querendon (Tue.) UNI 4.05 Destilando Amor (Fri.) UNI 4.05

66 Ugly Betty ABC 4.04 67 Supernanny ABC 4.03 68 Yo Amo Juan Querendon (Mon.) UNI 3.94 69 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition ABC 3.92 70 Friday Night Smackdown CW 3.85

71 The Ex-Wives Club ABC 3.83 72 Yo Amo Juan Querendon (Wed.) UNI 3.80 73 Last Comic Stand 5 (8 p.m.) NBC 3.78 74 The Simpsons (Mon.) FOX 3.76 75 According to Jim (9:30 p.m.) ABC 3.75

76 The Simpsons (Sun.) FOX 3.69 77 America’s Got Talent (Sat.) NBC 3.67 78 Duelo de Pasiones (Mon.) UNI 3.63 79 Yo Amo Juan Querendon (Fri.) UNI 3.59 80 Primer Impacto UNI 3.55

81 Grey’s Anatomy (9 p.m.) ABC 3.52 82 Don Francisco Presenta UNI 3.45 According to Jim (9 p.m.) ABC 3.45 84 National Bingo Night ABC 3.44 85 Bones FOX 3.41

86 Cristina UNI 3.39 Duelo de Pasiones (Wed.) UNI 3.39 88 Standoff FOX 3.36 89 Yo Amo Juan Querendon (Thu.) UNI 3.18 Desperate Housewives ABC 3.18

Las Vegas NBC 3.18 92 Duelo de Pasiones (Tue.) UNI 3.17 93 Duelo de Pasiones (Fri.) UNI 3.15 94 Ver Para Creer UNI 3.10 95 American Dad FOX 3.07

96 The Loop (9:30 p.m.) FOX 3.06 97 Aqui y Ahora UNI 3.04 98 “Fast Cars & Superstars 6” ABC 3.03 99 Duelo de Pasiones (Thu.) UNI 2.88 100 Kyle XY ABC 2.84

101 George Lopez ABC 2.71 102 The Loop (8:30 p.m.) FOX 2.66 Brothers & Sisters ABC 2.66 104 Cops (8:30 p.m.) FOX 2.62 105 King of the Hill FOX 2.57

106 Cine Especial Sun (9 p.m.) UNI 2.51 107 On the Lot FOX 2.48 108 Cops (8 p.m.) FOX 2.34 109 “Fast Cars & Superstars 7” ABC 2.16 110 Sabado Gigante UNI 2.04

111 Supernatural CW 2.02 112 Reba (7:30 p.m.) CW 1.95 113 Smallville CW 1.91 114 Cine Especial Sun (7 p.m.) UNI 1.90 115 Everybody Hates Chris CW 1.80

116 Girlfriends CW 1.69 117 All of Us CW 1.66 118 Hidden Palms (9 p.m.) CW 1.54 119 The Loop (7:30 p.m.) FOX 1.52 120 The Game CW 1.49

121 Gilmore Girls CW 1.46 122 Hora Pico UNI 1.43 123 Reba (7 p.m.) CW 1.40 124 Hidden Palms (8 p.m.) CW 1.28 125 Veronica Mars CW 1.19

126 Zorro (Mon.) TEL 1.17 127 7th Heaven CW 1.13 128 Esclava Isaura (Mon.) TEL 1.12 129 Zorro (Tue.) TEL 1.11 130 Marina (Mon.) TEL 1.09

131 Esclava Isaura (Tue.) TEL 1.08 Supernatural CW 1.08 133 Esclava Isaura (Fri.) TEL 1.05 134 Dame Chocolate (Mon.) TEL 1.04 135 Zorro (Thu.) TEL 1.03

136 Marina (Tue.) TEL 1.01 Marina (Wed.) TEL 1.01 Esclava Isaura (Thu.) TEL 1.01 139 Zorro (Wed.) TEL 0.96 140 Zorro (Fri.) TEL 0.95

141 Dame Chocolate (Tue.) TEL 0.95 142 Marina (Fri.) TEL 0.93 143 Esclava Isaura (Wed.) TEL 0.89 “Cine Nuestro: Aguilar” TEL 0.89 145 Marina (Thu.) TEL 0.88

146 Dame Chocolate (Wed.) TEL 0.86 147 Cine Millonario TEL 0.84 148 Dame Chocolate (Fri.) TEL 0.81 149 Dame Chocolate (Thu.) TEL 0.80 150 Cinemundo del Sabado TEL 0.76

151 Cine en Familia TEL 0.58

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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 7.06 11.63

NBC 6.33 8.29

FOX 5.55 9.73

ABC 4.04 9.17

UNI 3.44 3.62

CW 1.87 2.98

TEL 0.94 0.88

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