‘October’ leads premieres

The ABC drama “October Road” was the most-watched of last week’s three premieres, thanks to following “Grey’s Anatomy,” but NBC’s “Raines” was the only one to draw more viewers than its lead-in program, according to figures released Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research.

“October Road,” which stars Bryan Greenberg as a novelist who returns to his Massachusetts hometown after a 10-year absence, drew 13.93 million viewers to win its Thursday 10-to-11 p.m. time slot and finish ninth overall for the week.

“Raines,” which stars Jeff Goldblum as an eccentric L.A. detective who has murder victims speak to him in his imagination, attracted 10.46 million viewers, 75% more than the 5.96 million who watched the premiere of the NBC comedy “Andy Barker, P.I.” preceding it.

“Raines” finished second in its time period. “Andy Barker” was third.

Thanks to the customary one-two finish by “American Idol,” Fox Broadcasting was the most-watched network for the fourth consecutive week, averaging 11.35 million viewers for its prime-time programming.

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Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (March 12-18) 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.

*--* Program Net- work View- ers Program Net- work View- ers

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*--* 1 American Idol (Tue.) FOX 29.82 2 American Idol (Wed.) FOX 26.18 3 Grey’s Anatomy (Thu.) ABC 22.68 4 Deal or No Deal (Mon.) NBC 16.77 5 Cold Case CBS 15.09

6 60 Minutes CBS 14.40 7 CSI: Miami CBS 14.36 8 ‘Til Death FOX 14.06 9 October Road ABC 13.93 10 Without a Trace CBS 13.04

11 Two and a Half Men CBS 12.71 12 Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? FOX 12.56 13 Lost ABC 12.47 14 24 FOX 12.39 15 Deal or No Deal (Sun.) NBC 12.17

16 Amazing Race 11 CBS 12.00 17 NCIS CBS 11.51 18 Rules of Engagement CBS 11.47 19 Ugly Betty ABC 10.80 20 Criminal Minds CBS 10.79

21 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition ABC 10.71 22 NCAA Basketball Tournament (Sat., 8:30 p.m.) CBS 10.61 23 Raines (Thu.) NBC 10.46 24 Bones FOX 10.36 25 CSI: NY CBS 10.20

26 House (Mon.) FOX 9.69 27 CSI (Tue.) CBS 9.22 28 1 vs. 100 NBC 9.13 29 NCAA Basketball Tournament (Fri., 9:40 p.m.) CBS 9.08 30 Identity NBC 9.05

31 NCAA Basketball Tournament (Thu., 7 p.m.) CBS 8.88 32 America’s Funniest Home Videos (Sun.) ABC 8.56 NCAA Basketball Tournament (Thu., 9:40 p.m.) CBS 8.56 34 NCAA Basketball Tournament (Fri., 7p.m.) CBS 8.48 35 20/20 ABC 8.37

36 Old Christine (8:30 p.m.) CBS 8.34 37 Law & Order: SVU NBC 8.21 38 Dateline: NBC (Wed.) NBC 7.84 39 Jericho CBS 7.76 40 The Unit CBS 7.64

41 Old Christine (8 p.m.) CBS 7.59 42 Supernanny ABC 7.55 43 Crossing Jordan NBC 7.38 44 Raines (Fri.) NBC 7.24 45 Law & Order: Criminal Intent (Sat.) NBC 7.23

46 Apprentice 6 NBC 7.17 47 Desperate Housewives ABC 7.12 48 Family Guy (Sun.) FOX 7.03 49 The Simpsons FOX 6.89 50 Law & Order: Criminal Intent (Tue.) NBC 6.81

51 Grease: You’re the One That I Want NBC 6.67 52 House (Fri.) FOX 6.64 53 America’s Most Wanted FOX 6.61 54 Wife Swap (Mon.) ABC 6.54 55 Black Donnellys NBC 6.53

56 The Office NBC 6.51 57 Cops (8:30 p.m.) FOX 6.50 58 Dateline: NBC (Sun.) NBC 6.46 59 Law & Order NBC 6.45 60 Scrubs NBC 6.44

61 George Lopez ABC 6.19 62 Medium NBC 6.06 63 Andy Barker, P.I. NBC 5.96 64 Grey’s Anatomy (Fri.) ABC 5.81 65 According to Jim (8:30 p.m.) ABC 5.79

66 Wedding Bells FOX 5.75 67 Boston Legal ABC 5.72 68 According to Jim (9 p.m.) ABC 5.69 69 Primetime: The Outsiders ABC 5.67 Family Guy (Thu., 9 p.m.) FOX 5.67

71 Dateline: NBC (Tue.) NBC 5.62 72 The Winner (8:30 p.m.) FOX 5.55 73 Wife Swap (Fri.) ABC 5.53 74 Dateline: NBC (Sat.) NBC 5.34 75 Brothers & Sisters ABC 5.21

76 “Legally Blonde 2” ABC 5.18 America’s Funniest Home Videos (Tue.) ABC 5.18 78 America’s Top Model 2 (Wed.) CW 5.16 79 The Winner (9:30 p.m.) FOX 5.14 80 La Fea Mas Bella (Mon.) UNI 4.95

81 Family Guy (Thu., 9:30 p.m.) FOX 4.94 82 Friday Night Smackdown CW 4.74 83 La Fea Mas Bella (Thu.) UNI 4.73 84 What About Brian ABC 4.69 Smallville CW 4.69

86 Cops FOX 4.67 La Fea Mas Bella (Tue.) UNI 4.67 88 In Case of Emergency ABC 4.66 89 La Fea Mas Bella (Wed.) UNI 4.60 90 “Celebrity A-List Bloopers” ABC 4.57

91 La Fea Mas Bella (Fri.) UNI 4.37 92 Futbol Liga Mexicana UNI 4.29 93 Mundo de Fieras (Tue.) UNI 4.12 94 Mundo de Fieras (Mon.) UNI 3.99 95 Mundo de Fieras (Thu.) UNI 3.98

96 Mundo de Fieras (Wed.) UNI 3.95 97 Mundo de Fieras (Fri.) UNI 3.63 98 Supernatural CW 3.52 99 War at Home (7:30 p.m.) FOX 3.42 100 Cristina UNI 3.39

101 Pussycat Dolls Presents: The Search for the Next CW 3.36 Doll (Wed.) 102 Don Francisco Presenta UNI 3.22 103 Bailando Boda Suenos UNI 3.20 104 Duelo de Pasiones (Wed.) UNI 3.19 105 Ver Para Creer UNI 3.06

106 Duelo de Pasiones (Tue.) UNI 3.01 107 Duelo de Pasiones (Thu.) UNI 2.93 108 Duelo de Pasiones (Mon.) UNI 2.90 Aqui y Ahora (Thu.) UNI 2.90 110 Duelo de Pasiones (Fri.) UNI 2.82

111 War at Home (7 p.m.) FOX 2.64 112 Pussycat Dolls Presents: The Search for the Next CW 2.52 Doll (Tue.) 113 Sabado Gigante UNI 2.49 114 Casos Vida UNI 2.32 115 Everybody Hates Chris CW 2.30

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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 11.35 10.15

CBS 10.73 12.87

NBC 8.27 9.48

ABC 7.86 9.87

UNI 3.61 3.61

CW 3.10 3.27

TEL 0.93 0.85

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