Dramas return, but viewers don't

L.A. Times Archives

May 2, 2007 12 AM PT

From the Associated Press

For three of television’s most popular new serial dramas, absence apparently made viewers’ hearts grow cold.

NBC’s “Heroes,” ABC’s “Lost” and CBS’ “Jericho” all returned from lengthy hiatuses recently to find a significant part of their audiences gone.

“Heroes” was seen by just under 12 million people in its return, according to Nielsen Media Research. Although that clearly established the freshman drama as NBC’s most popular show, it’s down from the season’s 14.7 million viewer average.

“Lost” had 11.9 million viewers last week, a sharp fall from the season average of 15.1 million, Nielsen said. “Jericho” was CBS’ most pleasant surprise this season, but the 7.6 million people who watched last week was down 2 million from its average.

To be fair, each of the shows now faces stiffer competition than earlier this year. But the results are likely to affect how networks schedule these dramas in the future. Since viewers don’t like the narratives broken up by repeats or by extended breaks, more will probably be scheduled like Fox’s “24.” That show doesn’t start its season until January and runs straight through to the end in May.

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Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (April 23-29) 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 Network Viewers

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*--* 1 American Idol (Wed.) FOX 26.93 2 American Idol (Tue.) FOX 26.55 3 House (Tue.) FOX 20.80 4 CSI CBS 20.20 5 Grey’s Anatomy (Thu.) ABC 20.08

6 Dancing With the Stars (Mon.) ABC 18.87 7 Desperate Housewives ABC 17.17 8 CSI: Miami CBS 17.02 9 Dancing With the Stars Results (Tue.) ABC 16.56 10 NCIS CBS 14.17

11 Shark CBS 14.10 12 Survivor: Fiji CBS 13.83 13 Without a Trace CBS 13.71 14 King of Queens CBS 12.63 15 Two and a Half Men CBS 12.27

16 Cold Case (Sun.) CBS 12.14 17 Heroes NBC 11.96 18 Lost (10 p.m.) ABC 11.86 19 CSI: NY CBS 11.40 20 Brothers & Sisters ABC 11.15

21 60 Minutes CBS 10.98 Deal or No Deal (Mon.) NBC 10.98 23 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition ABC 10.72 24 24 FOX 10.41 25 Numb3rs CBS 10.14

26 Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? FOX 10.13 27 The Unit CBS 9.83 28 Criminal Minds CBS 9.75 29 Ugly Betty ABC 9.62 30 Boston Legal ABC 9.54

31 ER NBC 9.52 32 Amazing Race 11 CBS 9.43 33 Ghost Whisperer CBS 9.20 34 Close to Home CBS 9.16 35 The Bachelor: Officer and a Gentleman ABC 9.13

36 October Road ABC 9.00 37 America’s Funniest Home Videos ABC 8.40 38 The Simpsons (8:30 p.m.) FOX 8.23 39 Family Guy FOX 8.13 40 Cold Case (Tue.) CBS 7.89

41 Dateline: NBC (Sun.) NBC 7.74 20/20 ABC 7.74 43 Law & Order: SVU (Tue.) NBC 7.64 44 The Simpsons (8 p.m.) FOX 7.57 45 Jericho CBS 7.56

The Office NBC 7.56 47 Law & Order (Fri.) NBC 7.52 48 My Name Is Earl NBC 7.49 49 Medium NBC 7.16 50 Law & Order (Sat.) NBC 7.13

51 The New Adventures of Old Christine CBS 6.88 52 Real Wedding Crashers NBC 6.74 53 American Dad FOX 6.71 54 48 Hours Mystery CBS 6.47 55 Crossing Jordan NBC 6.37

56 Crimetime Saturday (9 p.m.) CBS 6.33 57 How I Met Your Mother CBS 5.94 58 America’s Most Wanted FOX 5.91 59 Cops (8:30 p.m.) FOX 5.73 60 Crimetime Saturday (8 p.m.) CBS 5.70

61 Raines NBC 5.59 62 Wife Swap ABC 5.47 63 According to Jim ABC 5.28 64 Identity NBC 5.23 65 “Along Came Polly” NBC 5.02

66 Law & Order: SVU (Sat.) NBC 4.95 67 Dateline: NBC (Sun.) NBC 4.90 68 Grey’s Anatomy (Fri.) ABC 4.89 George Lopez (8:30 p.m.) ABC 4.89 70 Destilando Amor (Tue.) UNI 4.86

71 Notes From the Underbelly ABC 4.78 72 Trading Spouses FOX 4.76 73 House (Fri.) FOX 4.73 74 30 Rock NBC 4.72 75 Destilando Amor (Mon.) UNI 4.70

76 Scrubs NBC 4.65 77 La Fea Mas Bella (Tue.) UNI 4.64 78 La Fea Mas Bella (Mon.) UNI 4.62 79 Destilando Amor (Wed.) UNI 4.60 80 Drive FOX 4.59

La Fea Mas Bella (Wed.) UNI 4.59 82 Destilando Amor (Thu.) UNI 4.56 83 Law & Order: Criminal Intent NBC 4.53 Bones FOX 4.53 85 Dateline: NBC (Sat.) NBC 4.50

86 Thank God You’re Here NBC 4.46 87 George Lopez (8 p.m.) ABC 4.45 88 Cops (8 p.m.) FOX 4.41 89 La Fea Mas Bella (Thu.) UNI 4.34 90 Destilando Amor (Fri.) UNI 4.26

91 “Pearl Harbor” ABC 4.22 92 Friday Night Smackdown CW 4.21 93 King of the Hill (7:30 p.m.) FOX 4.14 94 Cristina UNI 3.90 95 Smallville CW 3.88

96 America’s Top Model 2 (Wed.) CW 3.87 97 Lost (9 p.m.) ABC 3.78 98 La Fea Mas Bella (Fri.) UNI 3.76 99 Gilmore Girls CW 3.75 100 Nuestra Belleza (Tue.) UNI 3.64

101 Don Francisco Presenta UNI 3.62 102 King of the Hill (7 p.m.) FOX 3.51 103 The Pussycat Dolls Present (Tue.) CW 3.43 104 Aqui y Ahora UNI 3.37 105 Supernatural CW 3.33

106 Bailando Boda Suenos UNI 3.14 107 Everybody Hates Chris CW 3.01 108 Duelo de Pasiones (Wed.) UNI 2.99 109 7th Heaven (8 p.m.) CW 2.96 110 Casos Vida UNI 2.88

Duelo de Pasiones (Mon.) UNI 2.88

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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 11.46 10.08

CBS 10.82 12.31

ABC 9.59 9.59

NBC 6.68 8.82

UNI 3.63 3.61

CW 3.10 3.14

TEL 0.92 0.85

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