NBC barely makes the top 20 as CBS rules

CBS finished first in the prime-time ratings race for the fifth time in seven weeks, while ABC drew its most viewers since mid-November, outside of Oscars week, to finish a close second, according to figures released Tuesday.

CBS had just two of the top nine most-watched programs between April 30 and Sunday, but swept the 10th through 18th places to average 11.24 million viewers per hour, according to Nielsen Media Research.

ABC, which had four of the top nine programs, was second with 10.71 million, its most since the week of Nov. 13-19 and its highest finish since the week of Nov. 20-27, outside of Oscars week.

Fox, whose two “American Idol” broadcasts had their customary 1-2 finish, was third with 10.13 million. NBC, whose most-watched show was the 20th-ranked “Deal or No Deal,” was fourth with 7.5 million.

ABC was bolstered by Thursday’s two-hour “Grey’s Anatomy,” which introduced the characters for an expected Santa Monica-based spinoff starring Kate Walsh. The episode was third for the week with 21.23 million viewers, helping ABC to its most-watched Thursday night of entertainment programming since May 4, 2000, when it featured a celebrity edition of “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.”

ABC’s “World News With Charles Gibson” was the most-watched nightly network newscast for the ninth time in the last 13 weeks, averaging 8.11 million viewers. “NBC Nightly News” was second with 7.49 million. The “CBS Evening News with Katie Couric” averaged 6.05 million viewers.

For the fifth consecutive week, HBO’s “The Sopranos” was cable’s most-watched show of the week, with 7.16 million viewers for its first airing Sunday, which would have put it 55th among the programs on the major broadcast networks.

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Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (April 30-May 6) 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 American Idol (Wed.) FOX 28.75 2 American Idol (Tue.) FOX 26.73 3 Grey’s Anatomy (Thu.) ABC 21.23 4 House (Tue.) FOX 21.12 5 CSI CBS 19.02

6 Dancing With the Stars (Mon.) ABC 18.97 7 CSI: Miami CBS 17.24 8 Desperate Housewives ABC 17.16 9 Dancing With the Stars Results (Tue.) ABC 16.26 10 Without a Trace CBS 14.71

11 NCIS CBS 13.82 12 Survivor: Fiji CBS 13.74 13 Two and a Half Men CBS 13.71 14 Cold Case CBS 13.70 15 Criminal Minds CBS 13.28

16 King of Queens CBS 13.03 17 CSI: NY CBS 13.00 18 Shark CBS 12.50 19 Lost (10 p.m.) ABC 12.33 20 Deal or No Deal (Mon.) NBC 12.09

21 Heroes NBC 11.92 22 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition ABC 11.85 23 60 Minutes CBS 11.47 24 Law & Order: SVU (Tue.) NBC 11.41 25 24 FOX 10.93

26 Brothers & Sisters ABC 10.83 27 Ugly Betty ABC 10.68 28 Bones (Wed.) FOX 10.56 29 Amazing Race 11 CBS 10.31 30 Boston Legal ABC 9.88

31 The Bachelor: An Officer and a Gentleman ABC 9.80 32 The Unit CBS 9.70 33 Numb3rs CBS 9.51 34 Close to Home CBS 9.25 35 Ghost Whisperer CBS 9.24

36 Deal or No Deal (Sun.) NBC 9.03 37 Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? FOX 9.02 38 Law & Order (Fri.) NBC 8.88 39 The Simpsons (8:30 p.m.) FOX 8.08 40 Jericho CBS 8.03

41 20/20 ABC 7.96 42 Family Guy FOX 7.95 43 “Saturday Night Live in the ‘90s: Pop Culture Nation” NBC 7.88 44 ER NBC 7.78 45 The Simpsons (8 p.m.) FOX 7.77

46 CSI: NY (Tue.) CBS 7.73 47 Medium NBC 7.70 48 America’s Funniest Home Videos (Sun.) ABC 7.67 49 Dateline: NBC (Fri.) NBC 7.60 50 My Name Is Earl NBC 7.57

51 Law & Order: Criminal Intent NBC 7.36 52 House (Mon.) FOX 7.34 53 The New Adventures of Old Christine CBS 7.32 54 How I Met Your Mother CBS 7.24 55 48 Hours Mystery CBS 7.12

56 The Office NBC 6.99 57 Crimetime Saturday (9 p.m.) CBS 6.77 58 Dateline: NBC (Sun.) NBC 6.60 59 Crimetime Saturday (8 p.m.) CBS 6.46 60 “Meet the Fockers” ABC 6.43

61 According to Jim ABC 6.40 62 Law & Order (Sat.) NBC 6.32 63 American Dad FOX 6.31 64 Thank God You’re Here NBC 6.23 65 Notes From the Underbelly ABC 6.00

66 Crossing Jordan NBC 5.95 67 Real Wedding Crashers NBC 5.61 68 America’s Funniest Home Videos (Sat.) ABC 5.44 69 Dateline: NBC (Tue.) NBC 5.39 70 America’s Top Model (Wed.) CW 5.23

71 Scrubs NBC 4.94 72 Grey’s Anatomy (Fri.) ABC 4.89 73 Law & Order: SVU (Sat.) NBC 4.80 La Fea Mas Bella (Thu.) UNI 4.80 75 Destilando Amor (Thu.) UNI 4.69

76 “Fox Nextel Cup” FOX 4.68 77 La Fea Mas Bella (Mon.) UNI 4.67 78 Destilando Amor (Wed.) UNI 4.65 Destilando Amor (Mon.) UNI 4.65 80 George Lopez (8:30 p.m.) ABC 4.61

81 La Fea Mas Bella (Tue.) UNI 4.51 82 George Lopez (8 p.m.) ABC 4.45 83 Destilando Amor (Fri.) UNI 4.44 84 La Fea Mas Bella (Wed.) UNI 4.34 Destilando Amor (Tue.) UNI 4.34

86 King of the Hill (7:30 p.m.) FOX 4.19 87 La Fea Mas Bella (Fri.) UNI 4.16 88 Trading Spouses FOX 4.15 89 Gilmore Girls CW 4.08 90 Lost (9 p.m.) ABC 4.02

91 Friday Night Smackdown CW 3.99 Cops (9:30 p.m.) FOX 3.99 93 Cops (9 p.m.) FOX 3.85 94 Cristina UNI 3.64 95 Cops (8:30 p.m.) FOX 3.60

96 Smallville CW 3.59 97 Bones (Fri.) FOX 3.56 98 Nuestra Belleza (Tue.) UNI 3.38 99 “NBC Sports Special: Barbaro” NBC 3.29 100 Bailando Boda Suenos UNI 3.28

101 One Tree Hill CW 3.25 102 Supernatural CW 3.11 103 King of the Hill (7 p.m.) FOX 3.09 104 Aqui y Ahora UNI 3.06 105 Don Francisco Presenta UNI 3.02

106 Duelo de Pasiones (Tue.) UNI 2.95 107 Duelo de Pasiones (Wed.) UNI 2.92 108 7th Heaven (8 p.m.) CW 2.91 109 Duelo de Pasiones (Thu.) UNI 2.84 110 Nanny 911 FOX 2.83

111 Duelo de Pasiones (Mon.) UNI 2.79 112 Casos Vida UNI 2.76 113 Girlfriends CW 2.48 114 Everybody Hates Chris CW 2.42 115 The Game CW 2.41

116 Veronica Mars CW 2.35 117 Duelo de Pasiones (Fri.) UNI 2.31 118 All of Us CW 2.18 119 Hora Pico UNI 1.88 120 America’s Top Model (Sun.) CW 1.80

121 Sabado Gigante UNI 1.70 122 Dame Chocolate (Wed.) TEL 1.38 123 7th Heaven (7 p.m.) CW 1.22 124 Cine Millonario TEL 1.19 125 Casos Familia UNI 1.18

Dame Chocolate (Thu.) TEL 1.18 127 Dame Chocolate (Tue.) TEL 1.16 128 Zorro (Wed.) TEL 1.15 129 Marina (Wed.) TEL 1.14 Marina (Tue.) TEL 1.14

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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 11.24 12.28

ABC 10.71 9.62

FOX 10.13 10.08

NBC 7.50 8.78

UNI 3.56 3.61

CW 3.10 3.14

TEL 0.94 0.85

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