ABC dances to first win in 12 years

Thanks to an additional 90 minutes of “Dancing With the Stars,” “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Desperate Housewives,” ABC was the most-watched network during television’s premiere week for the first time since 1995, according to figures released Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research.

ABC had four of the five most-watched prime-time programs between Sept. 24 and Sunday, and averaged 11.9 million viewers for its prime-time lineup, edging CBS’ 11.82 million.

The three “Dancing With the Stars” episodes ranked second, fifth and eighth for the week.

The Wednesday “Dancing With the Stars” results show gave a boost to the premiere of “Private Practice,” which followed it. The “Grey’s Anatomy” spinoff drew 14.41 million viewers, making it the week’s most-watched new series, edging NBC’s “Bionic Woman,” which drew 13.91 million viewers opposite it to finish second among the new series. However, “Bionic Woman” was the week’s most-watched new series among viewers ages 18 to 49.

Viewership was down among all four major broadcast networks compared with last season’s premiere week. NBC’s viewership fell 10%, CBS’ 9%, Fox’s 8% and ABC’s 3%.

Network officials say a major reason for the change is the increase in Nielsen’s sample size of households with digital video recorders from 8.5% to 20%. The weekly figures only count viewership until 3 a.m. the morning after a program airs. Viewership figures will rise when statistics from all playbacks within seven days of airing become available.

For the fourth time in five years, CBS’ “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” was the most-watched program during premiere week, drawing 25.22 million viewers, recapturing the title from last year’s winner, “Grey’s Anatomy.”

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Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (Sept. 24-30) 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 286 million potential viewers in the U.S. ages 2 and older. Viewership is listed in millions.

*--* -- PROGRAM NETWORK VIEWERS 1 CSI CBS 25.22 2 Dancing With the Stars (Mon.) ABC 21.25 3 Grey’s Anatomy ABC 20.93 4 Desperate Housewives ABC 19.32 5 Dancing With the Stars (Tue.) ABC 18.50

6 House FOX 18.31 7 Heroes NBC 16.97 8 Dancing With the Stars Results (Wed.) ABC 16.81 9 Without a Trace CBS 16.68 10 CSI: Miami CBS 15.08

11 Sunday Night Football NBC 15.01 12 Private Practice ABC 14.41 13

Extreme Makeover:

Home Edition (8 p.m.) ABC 14.25 14 Survivor: China CBS 14.14 15 Bionic Woman NBC 13.91

16 NCIS CBS 13.89 17 Cold Case CBS 13.70 18 Two and a Half Men CBS 13.58 19 Brothers & Sisters ABC 12.83 20 60 Minutes CBS 12.82

21 CSI: NY CBS 12.72 22 Criminal Minds CBS 12.66 23 Rules of Engagement CBS 12.23 24 Law & Order: SVU (Tue.) NBC 12.12 25 Shark CBS 11.34

26 Cane CBS 11.21 27 Ugly Betty ABC 11.16 28 Big Shots ABC 11.10 29 The Unit CBS 10.70 30 Dirty Sexy Money ABC 10.44

31 Boston Legal ABC 10.30 32 NFL Pregame (Sun.) NBC 10.13 33 Life NBC 9.95 34 E.R. NBC 9.92 35 The Office NBC 9.65

36 The Big Bang Theory CBS 9.52 37

Extreme Makeover:

Home Edition (7 p.m.) ABC 9.42 38 Numb3rs CBS 9.38 39 Las Vegas NBC 9.28 40 The Bachelor ABC 9.23

41 Chuck (Mon.) NBC 9.21 42 Journeyman NBC 9.16 43 Deal or No Deal (Wed.) NBC 9.05 44 Ghost Whisperer CBS 8.72 45 My Name Is Earl NBC 8.66

46 Moonlight CBS 8.54 47 The Simpsons (8 p.m.) FOX 8.51 48 Bones FOX 8.40 49 How I Met Your Mother CBS 8.12 50 Family Guy FOX 7.98

51 Football Night in America, Part 3 NBC 7.89 52 Kid Nation CBS 7.62 53 Deal or No Deal (Fri.) NBC 7.53 54

Are You Smarter Than

a 5th Grader (Thu.) FOX 7.48 55 Back to You FOX 7.47

56 Prison Break FOX 7.41 57

King of the Hill

(8:30 p.m.) FOX 7.27 58 20/20 (10 p.m.) ABC 6.80 59 Biggest Loser 4 NBC 6.62 60 Til Death FOX 6.20

61 K-Ville (Mon.) FOX 6.13 62 America’s Most Wanted FOX 6.09 63 American Dad FOX 6.07 64 48 Hours Mystery CBS 5.97 65 Destilando Amor (Mon.) UNI 5.94

66 Cops (8 p.m.) FOX 5.87 67 20/20 (9 p.m.) ABC 5.81 68 Law & Order: SVU (Sat.) NBC 5.57 -- Destilando Amor (Wed.) UNI 5.57 70 Kitchen Nightmares FOX 5.42

71 Football Night in America, Part 2 NBC 5.41 72 Don’t Forget the Lyrics FOX 5.32 73 Destilando Amor (Thu.) UNI 5.31 74 The Simpsons (7:30 p.m.) FOX 5.27 75 Saturday Night Football ABC 5.19

76 Smallville CW 5.18 77

Are You Smarter Than

FOX 5.13 a 5th Grader? (Fri.) 78 Destilando Amor (Tue.) UNI 5.03 79 America’s Top Model 3 (Wed.) CW 4.89 80 Destilando Amor (Fri.) UNI 4.88

81 Chuck (Sat.) NBC 4.60 82 Crimetime Saturday CBS 4.37 83

Just for Laughs

(8:30 p.m.) ABC 4.33 84 Friday Night Smackdown CW 4.22 85 Just for Laughs (8 p.m.) ABC 3.89

-- Cristina UNI 3.89 87 Aqui y Ahora UNI 3.84 88

King of the Hill

(7:30 p.m.) FOX 3.78 -- Don Francisco Presenta UNI 3.78 90 Crimetime Saturday CBS 3.53

91 “College Football Pregame” ABC 3.44 92 Reaper (Tue.) CW 3.28 93 “Historias Para Contar” UNI 3.21 94 Amar Sin Limites (Wed.) UNI 3.11 95 Amar Sin Limites (Mon.) UNI 3.00

96 Beauty and the Geek CW 2.98 97 Yo Amo Juan Querendon (Wed.) UNI 2.76 -- Amar Sin Limites (Thu.) UNI 2.76 99 Amar Sin Limites (Tue.) UNI 2.74 100 Yo Amo Juan Querendon (Mon.) UNI 2.73

101 Yo Amo Juan Querendon (Tue.) UNI 2.69 102 Reaper (Thu.) CW 2.53 103 Gossip Girl (Wed.) CW 2.48 104 Yo Amo Juan Querendon (Thu.) UNI 2.47 105 Amar Sin Limites (Fri.) UNI 2.41

106 King of the Hill (7 p.m.) FOX 2.37 107 K-Ville (Fri.) FOX 2.36 108 Sabado Gigante UNI 2.31 109 Yo Amo Juan Querendon (Fri.) UNI 2.30 110 Buscando Timbiriche UNI 2.15

111 SOS: Sexo y Otros Secretos UNI 2.11 112

Everybody Hates Chris

(8 p.m.) CW 1.83 113 Everybody Hates Chris (8:30 p.m.) CW 1.78 114 The Game CW 1.74 115 Hora Pico UNI 1.63

116 Girlfriends CW 1.52 117 Madre Luna (Thu.) TEL 1.36 -- “RBD: de la Pantalla al Estrellato” UNI 1.36 119 Madre Luna (Mon.) TEL 1.34 120 Madre Luna (Tue.) TEL 1.26

121 Madre Luna (Wed.) TEL 1.22 122 Madre Luna (Fri.) TEL 1.15 123 Esclava Isaura (Tue.) TEL 1.11 124 America’s Top Model 3 (Sun.) CW 1.10 125 Dame Chocolate (Mon.) TEL 1.08

126 Esclava Isaura (Thu.) TEL 1.04 127 Dame Chocolate (Thu.) TEL 1.03 128 Dame Chocolate (Wed.) TEL 1.01 129 Esclava Isaura (Mon.) TEL 1.00 130 Dame Chocolate (Tue.) TEL 0.94

131 Dame Chocolate (Fri.) TEL 0.93 -- Esclava Isaura (Wed.) TEL 0.93 133 Cine Nuestro TEL 0.89 134 Cine Millonario TEL 0.88 135 Amor Mio (Tue.) TEL 0.85

136 Amor Mio (Wed.) TEL 0.85 137 Esclava Isaura (Fri.) TEL 0.81 -- Amor Mio (Mon.) TEL 0.81 139 Amor Mio (Thu.) TEL 0.79 -- “CW Now” CW 0.79

141 Gossip Girl (Sun.) CW 0.78 142 Cine en Casa TEL 0.75 143 Cine de Impacto TEL 0.74 144 Online Nation CW 0.69 145 Amor Mio (Fri.) TEL 0.66 *--*

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 ABC 11.90 11.90

CBS 11.82 11.82

NBC 9.93 9.93

FOX 6.92 6.92

UNI 3.30 3.30

CW 2.76 2.76

TEL 0.96 0.96 *--*