New series can’t hold on to viewers

“Private Practice” and “Bionic Woman,” the two most-watched new series during television’s premiere week, both sustained double-digit percentage drops in viewership for their second episodes, but were still last week’s second and third most-watched new series, according to figures released Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research.

Viewership for the second episode of “Private Practice,” ABC’s “Grey’s Anatomy” spinoff, fell 14% to 12.45 million from 14.41 million viewers.

Opposite “Private Practice,” the second episode of NBC’s “Bionic Woman” remake drew 11.07 million viewers, 20% less than the 13.91 million that watched its premiere. The series had an even steeper decline -- 28% -- among the important 18- to 49-year-old demographic.

CBS’ “Criminal Minds” was the beneficiary of the declining viewership for both “Private Practice” and “Bionic Woman,” as it won the Wednesday 9-10 time slot and finished 10th for the week with 14.56 million viewers, 14% more than for its season premiere a week earlier.

A key factor in the decrease for “Private Practice” was its lead-in. The second episode was preceded by the premiere of the heavily promoted forensic fairy-tale “Pushing Daisies,” and even though “Daisies” drew a respectable 13.03 million viewers, it was far short of the 16.81 million who tuned in a week earlier to watch “Dancing With the Stars.”

Still, “Pushing Daises” was the week’s most-watched new series and 14th overall; it drew the largest audience for an 8 p.m. Wednesday premiere on any network since the Sept. 22, 2004, premiere of “Lost.”

CBS was the most-watched network last week, averaging 11.41 million viewers for its prime-time programming, despite having only one of the week’s six most-watched programs, “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation,” which finished first for the second consecutive week, with 20.97 million viewers.

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Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (Oct. 1-7) 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 20.97 2 Dancing With the Stars (Mon.) ABC 20.21 3 Grey’s Anatomy ABC 18.51 4 Sunday Night Football NBC 18.30 5 Desperate Housewives ABC 17.82

6 House FOX 17.44 7 NCIS CBS 16.42 8 Dancing With the Stars Results (Thu.) ABC 15.89 9 CSI: Miami CBS 14.72 10 Criminal Minds CBS 14.56

11 Without a Trace CBS 14.20 12 Survivor: China CBS 14.14 13 Two and a Half Men CBS 13.24 14 Pushing Daisies (Wed.) ABC 13.03 15 Cold Case CBS 13.01

16 CSI: NY CBS 12.69 17 Private Practice (Wed.) ABC 12.45 18 Heroes NBC 11.96 19 Brothers & Sisters ABC 11.91 20 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition ABC 11.84

21 Law & Order: SVU (Tue.) NBC 11.62 22 NFL Pregame (Sun) NBC 11.35 23 The Unit CBS 11.31 24 Shark CBS 11.28 25 Deal or No Deal (Wed.) NBC 11.17

26 Bionic Woman NBC 11.07 27 NFL Postgame (Sun.) CBS 10.97 28 60 Minutes CBS 10.86 29 Boston Legal ABC 10.43 30 Rules of Engagement CBS 10.09

31 Ugly Betty ABC 9.90 32 Numb3rs CBS 9.76 33 Dirty Sexy Money ABC 9.61 34 Cane CBS 9.19 -- Cavemen ABC 9.19

36 E.R. NBC 9.09 37 Carpoolers ABC 9.06 38 Ghost Whisperer CBS 8.91 39 The Bachelor ABC 8.85 40 Life NBC 8.68

41 Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? (Thu.) FOX 8.63 42 The Office (Thu.) NBC 8.57 43 America’s Funniest Home Videos ABC 8.52 44 The Big Bang Theory CBS 8.50 45 Deal or No Deal (Fri.) NBC 8.41

46 Chuck (Mon.) NBC 8.39 47 Family Guy FOX 8.29 48 College Football (Sat.) CBS 8.28 49 Football Night in America, Part 3 NBC 8.24 50 Big Shots ABC 8.23

-- Journeyman NBC 8.23 52 Moonlight CBS 8.04 53 My Name Is Earl NBC 7.98 -- Bones FOX 7.98 55 The Simpsons (8 p.m.) FOX 7.89

56 How I Met Your Mother CBS 7.87 57 Las Vegas NBC 7.48 58 Biggest Loser 4 NBC 7.46 59 Kid Nation CBS 7.43 60 30 Rock NBC 7.33

61 Prison Break FOX 7.29 62 20/20 ABC 7.17 63 Cops (8:30 p.m.) FOX 6.64 64 Singing Bee NBC 6.61 65 Back to You FOX 6.58

66 American Dad FOX 6.53 67 America’s Most Wanted FOX 6.47 68 Friday Night Lights NBC 6.37 69 King of the Hill (8:30 p.m.) FOX 6.22 -- Kitchen Nightmares FOX 6.22

71 Til Death FOX 6.19 72 Law & Order: SVU (Sat.) NBC 5.90 73 Don’t Forget the Lyrics FOX 5.74 74 Cops (8 p.m.) FOX 5.70 75 Destilando Amor (Wed.) UNI 5.62

76 The Simpsons (7:30 p.m.) FOX 5.45 77 K-Ville (Mon.) FOX 5.36 78 Destilando Amor (Thu.) UNI 5.30 79 Football Night in America, Part 2 NBC 5.24 -- Destilando Amor (Tue.) UNI 5.24

81 Destilando Amor (Mon.) UNI 5.13 82 Private Practice (Fri.) ABC 5.10 83 Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? (Fri.). FOX 5.03 84 Destilando Amor (Fri.) UNI 4.79 85 College Football Today CBS 4.62

86 Smallville CW 4.59 87 America’s Top Model 3 (Wed.) CW 4.54 88 College Football Pre-Game (Sat.) ABC 4.33 89 Saturday Night Football ABC 4.32 90 Don Francisco Presenta (Wed.) UNI 4.31

91 Friday Night Smackdown CW 4.26 92 Pushing Daisies (Fri.) ABC 4.22 93 Chuck (Sat.) NBC 3.95 94 Aqui y Ahora (Thu.) UNI 3.73 -- Familia P. Luche (Fri.) UNI 3.73

96 King of the Hill (7 p.m.) FOX 3.70 97 Retro P. Luche UNI 3.43 98 Cristina UNI 3.39 99 K-Ville (Fri.) FOX 3.34 100 Amar Sin Limites (Tue.) UNI 3.05

101 The Game CW 2.98 102 Supernatural CW 2.97 103 The Office (Sat.) NBC 2.95 104 Reaper CW 2.86 105 Amar Sin Limites (Thu.) UNI 2.80

106 Gossip Girl CW 2.75 107 Amar Sin Limites (Wed.) UNI 2.70 -- Amar Sin Limites (Mon.) UNI 2.70 109 Beauty and the Geek CW 2.69 110 Everybody Hates Chris CW 2.58

111 Girlfriends CW 2.56 112 Yo Amo Juan Querendon (Mon.) UNI 2.51 113 Yo Amo Juan Querendon (Tue.) UNI 2.49 114 Yo Amo Juan Querendon (Thu.) UNI 2.48 115 Yo Amo Juan Querendon (Wed.) UNI 2.42

116 Amar Sin Limites (Fri.) UNI 2.37 117 Aliens in America CW 2.34 118 SOS: Sexo y Otros Secretos UNI 2.26 119 Sabado Gigante UNI 2.15 120 Yo Amo Juan Querendon (Fri.) UNI 2.11 *--*

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 11.41 11.61

ABC 10.78 11.34

NBC 9.42 9.58

FOX 7.01 6.97

UNI 3.23 3.27

CW 2.91 2.84

TEL 0.96 0.96 *--*