NFL puts NBC back in the game

Thanks to two NFL games, NBC bounced back from its least-watched week to finish first in the prime-time rankings race, according to figures released Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research.

NBC’s “Sunday Night Football” telecast of the Dallas Cowboys’ 45-35 victory over the New York Giants drew 18.16 million viewers, the most for any program since the final week of the official television season in May.

The Thursday night season opener between the Super Bowl champion Indianapolis Colts and New Orleans Saints was second for both the week and summer with 17.79 million viewers.

NBC’s brief pregame shows Thursday and Sunday were the third and fourth most-watched prime-time programs from Sept. 3 through Sunday, with 13.58 million and 12.38 million viewers, respectively.

With seven hours of football programming among its 22 hours of prime-time programming, NBC averaged 8.18 million viewers for the week. That was nearly double its viewership of 4.17 million of the week before -- the lowest number at least since the start of Nielsen’s use of the People Meter system in September 1987.

CBS was second with 6.75 million, after finishing first for 13 of the previous 14 weeks of television’s summer season. Fox was third with 5.47 million, followed by ABC with 5.42 million and the CW with 1.87 million.

NBC was also first among viewers ages 18 to 49, the group it, ABC and Fox target.

The TNT police drama “The Closer” was the week’s most-watched program on cable television for the 11th time in the last 12 weeks with 8.17 million viewers.

That would have put it 16th among the programs on the five major English-language broadcast networks.

Sunday’s MTV Video Music Awards was second for the week among cable programs with 7.08 million.

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Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (Sept. 3-9) 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 Sunday Night Football NBC 18.16 2 “NFL Football” (Thu.) NBC 17.79 3 “NFL Pre-Game” (Thu., 8:30 p.m.) NBC 13.58 4 “NFL Pre-Game” (Sun.) NBC 12.38 5 60 Minutes CBS 10.83

6 “NFL Post-Game” (Sun.) FOX 10.10 7 Without a Trace CBS 9.50 8 CSI CBS 9.49 9 Football Night in America, Part 3 NBC 9.18 10 Two and a Half Men CBS 9.11

11 “NFL Pre-Game” (Thu., 8:15 p.m.) NBC 8.81 12 CSI: Miami CBS 8.76 13 Extreme Makeover: ABC 8.37 -- Home Edition (8 p.m.) 14 Are You Smarter Than a 5th FOX 8.28 Grader? -- Big Brother 8 (Sun.) CBS 8.28

16 Power of Ten (Tue.) CBS 8.09 17 Don’t Forget the Lyrics FOX 8.05 18 CSI: NY CBS 8.03 19 Criminal Minds CBS 8.02 20 Big Brother 8 (Tue.) CBS 8.00

21 Big Brother 8 (Thu.) CBS 7.96 22 “Meet the Fockers” ABC 7.92 23 House FOX 7.81 24 Power of Ten (Wed.) CBS 7.75 25 Dateline: NBC (Wed.) NBC 7.44

26 Cold Case CBS 7.07 27 NCIS CBS 7.03 28 Shark CBS 6.83 29 “Chevy Rock and Roll 400” ABC 6.80 -- Rules of Engagement CBS 6.80

31 Biggest Loser NBC 6.43 32 The Simpsons (8:30 p.m.) FOX 6.42 33 20/20 ABC 6.28 34 Last Comic Standing 5 NBC 6.25 -- Just for Laughs ABC 6.25 -- (Tue., 8:30 p.m.)

36 Family Guy (9:30 p.m.) FOX 6.24 37 Most Outrageous NBC 6.16 -- Moments (Wed.) 38 America’s Most Wanted FOX 6.10 39 Law & Order: SVU (Tue.) NBC 6.08 40 Family Guy (9 p.m.) FOX 6.05

41 The Simpsons (8 p.m.) FOX 6.01 42 Primetime: Crime ABC 5.98 43 Cops (8:30 p.m.) FOX 5.78 44 Football Night in America, Part 2 NBC 5.69 45 The New Adventures of Old CBS 5.68 Christine

46 Just for Laughs (Tue., 8 p.m.) ABC 5.52 47 Destilando Amor (Wed.) UNI 5.50 48 1 vs. 100 NBC 5.44 Wife Swap ABC 5.44 50 Law & Order: SVU (Fri.) NBC 5.25

51 Destilando Amor (Mon.) UNI 5.23 52 Destilando Amor (Thu.) UNI 5.21 53 Destilando Amor (Tue.) UNI 5.19 54 How I Met Your Mother CBS 5.17 55 America’s Funniest ABC 5.15 -- Home Videos (Fri.)

56 Extreme Makeover: ABC 5.13 -- Home Edition (7 p.m.) 57 The Singing Bee NBC 5.06 58 i-Caught ABC 5.00 59 “Fat March” ABC 4.87 60 Bones (Tue.) FOX 4.83

61 Friday Night Smackdown CW 4.69 62 According to Jim (8 p.m.) ABC 4.66 63 Destilando Amor (Fri.) UNI 4.63 -- 48 Hours Mystery CBS 4.63 65 Just for Laughs ABC 4.58 -- (Wed., 9 p.m.)

66 Just for Laughs ABC 4.44 -- (Wed., 9:30 p.m.) 67 Cops (8 p.m.) FOX 4.42 68 Bones (Wed.) FOX 4.37 69 Dateline: NBC (Mon.) NBC 4.34 70 According to Jim ABC 4.27 -- (8:30 p.m.)

71 Ugly Betty ABC 4.18 72 Grey’s Anatomy ABC 4.07 73 Supernanny ABC 4.05 74 Don Francisco Presenta UNI 4.04 75 “Lucy Must Be Traded, ABC 4.02 -- Charlie Brown”

76 Las Vegas NBC 3.96 77 Law & Order: Criminal Intent NBC 3.85 78 Aqui y Ahora UNI 3.80 79 “Hollywood Homicide” FOX 3.78 80 George Lopez ABC 3.75

Cristina UNI 3.75 82 Medium NBC 3.61 83 Familia P. Luche UNI 3.48 84 Thank God You’re Here NBC 3.37 85 Men in Trees ABC 3.36

86 Prison Break (9 p.m.) FOX 3.31 87 “Fashion Rocks!” CBS 3.24 88 Most Outrageous Moments (Sat.) NBC 3.11 89 Til Death (8 p.m.) FOX 3.09 -- “U.S. Open Tennis” (Sat.) CBS 3.09

91 Til Death (8:30 p.m.) FOX 3.07 92 Amar Sin Limites (Wed.) UNI 3.01 93 Prison Break Labor Day (8 p.m.) FOX 2.93 94 Amar Sin Limites (Tue.) UNI 2.85 -- Amar Sin Limites (Mon.) UNI 2.85

96 Amar Sin Limites (Thu.) UNI 2.77 97 NASCAR in Primetime ABC 2.76 98 Jericho CBS 2.70 99 Yo Amo Juan Querendon (Wed.) UNI 2.64 -- Familia de Diez UNI 2.64

101 SOS: Sexo y Otros Secretos UNI 2.55 102 Yo Amo Juan Querendon (Thu.) UNI 2.53 103 Heroes NBC 2.50 104 Yo Amo Juan Querendon (Fri.) UNI 2.31 105 “NBC 2007 Fall Preview” NBC 2.30

106 Hora Pico UNI 2.29 107 Yo Amo Juan Querendon (Mon.) UNI 2.26 108 Yo Amo Juan Querendon (Tue.) UNI 2.25 109 Amar Sin Limites (Fri.) UNI 2.24 110 “Destino 2008” UNI 2.20

111 Buscando Timbiriche UNI 2.15 112 Sabado Gigante UNI 2.13 113 Everybody Hates Chris (8:30 p.m.) CW 1.88 114 Smallville (Thu.) CW 1.81 115 Everybody Hates Chris (8 p.m.) CW 1.74

116 America’s Next Top Model 1 (9 CW 1.57 p.m.) 117 Supernatural CW 1.53 118 Girlfriends CW 1.52 119 Casos Familia Ed Esp UNI 1.49 120 America’s Next Top Model 1 (8 CW 1.44 p.m.)

121 The Game CW 1.39 122 Smallville (Sun.) CW 1.36 123 Cine de Impacto TEL 1.31 124 Madre Luna (Wed.) TEL 1.29 125 Cinemundo Especial TEL 1.23

Madre Luna (Thu.) TEL 1.23 127 Madre Luna (Tue.) TEL 1.17 *--*

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