New series enjoy top spots till the competition shows up

CBS, Fox and the CW were all able to claim victories for last week’s premieres of “Kid Nation,” “Back to You” and “Gossip Girl” against lesser competition than they will usually face.

“Kid Nation” enabled CBS to win the Wednesday 8-9 p.m. time period among viewers ages 18 to 49, the group targeted by ABC, Fox and NBC. Its 9.38 million viewers put CBS second in the time period overall, behind NBC, which drew 9.85 million for the game show “Deal or No Deal,” according to Nielsen Media Research figures released Tuesday.

The Fox comedy “Back to You” was first from 8-8:30 p.m. Wednesday among all viewers, with 9.51 million, and among viewers ages 18 to 49.

“Gossip Girl,” the CW prime-time soap about students at an elite Manhattan prep school, was first among girls and women ages 12 to 17 and 18 to 34 and among all viewers 12 to 17 in its Wednesday 9-10 p.m. time slot.

As with all new programming, their ratings in the coming weeks will determine their futures. All three series will face tougher competition this week. In a week mixing reruns with series premieres, CBS led with an average of 8.92 million viewers for its prime-time programming, including six of the week’s 10 most-watched shows. Fox was first among viewers ages 18 to 49.

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Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (Sept. 17-23) 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 Net- work View- ers Program Net- work View- ers *--*

*--* 1 Sunday Night Football NBC 19.05 2 “Survivor: China” CBS 15.35 3 CSI CBS 14.07 4 “NFL Pregame” NBC 13.86 5 Cold Case CBS 12.75

6 Deal or No Deal (Mon.) NBC 11.71 7 Shark CBS 11.42 8 60 Minutes CBS 11.37 9 Without a Trace CBS 11.28 10 Two and a Half Men CBS 10.84

11 Family Guy FOX 10.81 12 Football Night in America, Part 3 NBC 10.29 13 Deal or No Deal (Wed.) NBC 9.86 14 CSI: Miami CBS 9.65 15 The Simpsons FOX 9.55

16 The OT (football postgame) FOX 9.50 17 Back to You FOX 9.48 18 Kid Nation CBS 9.38 19 CSI: NY CBS 9.18 20 Desperate Housewives ABC 9.02

21 K-Ville (Mon.) FOX 8.93 22 Big Brother 8 (Tue.) CBS 8.67 23 Criminal Minds CBS 8.41 24 Don’t Forget the Lyrics FOX 8.27 25 Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader (Thu.) FOX 8.26

26 Rules of Engagement CBS 8.05 27 Biggest Loser 4 NBC 7.94 28 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (8 p.m.) ABC 7.93 29 NCIS CBS 7.84 30 King of the Hill FOX 7.82

31 Singing Bee NBC 7.77 32 Til Death FOX 7.76 33 Power of 10 (Tue.) CBS 7.75 34 Prison Break FOX 7.51 35 Come Rain or Come Shine ABC 7.14

36 Power of 10 (Sun.) CBS 7.11 37 Last Comic Standing 5 NBC 7.10 38 Just for Laughs (8:30 p.m.) ABC 6.99 39 20/20 (10 p.m.) ABC 6.85 40 Numb3rs CBS 6.79

41 Just for Laughs (8 p.m.) ABC 6.66 42 Kitchen Nightmares FOX 6.61 43 “Elvis: Viva Las Vegas” ABC 6.40 44 20/20 (9 p.m.) ABC 6.22 45 Destilando Amor (Tue.) UNI 6.10

46 Old Christine CBS 6.04 47 48 Hours Mystery CBS 6.03 48 How I Met Your Mother CBS 5.95 49 Law & Order: SVU (Tue.) NBC 5.91 50 House FOX 5.85

51 Destilando Amor (Wed.) UNI 5.77 52 Destilando Amor (Mon.) UNI 5.74 53 Primetime: Medical Mysteries ABC 5.68 54 Grey’s Anatomy ABC 5.55 55 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (8 p.m.) ABC 5.53

56 Cops (8:30 p.m.) FOX 5.40 57 My Name Is Earl NBC 5.37 58 America’s Most Wanted FOX 5.35 59 America’s Funniest Home Videos ABC 5.23 60 America’s Next Top Model CW 5.22

61 Wife Swap (9 p.m.) ABC 5.17 62 Destilando Amor (Fri.) UNI 5.15 63 Law & Order: SVU (Fri.) NBC 5.13 The Unit CBS 5.13 65 “Latin Grammy Celebra” UNI 5.03

66 Ghost Whisperer CBS 5.02 67 Brothers & Sisters ABC 4.99 68 Wife Swap (8 p.m.) ABC 4.95 69 Football Night in America, Part 2 NBC 4.92 70 Saturday Night Football ABC 4.90

71 The Office NBC 4.85 72 K-Ville Encore (Tue.) FOX 4.83 73 Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? (Fri.) FOX 4.81 Cops (8 p.m.) FOX 4.81 75 Supernanny ABC 4.71

76 Crimetime Saturday CBS 4.69 77 Friday Night Smackdown CW 4.63 78 Ugly Betty ABC 4.59 79 Las Vegas NBC 4.20 80 Men in Trees ABC 4.16

81 Don Francisco Presenta UNI 4.15 82 Familia P. Luche UNI 4.02 83 E.R. NBC 3.96 84 Law & Order: Criminal Intent NBC 3.93 85 According to Jim (8 p.m.) ABC 3.90

Heroes NBC 3.90 87 According to Jim (8:30 p.m.) ABC 3.81 88 Cristina UNI 3.80 89 1 vs. 100 NBC 3.58 90 Gossip Girl (Wed.) CW 3.50

91 Medium NBC 3.49 92 Football Pregame ABC 3.47 93 Most Outrageous Moments NBC 3.39 94 Beauty and the Geek (Tue.) CW 3.38 95 Familia de Diez UNI 3.33

96 Amar Sin Limites (Tue.) UNI 3.18 97 Amar Sin Limites (Wed.) UNI 2.96 98 Amar Sin Limites (Mon.) UNI 2.90 99 Yo Amo Juan Querendon (Mon.) UNI 2.86 100 Amar Sin Limites (Thu.) UNI 2.84

101 Yo Amo Juan Querendon (Tue.) UNI 2.79 102 Amar Sin Limites (Fri.) UNI 2.68 103 Yo Amo Juan Querendon (Wed.) UNI 2.62 104 Cine Especial UNI 2.61 105 Yo Amo Juan Querendon (Thu.) UNI 2.59

106 SOS: Sexo y Otros Secretos UNI 2.45 107 Hora Pico UNI 2.39 108 Yo Amo Juan Querendon (Fri.) UNI 2.27 109 Nashville FOX 2.18 110 Sabado Gigante UNI 2.10

111 America’s Next Top Model 3 CW 1.93 *--*

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 8.92 10.46

NBC 7.63 7.69

FOX 7.44 8.75

ABC 5.72 8.07

UNI 3.54 3.5

CW 2.76 2.73

TEL 0.98 0.91 *--*