Fox leads, but hoops boost CBS

Fox Broadcasting was still No. 1 in the weekly ratings, but CBS’ growth in original programming and the NCAA men’s basketball tournament enabled it to pull closer to the dominant network than any other since this season’s “American Idol” began.

CBS averaged 9.47 million viewers for its 22 hours of prime-time programming from March 24 to Sunday -- 460,000 fewer than the 9.93 million Fox averaged for its 15 hours of programming, the smallest margin between the top two networks during the 11 weeks that “American Idol” has aired this season, according to figures released Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research.

ABC was third for the week, averaging 8.83 million, followed by NBC with 7.69 million, both for 22 hours of prime-time programming. The CW averaged 2.3 million for its 13 hours of prime-time programming.

The first original episode of CBS’ “CSI: Miami” since the end of the Writers Guild of America strike turned out to be the week’s most-watched scripted program, with a season-high 16.07 million viewers. The crime drama series finished fifth overall behind the Wednesday and Tuesday “American Idol” episodes on Fox and the Monday and Tuesday episodes of “Dancing With the Stars” on ABC.

CBS also had the week’s most-watched comedy series with “Two and a Half Men,” which placed seventh overall with 14.24 million viewers.

CBS was also bolstered by Britney Spears’ guest-starring appearance on “How I Met Your Mother,” which drew a season-high 10.67 million viewers and finished in 13th place overall.

Also, CBS’ coverage of the NCAA tournament games gave it a first-place finish on both Friday and Saturday.

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Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (March 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.

*--* -- --- Net View -- Program work ers 1 American Idol (Wed.) FOX 25.74 2 American Idol (Tue.) FOX 24.76 3 Dancing With the Stars (Mon.) ABC 20.51 4 Dancing With the Stars (Tue., 9 p.m.) ABC 17.49 5 CSI: Miami CBS 16.06 *--*

*--* 6 “NCAA Post-Game” (Sun.) CBS 14.36 7 Two and a Half Men CBS 14.23 8 60 Minutes CBS 13.36 9 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition ABC 12.96 10 Apprentice 7 NBC 12.13 *--*

*--* 11 Deal or No Deal (Thu.) NBC 11.40 12 Oprah’s Big Give ABC 11.36 13 How I Met Your Mother CBS 10.67 14 Dateline: NBC (Fri.) NBC 10.63 15 Dancing With the Stars (Tue., 8 p.m.) ABC 10.50 *--*

*--* 16 NCAA basketball (Sat., 9 p.m.) CBS 10.42 17 Deal or No Deal (Mon.) NBC 10.14 18 Moment of Truth FOX 10.05 19 Til Death FOX 10.00 20 Primetime: What Would You Do? ABC 9.92 *--*

*--* 21 Cold Case CBS 9.80 22 The New Adventures of Old Christine CBS 9.77 23 NCIS CBS 9.34 24 NCAA basketball (Thu., 7 p.m.) CBS 9.02 25 Don’t Forget the Lyrics FOX 8.95 *--*

*--* 26 Medium NBC 8.91 27 Law & Order: SVU (Tue.) NBC 8.55 28 Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? FOX 8.54 29 The Big Bang Theory CBS 8.53 30 NCAA basketball (Thu., 10 p.m.) CBS 8.41 *--*

*--* 31 NCAA basketball (Fri., 7 p.m.) CBS 8.33 32 America’s Funniest Home Videos ABC 8.12 33 Law & Order (Wed.) NBC 8.05 34 The Biggest Loser 5 NBC 7.84 35 NCAA basketball (Sat., 6:30 p.m.) CBS 7.77 *--*

*--* 36 NCAA basketball (Fri., 9:45 p.m.) CBS 7.75 37 House FOX 7.70 38 Big Brother 9 (Sun.) CBS 7.47 39 CSI: NY CBS 7.46 40 Family Guy FOX 7.28 *--*

*--* 41 Bachelor: London Calling ABC 7.27 42 Here Come the Newlyweds ABC 7.26 43 The Simpsons FOX 7.14 44 Cops (8:30 p.m.) FOX 7.14 45 Dexter CBS 7.13 *--*

*--* 46 Law & Order: SVU (Sun.) NBC 7.01 47 Criminal Minds CBS 6.99 48 Law & Ordr: Criminal Int (Wed., 8 p.m.) NBC 6.80 49 Dateline: NBC (Sun.) NBC 6.73 50 Law & Order (Sat.) NBC 6.71 *--*

*--* 51 America’s Most Wanted FOX 6.60 52 Eli Stone ABC 6.53 53 Wife Swap ABC 6.26 54 Law & Order (Sun.) NBC 6.21 55 New Amsterdam FOX 6.19 *--*

*--* 56 Law&Order: Criminal Int (Wed., 9 p.m.) NBC 6.13 57 20/20 (10 p.m.) ABC 6.07 58 King of the Hill (8:30 p.m.) FOX 6.07 59 Jericho CBS 6.02 60 Big Brother 9 (Tue.) CBS 5.96 *--*

*--* 61 20/20 (9 p.m.) ABC 5.93 62 Miss Guided (8 p.m.) ABC 5.90 63 Big Brother 9 (Wed.) CBS 5.87 64 Cops (8 p.m.) FOX 5.81 65 Supernanny ABC 5.80 *--*

*--* 66 Law & Order: SVU (Sat.) NBC 5.66 67 Men in Trees ABC 5.61 68 Miss Guided (8:30 p.m.) ABC 5.58 69 Al Diablo con los Guapos (Mon.) UNI 5.52 70 Al Diablo con los Guapos (Wed.) UNI 5.49 *--*

*--* 71 Lost ABC 5.39 72 “Catch Me if You Can” ABC 5.34 73 Al Diablo con los Guapos (Tue.) UNI 5.32 74 Bones FOX 5.26 75 Al Diablo con los Guapos (Thu.) UNI 5.18 *--*

*--* 76 Al Diablo con los Guapos (Fri.) UNI 5.08 77 Amnesia NBC 4.87 78 Canterbury’s Law (Fri.) FOX 4.74 79 Pasion (Wed.) UNI 4.55 80 Pasion (Thu.) UNI 4.43 *--*

*--* 81 Pasion (Tue.) UNI 4.26 82 Pasion (Mon.) UNI 4.20 83 My Dad Is Better Than Your Dad NBC 4.18 84 Unhitched FOX 4.18 85 Grey’s Anatomy ABC 4.07 *--*

*--* 86 Friday Night Smackdown CW 3.98 87 American Dad FOX 3.97 *--*

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 Season -- week to date FOX 9.93 11.12 CBS 9.47 10.04 ABC 8.83 8.88 NBC 7.69 8.13 UNI 3.85 3.52 CW 2.30 2.47 *--*