‘Idol’ gives back top spot to Fox

Fox Broadcasting finished ahead of CBS last week to return to the top spot in the weekly prime-time ratings race after a week’s absence, thanks to 4 1/2 hours of “American Idol” programming, according to figures released Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research.

Fox averaged 10.27 million viewers for its 16 hours of prime-time programming between April 7 and Sunday to finish first for the 12th time in the 13 weeks since “American Idol” began its season on Jan. 15. CBS, which finished first the previous week, was second, averaging 10.25 million viewers for its 22 hours of programming.

The “American Idol” competition and results shows were in their customary 1-2 positions for the week. Wednesday’s two-hour “Idol Gives Back” fundraiser was sixth for the week with 17.75 million viewers, 34% fewer than the 26.93 million who tuned in for last year’s inaugural “Idol Gives Back” broadcast.

CBS’ coverage of Kansas’ 75-68 overtime victory over Memphis in the NCAA men’s basketball championship game April 7 was fifth for the week, averaging 19.5 million viewers.

The trend of diminishing viewership for beauty pageants continued, with NBC’s coverage of Friday’s Miss USA pageant from Las Vegas averaging 5.66 million, 24% fewer than the previous low of 7.39 million for last year’s pageant, which was held at Hollywood’s Kodak Theatre. A record 38.11 million watched the 1979 pageant.

The pageant was, however, the most-watched show among women ages 18 to 34 in its 9-11 p.m. time slot.

USA Network was the most-watched cable network for the 15th consecutive week, averaging 2.56 million viewers for its prime-time programming. As usual, its most-watched program was an hour of World Wrestling Entertainment’s “WWE Raw,” the fourth most-watched cable program of the week with 4.94 million viewers.

The most-watched cable program was a Friday episode of the Nickelodeon children’s animated series “SpongeBob SquarePants,” which drew 6.14 million viewers, which would have put it 49th among the programs on the five major broadcast networks.

For the third time in the last 19 weeks, ABC’s “World News With Charles Gibson” finished first outright among the network nightly newscasts, averaging 8.03 million viewers for the week. “NBC Nightly News,” which had finished first 15 of the last 19 weeks with one tie, was second with 7.92 million. “The CBS Evening News” with Katie Couric was third for the 81st consecutive week, averaging 5.56 million.

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Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (April 7-13) 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 American Idol (Tue.) FOX 24.67 2 American Idol (Thu.) FOX 20.13 3 CSI CBS 20.09 4 Dancing With the Stars (Mon.) ABC 19.68 5 “NCAA Basketball Championship” CBS 19.50 *--*

*--* 6 “American Idol Gives Back” FOX 17.75 7 Dancing With the Stars (Tue.) ABC 17.02 8 Desperate Housewives (Sun.) ABC 16.37 9 Without a Trace CBS 14.49 10 NCIS CBS 14.05 *--*

*--* 11 Criminal Minds CBS 13.32 12 CSI: NY CBS 12.38 13 60 Minutes CBS 12.17 14 “Prelude to a Championship” CBS 12.04 15 Survivor: Micronesia CBS 11.59 *--*

*--* 16 Hell’s Kitchen FOX 11.21 17 Don’t Forget the Lyrics FOX 10.89 18 Medium NBC 10.86 19 Samantha Who? ABC 10.42 20 Deal or No Deal (Mon.) NBC 10.22 *--*

*--* 21 Deal or No Deal (Wed.) NBC 9.76 22 Boston Legal ABC 9.58 23 Numb3rs CBS 9.54 24 Cold Case CBS 9.43 25 The Office NBC 9.33 *--*

*--* 26 Biggest Loser 5 NBC 9.00 27 Oprah’s Big Give ABC 8.95 28 Eli Stone (Sun.) ABC 8.81 29 Two and a Half Men CBS 8.78 30 Law & Order: SVU (Tue.) NBC 8.65 *--*

*--* 31 Ghost Whisperer CBS 8.55 32 Big Brother 9 (Sun.) CBS 8.25 33 “Primetime: Last Lecture” ABC 8.12 34 Price Is Right Primetime CBS 8.08 35 America’s Funniest Home Videos (Sun.) ABC 7.72 *--*

*--* 36 ER NBC 7.52 37 New Amsterdam FOX 7.44 38 House FOX 7.26 39 “FOX NASCAR Sprint Cup” (8 p.m.) FOX 7.23 40 The Big Bang Theory CBS 7.13 *--*

*--* 41 My Name Is Earl NBC 7.09 42 20/20 ABC 7.00 43 The Simpsons FOX 6.93 44 Bachelor: London Calling ABC 6.83 45 Scrubs NBC 6.58 *--*

*--* 46 Family Guy FOX 6.41 47 Dexter CBS 6.39 48 Big Brother 9 (Tue.) CBS 6.18 49 Law & Order (Wed.) NBC 6.13 50 King of the Hill (8:30 p.m.) FOX 6.07 *--*

*--* 51 Dateline: NBC (Sun.) NBC 5.92 52 Eli Stone (Thu.) ABC 5.88 53 Law & Order (Sat.) NBC 5.86 54 Big Brother 9 (Wed.) CBS 5.84 55 30 Rock NBC 5.77 *--*

*--* 56 Supernanny ABC 5.77 57 America’s Funniest Home Videos (Fri.) ABC 5.67 58 “Miss USA 2008” NBC 5.66 59 Al Diablo con los Guapos (Tue.) UNI 5.63 60 “FOX NASCAR Sprint Cup” (8 p.m. FOX 5.51 *--*

*--* 61 Law & Order: SVU (Sun.) NBC 5.51 62 Just for Laughs (8:30 p.m.) ABC 5.41 63 American Dad FOX 5.39 64 Al Diablo con los Guapos (Mon.) UNI 5.29 65 Monk NBC 5.25 *--*

*--* 66 Canterbury’s Law FOX 5.25 67 Desperate Housewives (Thu.) ABC 5.22 68 Just for Laughs (8 p.m.) ABC 5.16 69 Al Diablo con los Guapos (Wed.) UNI 5.14 70 48 Hours Mystery CBS 4.97 *--*

*--* 71 Pasion (Tue.) UNI 4.95 72 Law & Order: Criminal Intent (Wed.) NBC 4.94 73 Bones FOX 4.84 74 Law & Order: SVU (Sat.) NBC 4.80 75 Al Diablo con los Guapos (Thu.) UNI 4.77 *--*

*--* 76 Pasion (Mon.) UNI 4.67 77 Al Diablo con los Guapos (Fri.) UNI 4.64 78 Secret Talents of the Stars CBS 4.58 79 Wife Swap ABC 4.43 80 Law & Order: Criminal Intent (Sat.) NBC 4.42 *--*

*--* 81 My Dad Is Better Than Your Dad NBC 4.38 82 Pasion (Thu.) UNI 4.34 83 Pasion (Fri.) UNI 4.33 84 Friday Night Smackdown CW 4.30 85 Pasion (Wed.) UNI 4.27 *--*

*--* 86 Psych NBC 4.24 87 Crimetime Saturday CBS 4.07 88 Amnesia NBC 3.94 89 Duel ABC 3.84 90 “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets” ABC 3.47 *--*

*--* 91 Nuestra Belleza UNI 3.42 92 Cristina UNI 3.20 93 Yo Amo Juan Querendon (Mon.) UNI 3.12 94 American Dad FOX 3.12 95 Aqui y Ahora UNI 3.07 *--*

*--* 96 Yo Amo Juan Querendon (Thu.) UNI 3.07 97 Don Francisco Presenta UNI 3.06 98 Yo Amo Juan Querendon (Wed.) UNI 3.01 99 Yo Amo Juan Querendon (Tue.) UNI 3.01 100 Yo Amo Juan Querendon (Fri.) UNI 2.80 *--*

*--* 101 Amas de Casa Desesperadas UNI 2.56 102 King of the Hill (7 p.m.) FOX 2.41 103 America’s Top Model 4 (Wed.) CW 2.38 104 “48 Hours: Lord’s Boot Camp” CBS 2.34 105 Sabado Gigante UNI 2.21 *--*

*--* 106 Noche de Estrellas UNI 2.04 107 Smallville CW 2.03 108 Familia P. Luche UNI 1.97 109 Pussycat Dolls CW 1.92 110 Beauty and the Geek CW 1.91 *--*

*--* 111 Pantera UNI 1.90 112 Reaper CW 1.71 113 Hora Pico UNI 1.67 114 The Game CW 1.55 115 Supernatural CW 1.47 *--*

*--* 116 Everybody Hates Chris CW 1.29 117 Chavo Animado UNI 1.27 118 One Tree Hill CW 1.22 119 Girlfriends CW 1.19 120 Gossip Girl CW 1.18 *--*

*--* 121 Aliens in America CW 1.15 122 Familia de Diez UNI 1.14 123 America’s Top Model 4 (Wed.) CW 1.10 *--*

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 FOX 10.27 11.04

CBS 10.25 10.10

ABC 8.08 8.81

NBC 6.64 8.01

UNI 3.55 3.53

CW 2.01 2.44 *--*