A rough season for networks

The usual one-two finish for “American Idol” was enough to give Fox Broadcasting its 13th victory in the last 14 weeks in the prime-time ratings race, despite not having another program in the top 15.

Fox averaged 8.75 million viewers for its 15 hours of prime-time programming between April 14 and Sunday, according to figures released Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research. Fox has finished first in all but one week since “American Idol” began its season.

CBS was second with 8.54 million viewers, thanks to having seven of the week’s 10 most-watched scripted programs.

In a season in which three of the four major broadcast networks are drawing fewer viewers than a year ago, CBS is down 17%, NBC 9% and ABC 7%. Fox is up 10%, in part because it showed fewer Major League Baseball playoff games than in 2006. Overall prime-time viewership among the four major networks is down 6% from last season.

In addition to the Writers Guild of America strike, another factor cited by network analysts as a reason for the decline in prime-time network television viewership is the increasing number of households with digital video recorders and Nielsen’s inability to accurately measure viewing played back after a program airs.

“NBC Nightly News With Brian Williams” regained the top spot among the network nightly newscasts, averaging 8.17 million viewers for the week, its 16th outright victory in the last 20 weeks. (It also tied “ABC World News With Charles Gibson” for first once during that span.)

“ABC World News With Charles Gibson” was second with 7.51 million viewers, a week after finishing first. “The CBS Evening News With Katie Couric” was third for the 82nd consecutive week, averaging a record low 5.39 million.

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Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (April 14-20) 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 23.65 2 American Idol (Wed.) FOX 23.34 3 Dancing With the Stars (Mon.) ABC 17.20 4 Desperate Housewives (Sun.) ABC 15.75 5 Dancing With the Stars (Tue.) ABC 15.42 *--*

*--* 6 NCIS CBS 15.13 7 Two and a Half Men CBS 13.94 8 CSI: NY CBS 13.43 9 Law & Order: SVU (Tue.) NBC 13.27 10 Criminal Minds CBS 12.98 *--*

*--* 11 Survivor: Micronesia CBS 12.01 12 Biggest Loser 5 NBC 11.39 13 60 Minutes CBS 10.75 14 “ABC News: Democrats’ Debate” ABC 10.69 15 CSI: Miami CBS 10.63 *--*

*--* 16 Hell’s Kitchen FOX 10.56 17 CSI CBS 10.48 18 Rules of Engagement CBS 10.40 19 Oprah’s Big Give ABC 10.09 20 Brothers & Sisters ABC 10.08 *--*

*--* 21 The Office NBC 9.86 22 Medium NBC 9.76 23 Deal or No Deal (Wed.) NBC 9.74 24 Deal or No Deal (Mon.) NBC 9.72 25 Samantha Who? ABC 9.47 *--*

*--* 26 Don’t Forget the Lyrics FOX 9.29 27 Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? FOX 9.23 28 Without a Trace CBS 9.23 29 Boston Legal ABC 8.84 30 Bones FOX 8.73 *--*

*--* 31 “Hallmark Hall of Fame” CBS 8.12 32 How I Met Your Mother CBS 8.08 33 E.R. NBC 7.82 34 The Big Bang Theory CBS 7.63 35 America’s Funniest Home Videos ABC 7.19 *--*

*--* 36 Scrubs NBC 7.19 37 Back to You FOX 7.11 38 Dateline: NBC (Fri.) NBC 7.10 39 My Name Is Earl NBC 6.87 40 Numb3rs CBS 6.84 *--*

*--* 41 Ghost Whisperer CBS 6.74 42 Bachelor: London Calling ABC 6.60 43 New Amsterdam FOX 6.58 44 30 Rock NBC 6.50 45 Big Brother 9 (Sun.) CBS 6.49 *--*

*--* 46 Eli Stone ABC 6.23 47 Big Brother 9 (Tue.) CBS 6.20 48 Law & Order (Wed.) NBC 6.17 49 Big Brother 9 (Wed.) CBS 6.09 50 Law & Order: SVU (Sun.) NBC 5.95 *--*

*--* 51 48 Hours Mystery (Sat., 10 p.m.) CBS 5.90 52 Til Death FOX 5.89 53 Men in Trees ABC 5.70 54 Cops (8:30 p.m.) FOX 5.58 55 Monk NBC 5.58 *--*

*--* 56 Most Outrageous Moments (8:30 p.m.) NBC 5.54 57 Family Guy FOX 5.44 58 America’s Most Wanted FOX 5.39 59 Al Diablo con los Guapos (Tue.) UNI 5.36 60 20/20 ABC 5.34 *--*

*--* 61 The Simpsons FOX 5.30 62 Moonlight CBS 5.27 63 48 Hours Mystery (Tue.) CBS 5.16 64 Law & Order (Sat.) NBC 5.15 65 House FOX 5.05 *--*

*--* 66 Dateline: NBC (Sun.) NBC 5.01 67 Most Outrageous Moments (8 p.m.) NBC 4.99 68 Al Diablo con los Guapos (Mon.) UNI 4.99 69 American Dad (9:30 p.m.) FOX 4.98 70 Pasion (Tue.) UNI 4.83 *--*

*--* 71 Al Diablo con los Guapos (Wed.) UNI 4.76 72 Al Diablo con los Guapos (Thu.) UNI 4.65 73 Canterbury’s Law FOX 4.62 74 Cops (8 p.m.) FOX 4.57 75 King of the Hill (8:30 p.m.) FOX 4.54 *--*

*--* 76 Pasion (Mon.) UNI 4.47 77 Pasion (Wed.) UNI 4.39 78 Law & Order: Criminal Intent (Wed.) NBC 4.31 79 48 Hours Mystery (Sat., 9 p.m.) CBS 4.28 80 Law & Order: Criminal Intent (Sat., 9 p.m.) NBC 4.26 *--*

*--* 81 Al Diablo con los Guapos (Fri.) UNI 4.12 82 Pasion (Thu.) UNI 4.12 83 Lost ABC 4.11 84 Pasion (Fri.) UNI 4.11 85 Psych NBC 4.04 *--*

*--* 86 Crimetime Saturday CBS 4.01 87 “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban” ABC 3.97 88 America’s Top Model 4 (Wed.) CW 3.85 89 Friday Night Smackdown CW 3.71 90 According to Jim (8 p.m.) ABC 3.70 *--*

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 8.75 10.96

CBS 8.54 10.05

ABC 7.91 8.78

NBC 7.32 7.99

UNI 3.48 3.53

CW 2.29 2.44 *--*