‘American Idol’ can’t keep Fox tops: CBS wins week

Fox failed to finish atop the weekly prime-time ratings last week for just the second time in the 15 weeks since “American Idol” began its season, with CBS’ dominance in scripted programming helping it to the victory.

With five of the seven most-watched scripted programs, CBS averaged 9.24 million viewers for its 22 hours of prime-time programming between April 21 and Sunday, according to figures released Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research.

Fox was second, followed by ABC and NBC.

The increase in original scripted programming, partially tied to Thursday’s start of the May ratings sweeps period, prompted viewership gains among three of the four major broadcast networks over the previous week. ABC was up 14.8%, CBS 8.2% and Fox 4.7%, while NBC was down 5.1%.

Fox’s second-place finish was the result of a lack of popular programming outside “American Idol,” whose two episodes finished in their customary 1-2 position. Fox’s next most-watched programs were the cooking competition program “Hell’s Kitchen,” which finished 19th, and the game show, “Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?” which was 30th.

CBS had the week’s most-watched scripted series, “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation,” which was fifth overall.

The “NBC Nightly News” finished first outright among the network nightly newscasts for the 17th time in the last 21 weeks, averaging 8.01 million viewers for the week. “ABC’s World News With Charles Gibson” was second with 7.79 million viewers. “The CBS Evening News With Katie Couric” sunk to a record low for the second consecutive week with 5.34 million.

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Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (April 21-27) 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 24.74 2 American Idol (Wed.) FOX 23.20 3 Dancing With the Stars (Mon.) ABC 18.04 4 Dancing With the Stars (Tue.) ABC 17.97 5 CSI CBS 17.01 *--*

*--* 6 Grey’s Anatomy ABC 16.37 7 Desperate Housewives ABC 16.35 8 CSI: Miami CBS 14.38 9 NCIS CBS 14.24 10 Without a Trace CBS 13.47 *--*

*--* 11 Two and a Half Men CBS 13.36 12 Survivor: Micronesia CBS 12.90 13 Law & Order NBC 12.75 14 Lost ABC 12.07 15 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (8 p.m.) ABC 12.07 *--*

*--* 16 Law & Order: SVU (Tue.) NBC 11.64 17 Cold Case CBS 11.61 18 Brothers & Sisters ABC 11.19 19 Hell’s Kitchen FOX 10.98 20 Rules of Engagement CBS 10.57 *--*

*--* 21 Deal or No Deal (Mon.) NBC 10.11 22 Deal or No Deal (Wed.) NBC 9.96 23 Boston Legal ABC 9.93 24 Medium NBC 9.79 25 60 Minutes CBS 9.76 *--*

*--* 26 Numb3rs CBS 9.64 27 Samantha Who? ABC 9.39 28 Criminal Minds CBS 9.03 29 Ghost Whisperer CBS 8.97 30 Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? (9 p.m.) FOX 8.92 *--*

*--* 31 Bones FOX 8.76 32 Ugly Betty ABC 8.52 33 How I Met Your Mother CBS 8.45 34 Family Guy FOX 8.42 35 Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? (8 p.m.) FOX 8.33 *--*

*--* 36 House FOX 8.10 37 Moonlight CBS 7.93 38 CSI: NY CBS 7.78 39 The Simpsons (8 p.m.) FOX 7.75 40 The Office NBC 7.69 *--*

*--* 41 ER NBC 7.53 42 The Big Bang Theory CBS 7.39 43 Bachelor: London Calling ABC 7.30 44 Back to You FOX 7.26 45 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (7 p.m.) ABC 7.09 *--*

*--* 46 Dateline: NBC (Sun.) NBC 6.85 47 American Dad FOX 6.76 48 Dateline: NBC (Fri.) NBC 6.65 49 Big Brother 9 (Wed.) CBS 6.60 50 Law & Order: SVU (Sun.) NBC 6.53 *--*

*--* 51 King of the Hill (Sun.) FOX 6.53 52 Big Brother 9 (Tue.) CBS 6.51 53 Dexter CBS 6.42 54 Big Brother 9 (Sun.) CBS 6.39 55 My Name Is Earl NBC 6.16 *--*

*--* 56 America’s Most Wanted FOX 6.14 57 Til Death FOX 6.12 58 Wife Swap ABC 5.85 59 48 Hours Mystery CBS 5.82 60 Monk NBC 5.80 *--*

*--* 61 30 Rock NBC 5.52 62 Supernanny ABC 5.45 63 Scrubs NBC 5.39 64 Crimetime Saturday (9 p.m.) CBS 5.34 65 Men in Trees ABC 5.25 *--*

*--* 66 Pasion (Thu.) UNI 5.23 67 Cops (8:30 p.m.) FOX 5.18 68 Al Diablo con los Guaposs (Wed.) UNI 5.01 69 America’s Funniest Home Videos ABC 5.01 70 20/20 ABC 4.99 *--*

*--* 71 Law & Order (Sat.) NBC 4.99 72 Al Diablo con los Guapos (Tue.) UNI 4.97 73 Al Diablo con los Guapos (Thu.) UNI 4.93 74 Al Diablo con los Guapos (Mon.) UNI 4.81 75 Shark CBS 4.74 *--*

*--* 76 Pasion (Wed.) UNI 4.67 77 Cops (8 p.m.) FOX 4.67 78 Pasion (Fri.) UNI 4.66 79 Pasion (Tue.) UNI 4.63 80 “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire” ABC 4.63 *--*

*--* 81 Al Diablo con los Guapos (Fri.) UNI 4.62 82 The Simpsons (7:30 p.m.) FOX 4.61 83 Crimetime Saturday 8Pm CBS 4.57 84 America’s Top Model 4 (Wed.) CW 4.35 85 Pasion (Mon.) UNI 4.34 *--*

*--* 86 Friday Night Smackdown CW 4.30 87 According to Jim (8 p.m.) ABC 4.05 88 According to Jim (8:30 p.m.) ABC 3.96 89 Saturday Night Live: Primetime NBC 3.92 90 Most Outrageous Moments (Tue.) NBC 3.90 *--*

*--* 91 Most Outrageous Moments (Fri., 8:30 p.m.) NBC 3.89 92 “13 Going On 30” FOX 3.80 93 Don Francisco Presenta UNI 3.73 94 Duel ABC 3.71 95 Smallville CW 3.62 *--*

*--* 96 Most Outrageous Moments (Fri., 8 p.m.) NBC 3.61 97 Law & Order: Criminal Intent NBC 3.57 98 Psych NBC 3.44 99 Cristina UNI 3.43 100 Nuestra Belleza UNI 3.42 *--*

*--* 101 King of the Hill (7 p.m.) FOX 3.18 102 Aqui y Ahora UNI 3.09 103 Yo Amo Juan Querendon (Wed.) UNI 3.01 104 One Tree Hill CW 2.92 105 Yo Amo Juan Querendon (Tue.) UNI 2.90 *--*

*--* 106 Yo Amo Juan Querendon (Thu.) UNI 2.78 107 Yo Amo Juan Querendon (Fri.) UNI 2.73 108 Amas de Casa Desesperadas UNI 2.69 109 Medium NBC 2.67 110 Yo Amo Juan Querendon (Mon.) UNI 2.53 *--*

*--* 111 Gossip Girl CW 2.50 112 Pussycat Dolls CW 2.30 113 Sabado Gigante UNI 2.27 114 Reaper CW 2.25 115 Noche de Estrellas UNI 2.24 *--*

*--* 116 “Miguel Galvan” UNI 2.24 117 Supernatural CW 2.22 118 Familia P. Luche UNI 1.94 119 Hora Pico UNI 1.77 120 The Game CW 1.58 *--*

*--* 121 Beauty and the Geek CW 1.54 122 Girlfriends CW 1.43 123 Everybody Hates Chris CW 1.30 124 Aliens in America CW 1.07 125 America’s Top Model 4 (Sun.) CW 1.05 *--*

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 9.24 10.02

FOX 9.16 10.91

ABC 9.08 8.79

NBC 6.05 7.96

UNI 3.63 3.53

CW 2.62 2.44 *--*