Super Bowl gives Fox giant-sized ratings

A record Super Bowl audience of 97.45 million combined with the week’s seven most-watched programs gave Fox Broadcasting prime-time television’s most-watched week since 1996, according to figures released Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research.

Fox averaged 33.55 million viewers for its prime-time programming between Jan. 28 and Feb. 3, the most since NBC averaged 36 million in July 1996 when it aired the Atlanta Summer Olympics.

Only the 1983 finale of CBS’ “MASH” surpasses this Super Bowl as most-watched prime-time program with 105.97 million viewers.

An episode of the medical drama “House” that followed the game drew 29.04 million viewers; the premiere of the ABC legal drama “Eli Stone” won its Thursday 10-11 p.m. time slot with 11.14 million viewers; and the season premiere of ABC’s “Lost” was the week’s most-watched non-Fox program, finishing eighth overall with 16.14 million viewers.

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Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (Jan. 28-Feb. 3) 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 “Super Bowl XLII” FOX 97.45 2 “Super Bowl Post-Game” FOX 63.93 3 House (Sun.) FOX 29.04 4 American Idol (Tue.) FOX 28.22 5 American Idol (Wed.) FOX 25.57 -- 6 House (Tue.) FOX 22.56 7 Moment of Truth FOX 17.64 8 Lost (Thu., 9 p.m.) ABC 16.14 9 Lost (Thu., 8 p.m. ABC 13.16 10 NCIS CBS 11.77 -- 11 CSI CBS 11.69 12 Eli Stone ABC 11.14 13 Law & Order (Wed.) NBC 11.10 14 Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? FOX 10.55 15 Without a Trace CBS 10.18 -- 16 Don’t Forget the Lyrics FOX 10.07 17 Deal or No Deal NBC 9.68 18 Two and a Half Men CBS 9.60 19 Dance War ABC 9.45 20 Law & Order: SVU (Tue.) NBC 9.29 -- 21 Law & Order: Criminal Intent NBC 8.89 22 Criminal Minds CBS 8.74 23 CSI: NY (Thu.) CBS 8.67 24 American Gladiators (Mon.) NBC 8.60 25 Lost (Wed.) ABC 8.47 -- 26 Biggest Loser 5 (Tue.) NBC 8.32 27 House (Fri.) FOX 7.89 28 1 vs. 100 NBC 7.86 -- 48 Hours Mystery (Tue.) CBS 7.86 30 Apprentice 7 NBC 7.82 -- 31 How I Met Your Mother CBS 7.33 32 Ghost Whisperer CBS 7.30 -- CSI: NY CBS 7.30 34 State of Union analysis NBC 7.13 35 Numb3rs CBS 7.03 -- 36 Las Vegas NBC 6.96 37 The Unit CBS 6.93 38 Cops (8:30 p.m.) FOX 6.87 39 20/20 ABC 6.81 40 State of the Union analysis ABC 6.80 -- 41 Law & Order (Sat.) NBC 6.52 42 America’s Most Wanted FOX 6.31 43 State of Union analysis CBS 6.13 44 Cold Case CBS 6.07 45 Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles FOX 5.99 -- 46 Cops (8 p.m.) FOX 5.93 47 Wife Swap ABC 5.78 48 Moonlight CBS 5.72 49 According to Jim ABC 5.70 50 Friday Night Lights NBC 5.65 -- 51 “War of the Worlds” ABC 5.61 52 Law & Order: SVU (Sat.) NBC 5.55 53 Bones FOX 5.54 54 Al Diablo con los Guapos (Wed.) UNI 5.52 55 48 Hours Mystery (Sat., 10 p.m.) CBS 5.34 -- 56 My Name Is Earl NBC 5.27 57 Boston Legal ABC 5.23 58 Rules of Engagement CBS 5.16 59 60 Minutes CBS 5.07 60 Just For Laughs (8 p.m.) ABC 5.03 -- -- Al Diablo con los Guapos (Tue.) UNI 5.03 62 Al Diablo con los Guapos (Thu.) UNI 4.90 63 Old Christine (8 p.m.) CBS 4.89 64 Old Christine (8:30 p.m.) CBS 4.75 65 48 Hours Mystery (Sat., 9 p.m.) CBS 4.71 -- -- Just for Laughs (8:30 p.m.) ABC 4.71 67 Al Diablo con los Guapos (Fri.) UNI 4.67 -- Friday Night Smackdown CW 4.67 69 The Office (Thu.) NBC 4.45 70 Al Diablo con los Guapos (Mon.) UNI 4.38 -- 71 America’s Funniest Home Videos ABC 4.19 72 Crimetime Saturday CBS 4.13 73 Shark CBS 4.12 74 “Meet the Fockers” ABC 4.02 75 Grey’s Anatomy ABC 4.00 -- 76 Familia P. Luche UNI 3.91 77 Carpoolers ABC 3.84 78 Smallville CW 3.81 79 Samantha Who ABC 3.80 80 Pasion (Wed.) UNI 3.79 -- 81 Pasion (Tue.) UNI 3.78 82 Desperate Housewives ABC 3.67 83 Pasion (Thu.) UNI 3.66 84 The Office (Mon.) NBC 3.65 85 Pasion (Fri.) UNI 3.64 -- 86 American Gladiators (Sat.) NBC 3.53 87 Retro P. Luche UNI 3.48 88 Yo Amo Juan Querendon (Mon.) UNI 3.39 89 Yo Amo Juan Querendon (Tue.) UNI 3.36 90 Don Francisco Presenta UNI 3.35 -- 91 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition ABC 3.29 -- Yo Amo Juan Querendon (Wed.) UNI 3.29 *--*

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 33.55 10.76

CBS 6.91 10.71

ABC 6.65 9.23

NBC 6.44 8.35

UNI 3.42 3.48

CW 2.15 2.52 *--*