Starless award shows fail to dazzle viewers

Both the Golden Globes and the People’s Choice Awards drew record low audiences after being forced to change their formats because of the Writers Guild of America strike, according to figures released Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research.

NBC’s hourlong coverage of Sunday’s news conference announcing the Golden Globe winners averaged 6.04 million viewers, about 70% less than the 20.04 million average for last year’s three-hour gala.

The People’s Choice Awards on CBS averaged 5.96 million viewers Jan. 8, slightly more than half the figure for last year’s telecast. The previous low was 9.75 million in 2006.

Both Fox and ABC were able to claim successes for their series premieres last week.

Sunday’s premiere of “Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles” on Fox drew 18.4 million viewers, the most for any series premiere since CBS’ “The Unit” averaged 18.5 million on March 7, 2006.

ABC’s “Dance War: Bruno vs. Carrie Ann” was the most-watched entertainment program Jan. 7 with 11 million viewers, finishing second behind Fox’s coverage of college football’s Bowl Championship Series title game.

CBS finished first for the week, averaging 13.28 million viewers.

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Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (Jan. 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 “NFL Postgame” FOX 32.51 2 “NFL Playoff: Jacksonville-New England” CBS 30.90 3 “BCS National Championship” FOX 23.07 4 Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles FOX 18.36 5 CSI CBS 18.18

6 Grey’s Anatomy (Thu.) ABC 17.68 7 “Comanche Moon 1” CBS 15.76 8 Law & Order: SVU (Tue.) NBC 15.15 9 Criminal Minds CBS 14.30 10 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (9 p.m) ABC 14.00

11 Without a Trace CBS 13.83 12 Deal or No Deal (Wed.) NBC 13.47 13 NCIS CBS 12.41 14 CSI: NY (Wed.) CBS 11.71 15 Amazing Race 12 CBS 11.65

16 Two and a Half Men CBS 11.39 17 Family Guy FOX 11.33 18 Law & Order NBC 11.02 19 Dance War ABC 11.00 20 American Gladiators (Mon.) NBC 10.91

21 Brothers & Sisters ABC 10.90 22 House (Tue.) FOX 10.89 23 Deal or No Deal (Mon.) NBC 10.74 24 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (8 p.m.) ABC 10.73 25 Biggest Loser 5 NBC 10.13

26 Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? FOX 10.01 27 Ugly Betty ABC 9.86 -- Ghost Whisperer CBS 9.86 29 Numb3rs CBS 9.81 30 Medium NBC 9.60

31 60 Minutes CBS 9.54 32 Law & Order: Criminal Intent NBC 9.44 33 “BCS National Championship Pregame” FOX 9.28 34 ER NBC 9.07 35 CSI: Miami CBS 8.98

36 Supernanny ABC 8.92 37 American Dad FOX 8.62 38 CSI: NY (Thu.) CBS 8.47 39 Moonlight CBS 8.32 40 Apprentice 7 (Thu.) NBC 8.18

41 Rules of Engagement CBS 7.86 42 My Name Is Earl NBC 7.74 43 Wife Swap ABC 7.73 44 1 vs. 100 NBC 7.61 45 America’s Funniest Home Videos ABC 7.46

46 Cops (8 p.m.) FOX 7.38 47 Las Vegas NBC 7.06 48 America’s Most Wanted FOX 6.83 49 Cops (8:30 p.m.) FOX 6.82 50 Don’t Forget the Lyrics FOX 6.74

51 Bones (Tue.) FOX 6.36 52 House (Fri.) FOX 6.30 53 Big Shots ABC 6.29 54 The Big Bang Theory CBS 6.21 55 Cashmere Mafia (Wed.) ABC 6.16

56 20/20 ABC 6.15 57 Just for Laughs ABC 6.04 -- “Golden Globes Press Conference” NBC 6.04 59 30 Rock NBC 5.98 -- How I Met Your Mother CBS 5.98

61 “People’s Choice Awards” CBS 5.96 62 Friday Night Lights NBC 5.80 63 Power of 10 CBS 5.78 64 October Road ABC 4.95 65 Friday Night Smackdown! CW 4.78

66 Law & Order: SVU (Sat.) NBC 4.77 67 “Pearl Harbor” ABC 4.59 -- According to Jim ABC 4.59 69 Bones (Fri.) FOX 4.49 70 Grey’s Anatomy (Fri.) ABC 4.47

71 Dateline: NBC (Sun.) NBC 4.41 72 Back to You (8 p.m.) FOX 4.34 73 American Gladiators (Sun.) NBC 4.31 74 Amar Sin Limites (Thu.) UNI 4.25 75 “New Hampshire Primary” ABC 4.21

76 Pasion (Thu.) UNI 4.18 77 Pasion (Mon.) UNI 4.11 78 Cashmere Mafia (Fri.) ABC 4.05 79 Pasion (Tue.) UNI 3.98 80 Amar Sin Limites (Tue.) UNI 3.93

81 Amar Sin Limites (Mon.) UNI 3.87 -- Back to You (8:30 p.m.) FOX 3.87 83 Amas de Casa Desesperadas UNI 3.75 -- Pasion (Wed.) UNI 3.75 85 Amar Sin Limites (Wed.) UNI 3.71

86 Yo Amo Juan Querendon (Thu.) UNI 3.65 87 Yo Amo Juan Querendon (Wed.) UNI 3.60 88 One Tree Hill (Tue., 9 p.m.) CW 3.57 89 Pasion (Fri.) UNI 3.56 -- Yo Amo Juan Querendon (Tue.) UNI 3.56

91 Amar Sin Limites (Fri.) UNI 3.54 *--*

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 13.28 11.08

FOX 12.93 8.52

NBC 7.97 8.52

ABC 7.62 9.72

UNI 3.34 3.47

CW 2.41 2.61 *--*