SAG Awards get a boost

During an otherwise glitz-free year in Hollywood, the Screen Actors Guild had its biggest audience Sunday since moving to cable television in 1998 -- but no one will confuse it with the Oscars.

An estimated 6.1 million people watched the SAG Awards on either TNT or TBS, according to figures released Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research. That’s up from 5.8 million who watched the award show last year. During three years that it was televised on NBC, its biggest audience was 12.5 million.

This year’s audience was only a fraction of the 39.9 million who watched the Academy Awards last year. So much for the SAG ratings boon that was supposed to materialize with the writers strike leaving the Academy Awards in the balance.

Among the broadcast networks, Fox dominated in prime time again last week. The two installments of “American Idol” led the way, with the premiere of the network’s lie detector game, “The Moment of Truth,” a strong No. 3.

NBC continued a quiet improvement behind games like “Deal or No Deal” and “American Gladiators.” It finished second behind Fox in the youthful demographic most sought by both networks.

ABC’s “World News” narrowly won the evening news ratings race, averaging 9.67 million viewers. NBC’s “Nightly News” had 9.64 million viewers and the “CBS Evening News” had 7.1 million.

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Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (Jan. 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 29.27 2 American Idol (Wed.) FOX 27.09 3 Moment of Truth FOX 23.05 4 60 Minutes CBS 14.48 5 Deal or No Deal (Mon.) NBC 14.24 *--*

*--* 6 House (Tue.) FOX 13.91 7 Deal or No Deal (Wed.) NBC 13.66 8 Extreme Makeover: ABC 13.55 -- Home Edition 9 CSI CBS 13.27 10 Law & Order: SVU NBC 12.98 *--*

*--* 11 “Hallmark Hall of Fame” CBS 12.73 12 Criminal Minds CBS 12.67 13 NCIS CBS 11.95 14 Without a Trace CBS 11.72 15 Two and a Half Men CBS 11.58 *--*

*--* 16 CSI: NY (Wed.) CBS 11.51 17 Shark CBS 11.03 18 Are You Smarter Than a FOX 10.51 -- 5th Grader? (Thu., 8 p.m.) 19 CSI: Miami CBS 10.50 20 Law & Order NBC 10.35 *--*

*--* 21 Are You Smarter Than a FOX 10.34 -- 5th Grader? (Thu., 9 p.m.) 22 Medium NBC 10.02 23 American Gladiators NBC 9.99 24 “Dance War” ABC 9.84 25 Biggest Loser 5 NBC 8.97 *--*

*--* 26 Ugly Betty ABC 8.88 27 1 vs. 100 NBC 8.77 28 Apprentice 7 NBC 8.68 29 Terminator: Sarah FOX 8.66 -- Connor Chronicles 30 CSI: NY (Thu.) CBS 8.48 *--*

*--* -- Rules of Engagement CBS 8.48 32 Boston Legal ABC 8.30 33 Law & Order: Criminal Intent NBC 8.21 34 “Garth Brooks: Live In LA” CBS 8.16 35 America’s Funniest ABC 8.06 -- Home Videos *--*

*--* 36 Prison Break FOX 7.83 37 The Unit CBS 7.79 38 The Big Bang Theory CBS 7.72 -- Family Guy FOX 7.72 40 House (Fri.) FOX 7.68 *--*

*--* 41 The Simpsons (8:30 p.m.) FOX 7.57 42 Simpsons (8 p.m.) FOX 7.45 43 Grey’s Anatomy (Thu.) ABC 7.21 44 Supernanny ABC 7.18 45 Ghost Whisperer CBS 7.08 *--*

*--* 46 How I Met Your Mother CBS 6.98 47 48 Hours Mystery (Tue.) CBS 6.96 48 Chuck (8 p.m.) NBC 6.91 49 Numb3rs CBS 6.89 50 Las Vegas NBC 6.68 *--*

*--* 51 Chuck (10 p.m.) NBC 6.56 52 Cops (8:30 p.m.) FOX 6.49 53 America’s Most Wanted FOX 6.39 54 “Guinness: Top 100” NBC 6.31 55 According to Jim ABC 6.28 *--*

*--* 56 American Dad FOX 6.15 57 20/20 ABC 6.14 58 48 Hours Mystery (Sat., 10 p.m.) CBS 5.88 59 “Super Bowl’s Greatest CBS 5.86 -- Commercials” 60 Cashmere Mafia ABC 5.58 *--*

*--* -- Cops (8 p.m.) FOX 5.58 62 Wife Swap ABC 5.57 63 Bones FOX 5.44 64 Friday Night Lights NBC 5.37 65 Al Diablo con los Guapos (Tue.) UNI 5.27 *--*

*--* -- “Pretty Woman” ABC 5.27 67 “U.S. Figure Skating NBC 5.18 -- Championships” (Sat.) 68 Al Diablo con los Guapos (Wed.) UNI 5.04 69 “October Road” ABC 4.95 70 Carpoolers ABC 4.92 *--*

*--* 71 Al Diablo con los Guapos (Thu.) UNI 4.89 -- Big Shots ABC 4.89 73 Friday Night Smackdown! CW 4.88 74 “U.S. Figure Skating NBC 4.79 -- Championships” (Sun.) 75 Al Diablo con los Guapos (Mon.) UNI 4.71 *--*

*--* 76 Just for Laughs (8 p.m.) ABC 4.69 77 Just for Laughs (8:30 p.m.) ABC 4.62 78 Brothers & Sisters ABC 4.51 79 Notes From Underbelly ABC 4.48 -- 48 Hours Mystery (Sat., 9 p.m.) CBS 4.48 *--*

*--* 81 Al Diablo con los Guapos (Fri.) UNI 4.42 82 Pasion (Tue.) UNI 4.29 -- Are You Smarter Than a FOX 4.29 -- 5th Grader? (Sun.) 84 Pasion (Thu.) UNI 4.18 85 Pasion (Wed.) UNI 4.03 *--*

*--* 86 Pasion (Mon.) UNI 3.96 87 Grey’s Anatomy (Fri.) ABC 3.79 88 Familia P. Luche UNI 3.65 -- Yo Amo Juan Querendon UNI 3.65 -- (Wed.) 90 Power of 10 CBS 3.63 *--*

*--* 91 Yo Amo Juan Querendon UNI 3.62 -- (Tue.) 92 Pasion (Fri.) UNI 3.61 93 Desperate Housewives ABC 3.58 -- Yo Amo Juan Querendon UNI 3.58 -- (Mon.) 95 Retro P. Luche UNI 3.52 *--*

*--* 96 Don Francisco Presenta UNI 3.48 97 Yo Amo Juan Querendon (Thu.) UNI 3.46 98 Aqui y Ahora UNI 3.34 99 Chavo Animada UNI 3.21 100 5 Magnificos Sun UNI 3.20 *--*

*--* 101 Cristina UNI 3.05 102 One Tree Hill CW 3.04 -- Amas de Casa Desesperadas UNI 3.04 104 Yo Amo Juan Querendon UNI 3.01 -- (Fri.) *--*

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 11.67 9.56

CBS 9.33 10.91

NBC 8.10 8.45

ABC 6.77 9.36

UNI 3.75 3.49

CW 2.06 2.54 *--*