Another CBS win is scripted

With another set of strong performances from its crime procedurals, including the season’s top new hit, “The Mentalist,” CBS won its eighth straight week among total viewers in the prime-time television rankings. Meanwhile, Sunday’s American Music Awards helped ABC to a win in the advertiser-friendly category of viewers ages 18 to 49.

CBS’ scripted dramas showed strength across the board, lifting the network to a win every weeknight except Monday for the period ending Sunday, according to figures published Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research. Leading the way were “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” (18.4 million viewers) and “NCIS” (18 million), with “The Mentalist” not far behind (15.8 million).

ABC’s Monday performance show of “Dancing With the Stars” was the week’s most-watched program (19.6 million), and numbers were surprisingly strong for the three-hour American Music Awards (12.2 million). Saturday’s Texas Tech-Oklahoma football game (10.7 million) helped too.

Fox’s made-for-TV movie “24: Redemption” was solid but not dominating on Sunday (12.1 million), finishing third behind the AMAs and NBC’s NFL game (15.2 million). Beyond football, fourth-place NBC plumped its results a bit with Tuesday’s “Biggest Loser” (7.8 million).

On basic cable, the No. 1 program was ESPN’s NFL matchup between Buffalo and Cleveland (11.6 million).

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Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (Nov. 17-23) 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 Dancing With the Stars ABC 19.63 2 CSI CBS 18.45 3 NCIS CBS 17.99 4 Dancing With the Stars (results) ABC 17.59 5 Criminal Minds CBS 16.33 *--*

*--* 6 Grey’s Anatomy (Thu., 9 p.m.) ABC 15.91 7 The Mentalist CBS 15.84 8 CSI: Miami CBS 15.46 9 Two and a Half Men CBS 15.18 10 NFL Football (Sun.) NBC 15.17 *--*

*--* 11 60 Minutes CBS 14.89 12 CSI: NY CBS 14.12 13 House FOX 13.26 14 Survivor: Gabon CBS 12.50 15 American Music Awards ABC 12.20 *--*

*--* 16 Cold Case CBS 12.15 17 24: Redemption FOX 12.12 18 The OT FOX 12.06 19 Without a Trace CBS 11.85 20 Dancing With the Stars (recap) ABC 11.60 *--*

*--* 21 The Mentalist (Fri.) CBS 11.54 22 Numb3rs CBS 11.29 23 Ghost Whisperer CBS 11.28 24 Bones FOX 10.82 25 Football (Sat.) ABC 10.73 *--*

*--* 26 Eleventh Hour CBS 10.58 27 Worst Week CBS 10.24 28 Samantha Who? ABC 10.23 29 Law & Order: SVU NBC 10.11 30 The Unit CBS 9.99 *--*

*--* How I Met Your Mother CBS 9.99 32 Amazing Race 13 CBS 9.86 33 The Big Bang Theory CBS 9.76 34 NFL Pre-Game (Sun.) NBC 9.52 35 Fringe FOX 9.17 *--*

*--* 36 ER NBC 8.88 37 The Office NBC 8.31 Ugly Betty ABC 8.31 39 20/20 (Fri.) ABC 8.28 40 Boston Legal ABC 8.08 *--*

*--* 41 College Football Pre-Game (Sat.) ABC 8.06 42 Gary Unmarried CBS 7.88 43 The New Adventures of Old Christine CBS 7.85 44 The Biggest Loser NBC 7.77 45 Life on Mars ABC 7.76 *--*

*--* 46 Heroes NBC 7.65 47 Law & Order NBC 7.62 48 48 Hours Mystery CBS 7.46 49 Football Night America (Part 3) NBC 7.45 50 Private Practice ABC 7.22 *--*

*--* 51 30 Rock NBC 7.08 52 Chuck NBC 6.89 53 Crimetime Saturday CBS 6.88 54 My Name Is Earl NBC 6.61 55 Eli Stone ABC 6.36 *--*

*--* 56 Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader? FOX 6.03 57 Cops 2 FOX 5.88 Crimetime Saturday (8 p.m.) CBS 5.88 59 Don’t Forget the Lyrics FOX 5.76 60 Law & Order: SVU (Sat.) NBC 5.69 *--*

*--* 61 House (Wed., 9 p.m.) FOX 5.68 Deal or No Deal (Fri.) NBC 5.68 63 Dirty Sexy Money ABC 5.58 64 America’s Most Wanted FOX 5.57 65 Prison Break FOX 5.51 *--*

*--* 66 AMA Red Carpet ABC 5.43 Life NBC 5.43 68 Fuego en la Sangre (Tue.) UNI 5.31 Kath & Kim NBC 5.31 70 Fuego en la Sangre (Mon.) UNI 5.24 *--*

*--* 71 Knight Rider NBC 5.20 72 Cops FOX 5.17 *--*

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 12.04 11.45

ABC 10.11 10.16

FOX 8.44 7.89

NBC 7.09 7.53

UNI 3.87 3.93

CW 2.23 2.30 *--*

-- Scott Collins