Viewers go for competition

Television viewers flocked to games and competitions of various types last week, as eight of the nine most-watched broadcast prime-time programs were either football games or pregame shows, the competition program “America’s Got Talent” or the game show “Deal or No Deal.”

For the second time in the NFL season’s two weeks, an NBC “Sunday Night Football” game was the most-watched program. The Pittsburgh Steelers’ 10-6 win over the Cleveland Browns averaged 17.83 million viewers, according to Nielsen Media Research figures.

ABC also benefited from football coverage, as its telecast of USC’s 35-3 victory over Ohio State was fourth for the week with 11.94 million viewers, the largest audience for “Saturday Night Football” since the Nov. 25, 2006, game between USC and Notre Dame.

Three “America’s Got Talent” episodes, which finished fifth, sixth and eighth among programs on the major broadcast networks airing from Sept. 8 through Sunday, a ninth-place by “Deal or No Deal” and football enabled NBC to be the most-watched network for the sixth straight week, its longest streak since April-June 2002.

Football also dominated cable ratings, as ESPN’s season-opening “Monday Night Football” doubleheader drew cable’s two largest audiences of 2008. The Sept. 8 opener between the Green Bay Packers and Minnesota Vikings averaged 12.5 million viewers, and the Denver Broncos’ 41-14 victory over the Oakland Raiders averaged 9.67 million viewers.

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Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (Sept. 8-14) 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.

Nielsen

*--* -- Program Net- work View- ers *--*

*--* 1 NFL Football: Pittsburgh at Cleveland NBC 17.83 2 NFL Pre-Game (Sun.) NBC 13.56 3 60 Minutes CBS 12.54 4 College football: Ohio State at USC ABC 11.94 5 America’s Got Talent (Wed.) NBC 11.70 *--*

*--* 6 America’s Got Talent NBC 11.61 7 Football Night America (Part 3) NBC 10.85 8 America’s Got Talent (Thu.) NBC 9.83 9 Deal or No Deal (Mon.) NBC 9.65 10 Two and a Half Men CBS 9.18 *--*

*--* 11 Bones FOX 9.15 12 Fringe FOX 9.13 13 CSI CBS 9.04 14 Flashpoint CBS 8.68 15 Criminal Minds CBS 8.36 *--*

*--* 16 20/20 (Fri.) ABC 8.07 17 NFL Preview (Sat.) ABC 7.86 18 Big Brother 10 (Thu.) CBS 7.82 19 Law & Order: SVU NBC 7.61 20 America’s Funniest Home Videos ABC 7.51 *--*

*--* 21 CSI: NY CBS 7.42 22 CSI: Miami CBS 7.26 -- Wipeout ABC 7.26 24 The New Adventures of Old Christine CBS 7.22 25 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (8 p.m.) ABC 7.13 *--*

*--* 26 Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader? FOX 7.11 27 Law & Order: CI (Wed.) NBC 7.08 28 Big Brother 10 (Tue.) CBS 6.98 29 Wipeout (Tue.) ABC 6.97 30 Primetime (Tue.) ABC 6.73 *--*

*--* 31 Big Brother 10 (Sun.) CBS 6.68 32 America’s Toughest Jobs NBC 6.49 33 CSI: Miami (Sun.) CBS 6.41 34 Prison Break FOX 6.36 35 Cold Case CBS 6.33 *--*

*--* -- Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles FOX 6.33 37 Dateline NBC (Mon.) NBC 6.29 38 Hole in the Wall (Thu., 8:30 p.m.) FOX 6.24 39 Kitchen Nightmares FOX 6.18 40 Numb3rs CBS 6.17 *--*

*--* 41 20/20 Special Edition (Wed.) ABC 6.09 42 Til Death FOX 6.06 43 Ghost Whisperer (9 p.m.) CBS 6.01 44 Crimetime (Sat., 8 p.m.) CBS 5.82 45 Fringe (Encore, Sun.) FOX 5.79 *--*

*--* 46 The Day the Earth Stood Still: Preview FOX 5.68 47 Al Diablo con Guapos (Tue.) UNI 5.66 -- Don’t Forget the Lyrics FOX 5.66 -- 48 Hours Mystery CBS 5.66 50 Al Diablo con Guapos (Mon.) UNI 5.65 *--*

*--* 51 How I Met Your Mother CBS 5.60 -- Law & Order: CI (Sat., 10 p.m.) NBC 5.60 53 Desperate Housewives ABC 5.56 54 Dateline (Fri.) NBC 5.44 -- Grey’s Anatomy (Thu., 9 p.m.) ABC 5.44 *--*

*--* 56 Greatest American Dog CBS 5.43 57 Football Night America (Part 2) NBC 5.41 58 Al Diablo con Guapos (Wed.) UNI 5.39 -- Al Diablo con Guapos (Thu.) UNI 5.39 60 Fuego en la Sangre (Mon.) UNI 5.38 *--*

*--* 61 America’s Most Wanted: America Fights Back FOX 5.33 62 The Big Bang Theory CBS 5.31 63 Cops 2 FOX 5.28 64 My Name Is Earl NBC 5.19 65 Al Diablo con Guapos (Fri.) UNI 5.18 *--*

*--* 66 24 Prequel: Preview FOX 5.17 67 Fuego en la Sangre (Tue.) UNI 5.12 *--*

*--* 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 Season -- week to date NBC 8.35 8.21 CBS 7.41 8.85 ABC 6.27 7.58 FOX 6.19 9.18 UNI 3.97 3.51 *--*