Prime-time TV rankings

Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television in the last week (March 23-29) 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. 2 and older. Viewership is listed in millions.

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.

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

*--* 1 American Idol (Wed.) FOX 26.02 2 American Idol (Thu.) FOX 23.10 3 Dancing With the Stars (Mon.) ABC 20.34 4 NCIS CBS 17.83 5 The Mentalist CBS 17.62 *--*

*--* 6 Dancing With the Stars (Tue.) ABC 16.12 7 Grey’s Anatomy (Thu., 9 p.m.) ABC 16.10 8 60 Minutes CBS 14.44 9 Criminal Minds CBS 14.36 10 CSI: Miami CBS 13.67 *--*

*--* 11 CSI: NY CBS 12.64 12 The Amazing Race CBS 11.99 13 Cold Case CBS 11.86 14 Two and a Half Men CBS 11.15 15 Basketball: Kansas vs. Michigan State / Gonzaga vs. CBS 11.00 North Carolina *--*

*--* 16 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (8 p.m.) ABC 10.84 17 Basketball: Villanova vs. Pittsburgh CBS 10.61 18 Basketball: Missouri vs. Memphis / Villanova vs. CBS 10.37 Duke 24 FOX 10.37 20 E.R. NBC 10.35 *--*

*--* 21 Hell’s Kitchen FOX 10.13 22 Private Practice ABC 10.12 23 The Biggest Loser NBC 9.83 24 Basketball Post Game (Sat.) CBS 9.46 The Unit CBS 9.46 *--*

*--* 26 Rules of Engagement CBS 9.37 27 Castle ABC 9.14 28 Lost ABC 9.04 29 Basketball: Arizona vs. Louisville / Syracuse vs. CBS 8.78 Oklahoma 30 The Apprentice NBC 8.66 *--*

*--* 31 The Office NBC 8.65 32 Basketball: Purdue vs. Connecticut / Xavier vs. CBS 8.63 Pittsburgh 33 America’s Funniest Home Videos ABC 8.32 34 20/20 (Fri.) ABC 8.19 35 Family Guy FOX 8.12 *--*

*--* 36 Survivor: Tocantins (Wed.) CBS 8.07 37 Primetime: What Would You Do? ABC 7.96 38 House FOX 7.78 39 How I Met Your Mother CBS 7.35 40 Law & Order NBC 7.33 *--*

*--* 41 48 Hours Mystery CBS 7.20 42 30 Rock NBC 7.17 43 How I Met Your Mother CBS 7.01 44 In the Motherhood ABC 6.70 45 Medium NBC 6.64 *--*

*--* 46 The Simpsons (8:30 p.m.) FOX 6.63 47 The Simpsons FOX 6.62 48 Premio lo Nuestro’09 (Thu.) UNI 6.60 49 Samantha Who? ABC 6.57 50 Supernanny ABC 6.54 *--*

*--* 51 Heroes NBC 6.47 52 Crimetime Saturday CBS 6.31 53 Chuck NBC 6.16 54 Desperate Housewives ABC 6.08 *--*

*--* Network Lastweek Seasonto date CBS 11.39 11.2

Fox 10.24 9.14

ABC 9.41 8.52

NBC 6.37 7.66

UNI 4.28 3.94 *--*