PRIME-TIME TV RANKINGS

“American Idol” and “Dancing With the Stars” swept the week’s top four spots, but CBS had nine of the next 11 most-viewed programs to be the most-watched network for the eighth consecutive week.

It was the 25th time in the season’s 31 weeks that CBS came out on top, according to figures released Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research.

In a week that began with a heavy amount of reruns and ended with four days of May sweeps programming, CBS averaged 9.21 million viewers for its prime-time programming between April 20 and Sunday.

“CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” was CBS’ most-watched show and the week’s most-watched scripted program, finishing fifth overall with 14.64 million viewers.

As usual, CBS also had the most-watched comedy series, a rerun of “Two and a Half Men,” which came in 11th overall with 11.48 million viewers, and the most-watched newsmagazine, “60 Minutes,” which was 15th with 10.52 million viewers.

Fox averaged 8.61 million viewers for the week to finish second, thanks mainly to the usual 1-2 finish by “American Idol.” Viewership for the competition program on Tuesday edged up 1% compared to the similar week a year ago, while the viewership for Wednesday’s results show was 3% higher.

Fox finished first for the 12th consecutive week among viewers ages 18 to 49, the group advertisers covet. Fox also led among viewers ages 12 to 17, 18 to 34 and 25 to 54. As usual, CBS was first among viewers ages 55 and older.

The final 67-minute segment of USA Network’s “WWE Raw” was the most-watched cable program, with 5.5 million viewers, which would have put it 59th among the programs shown on the five major broadcast networks.

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calendar@latimes.com

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Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (April 20-26) 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 23.96 2 American Idol (Wed.) FOX 23.95 3 Dancing With the Stars ABC 20.53 4 Dancing With the Stars (results) ABC 14.72 5 CSI CBS 14.64 *--*

*--* 6 Criminal Minds (10 p.m.) CBS 13.72 7 Desperate Housewives ABC 13.64 8 Grey’s Anatomy (Thu., 9 p.m.) ABC 13.51 9 NCIS (9 p.m.) CBS 12.65 10 The Mentalist (10 p.m.) CBS 12.46 *--*

*--* 11 Two and a Half Men CBS 11.48 12 Survivor: Tocantins CBS 11.30 13 Rules of Engagement CBS 10.59 14 Cold Case CBS 10.57 15 60 Minutes CBS 10.52 *--*

*--* 16 24 FOX 10.34 17 The Amazing Race CBS 10.27 18 Fringe FOX 9.89 19 Surviving Suburbia ABC 9.87 20 Criminal Minds CBS 9.84 *--*

*--* 21 The Mentalist (Mon.) CBS 9.42 22 Brothers & Sisters ABC 9.31 23 The Biggest Loser NBC 9.26 24 Ghost Whisperer CBS 9.23 25 Private Practice ABC 9.08 *--*

*--* 26 The Unit CBS 8.84 27 Numb3rs CBS 8.82 28 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (8 p.m.) ABC 8.66 29 Bones (Mon., 8 p.m.) FOX 8.57 30 Bones FOX 8.42 *--*

*--* 31 The Apprentice NBC 8.27 32 Castle ABC 8.21 33 Flashpoint CBS 8.19 34 Southland NBC 8.11 35 Lie to Me FOX 7.97 *--*

*--* 36 America’s Funniest Home Videos ABC 7.70 37 The Big Bang Theory CBS 7.59 38 Medium NBC 7.34 39 The Office NBC 7.28 40 Law & Order: SVU NBC 7.04 *--*

*--* 41 Harper’s Island CBS 7.02 42 Hell’s Kitchen FOX 6.80 43 Lost ABC 6.74 44 Family Guy FOX 6.67 45 Two and a Half Men CBS 6.60 *--*

*--* How I Met Your Mother CBS 6.60 47 20/20 (Fri.) ABC 6.56 48 Heroes NBC 6.45 49 30 Rock NBC 6.30 50 Chuck NBC 6.11 *--*

*--* 51 Law & Order NBC 6.09 52 The Simpsons FOX 6.00 53 48 Hours Mystery CBS 5.94 54 The Big Bang Theory CBS 5.86 55 The Unusuals (Tue.) ABC 5.81 *--*

*--* 56 Law & Order (Wed., 8 p.m.) NBC 5.69 57 Law & Order: SVU (Wed., 9 p.m.) NBC 5.57 58 My Name Is Earl NBC 5.54 59 Gary Unmarried CBS 5.41 60 Manana Es Para Siempre (Tue.) UNI 5.38 *--*

*--* 61 Manana Es Para Siempre (Mon.) UNI 5.37 62 Manana Es Para Siempre (Thu.) UNI 5.28 63 Parks and Recreation NBC 5.26 64 Manana Es Para Siempre (Wed.) UNI 5.14 65 American Dad FOX 5.13 *--*

*--* 66 The New Adventures of Old Christine CBS 5.07 67 Dateline Sunday (7 p.m.) NBC 4.99 68 Grey’s Anatomy (Thur.) ABC 4.97 69 Streisand Live in Concert CBS 4.96 70 Manana Es Para Siempre (Fri.) UNI 4.88 *--*

*--* 71 Dateline (Fri.) NBC 4.81 72 The Unusuals ABC 4.74 73 Cuidado con el Angel (Mon.) UNI 4.66 74 Scrubs (Wed., 8 p.m.) ABC 4.60 75 Law & Order (Sat.) NBC 4.59 *--*

*--* 76 Crimetime Saturday CBS 4.57 77 America’s Most Wanted: America Fights Back FOX 4.50 78 Sit Down Shut Up FOX 4.21 79 Better Off Ted ABC 4.19 80 Cuidado con el Angel (Tue.) UNI 4.12 *--*

*--* 81 Cuidado con el Angel (Thu.) UNI 4.08 82 America’s Next Top Model CW 4.01 83 Mujeres Asesinas (Thu.) UNI 3.99 84 Cops (8:30 p.m.) FOX 3.92 85 Cuidado con el Angel (Wed.) UNI 3.89 *--*

*--* 86 Wife Swap ABC 3.79 87 Aqui y Ahora (Tue.) UNI 3.60 88 Cuidado con el Angel (Fri.) UNI 3.52 89 Las Tontas No Van al Cielo (Mon.) UNI 3.50 90 According to Jim (Tue., 8 p.m.) ABC 3.36 *--*

*--* 91 According to Jim (Tue., 8:30 p.m.) ABC 3.35 92 La Rosa de Guadalupe (Fri.) UNI 3.32 *--*

Network averagesHere 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 9.21 11.24

FOX 8.61 8.41

NBC 6.03 7.49

FOX 8.61 9.14

UNI 3.75 3.94 *--*