PRIME-TIME TV RANKINGS

With last week’s inaugural festivities depressing ratings for Fox’s “American Idol,” CBS managed to sneak away with a narrow ratings win for the week ending Jan. 25.

The Wednesday “Idol” was the week’s most-watched program, with 25.9 million viewers, according to figures published Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research. But the Tuesday edition -- facing stiff competition from coverage of the inaugural balls for President Obama on ABC and the cable news networks -- delivered a lower-than-usual 22.8 million.

That left just enough of an opening for CBS, which had six of the top 10 programs. That included “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” (17.6 million), which took a ratings dip in its first outing since star William L. Petersen left the forensics drama, replaced by Laurence Fishburne.

Fox was first for the week among viewers ages 18 to 49.

On basic cable, the week’s most-watched programming was CNN’s coverage of Obama’s inauguration speech, with 8.6 million viewers.

-- Scott Collins

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Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (Jan. 19-25) 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 American Idol (Wed.) FOX 25.90 2 American Idol (Tue.) FOX 22.77 3 CSI CBS 17.57 4 Two and a Half Men CBS 16.09 5 House M.D. FOX 15.03 *--*

*--* 6 CSI: Miami CBS 14.58 7 Grey’s Anatomy (Thu., 9 p.m.) ABC 14.43 8 60 Minutes CBS 14.21 9 Criminal Minds CBS 13.82 10 Cold Case CBS 13.26 *--*

*--* 11 Neighbor-hood Ball ABC 12.57 12 Lie to Me FOX 12.37 13 Eleventh Hour CBS 12.31 14 24 FOX 12.10 15 Fringe FOX 11.96 *--*

*--* 16 Movie: “Loving Leah” CBS 11.73 NCIS CBS 11.73 18 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (8 p.m.) ABC 11.59 19 CSI: NY CBS 11.58 20 Lost ABC 11.35 *--*

*--* 21 Ghost Whisperer CBS 11.18 22 The Big Bang Theory CBS 11.03 23 Numb3rs CBS 10.96 24 How I Met Your Mother CBS 10.69 25 The Mentalist (10 p.m.) CBS 10.58 *--*

*--* 26 Biggest Loser NBC 10.27 27 Flashpoint CBS 10.18 28 Bones FOX 9.98 29 The Bachelor ABC 9.95 30 Movie: “The Last Templar” (Part 1, Sun.) NBC 9.90 *--*

*--* 31 Worst Week CBS 9.60 32 Private Practice ABC 9.49 33 ABC News Special (Tue.) ABC 9.48 34 The Office NBC 8.76 35 America’s Funniest Home Videos ABC 8.58 *--*

*--* 36 CSI (Thu., 8 p.m.) CBS 8.52 37 Lost: Destiny Calls ABC 8.51 38 Law & Order NBC 8.27 39 48 Hours Mystery CBS 7.80 40 E.R. NBC 7.65 *--*

*--* 41 Bones (Thu., 9 p.m.) FOX 7.55 42 Ugly Betty ABC 7.50 43 The New Adventures of Old Christine CBS 7.29 44 Dateline (Sun., 7 p.m.) NBC 7.10 45 Gary Unmarried CBS 6.97 *--*

*--* 46 Change & Challenge: Obama CBS 6.76 47 Desperate Housewives (Sun.) ABC 6.59 48 My Name Is Earl NBC 6.58 49 Family Guy FOX 6.57 50 Superstars of Dance (Mon.) NBC 6.50 *--*

*--* 51 Cops 2 FOX 6.48 52 30 Rock NBC 6.41 53 America’s Most Wanted: America Fights Back FOX 6.28 54 Inauguration NBC 6.21 55 Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader? FOX 6.07 *--*

*--* 56 Don’t Forget the Lyrics FOX 6.04 57 True Beauty ABC 5.84 58 The Simpsons FOX 5.74 59 American Dad FOX 5.72 60 Howie Do It (8:30 p.m.) NBC 5.68 *--*

*--* 61 Cops FOX 5.61 62 Fuego en la Sangre (Thu.) UNI 5.60 63 20/20 (Fri.) ABC 5.59 64 Howie Do It (8 p.m.) NBC 5.52 65 Fuego en la Sangre (Mon.) UNI 5.48 *--*

*--* 66 The Simpsons (Sun., 8:30 p.m.) FOX 5.45 67 Fuego en la Sangre (Wed.) UNI 5.43 68 Cuidado con el Angel (Wed.) UNI 5.39 69 Fuego en la Sangre (Tue.) UNI 5.38 70 Cuidado con el Angel (Thu.) UNI 5.36 *--*

*--* 71 Fuego en la Sangre (Fri.) UNI 5.31 72 Cuidado con el Angel (Tue.) UNI 5.24 73 Law & Order: SVU (9 p.m.) NBC 5.20 74 Dateline (Fri.) NBC 5.09 75 Cuidado con el Angel (Mon.) UNI 5.08 *--*

*--* 76 Kath & Kim NBC 4.93 Knight Rider NBC 4.93 78 Crimetime Saturday CBS 4.92 79 Momma’s Boys (Mon.) NBC 4.85 80 Cuidado con el Angel (Fri.) UNI 4.64 *--*

*--* 81 Supernanny ABC 4.50 82 Tontas No Van Cielo (Tue.-Thurs.) UNI 4.31 *--*

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 10.82 11.31

FOX 10.54 8.31

ABC 8.27 8.64

NBC 6.53 7.49

UNI 4.2 3.88 *--*