PRIME-TIME TV RANKINGS

The return of “America’s Got Talent” benefited NBC in several ways last week, including helping “The Philanthropist” draw the largest audience for any series premiere this summer.

Viewership for the June 23 two-hour premiere of “America’s Got Talent” dropped 10% from last season’s premiere, but was still the most-watched prime-time program between June 22 and Sunday with 11.46 million viewers, according to figures released Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research.

An hourlong episode Wednesday was third for the week with 10.4 million viewers. The premiere of “The Philanthropist” that followed was second in its 10-11 p.m. time slot and 16th for the week with 7.12 million viewers, winning its time slot among viewers ages 18-49, the group NBC, ABC and Fox Broadcasting target and advertisers covet.

NBC won the week among viewers ages 18-49 thanks in part to a 1-2 finish by the two “America’s Got Talent” episodes, NBC’s first victory in the category since the week of Jan. 26-Feb. 1 when it aired the Super Bowl.

CBS had 10 of the week’s 15 most-watched programs, finishing first for the fourth time in the five weeks of television’s summer season, averaging 6.51 million viewers for its prime-time programming.

Tributes to Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson were topped by “20/20: Farrah Fawcett: Her Life, Her Loves and Her Legacy,” eighth for the week with 8.17 million viewers.

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Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (June 22-28) 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 Net- work View- ers *--*

*--* 1 America’s Got Talent (Tue.) NBC 11.46 2 NCIS CBS 11.09 3 America’s Got Talent (Wed.) NBC 10.40 4 The Mentalist (Tue.) CBS 9.15 5 60 Minutes CBS 8.79 *--*

*--* 6 CSI CBS 8.74 7 Two and a Half Men CBS 8.69 8 20/20 Special Edition (Thu.) (10 p.m.) ABC 8.17 9 CSI: Miami CBS 8.01 10 Wipeout ABC 7.80 *--*

*--* 11 So You Think You Can Dance (Wed.) FOX 7.62 12 Criminal Minds CBS 7.56 13 CBS News: Michael Jackson CBS 7.47 14 CSI: NY CBS 7.43 15 The Big Bang Theory CBS 7.23 *--*

*--* 16 The Philanthropist NBC 7.12 17 48 Hours Mystery (Tue.) CBS 6.96 18 So You Think You Can Dance (Thu.) FOX 6.89 19 The Bachelorette ABC 6.76 20 Dateline (Fri.) NBC 6.74 *--*

*--* 21 Cold Case CBS 6.42 22 The Mentalist CBS 6.41 23 Million Dollar Password CBS 6.33 24 20/20 (Fri.) ABC 6.13 25 20/20 Special Edition (Thu.) (9 p.m.) ABC 5.72 *--*

*--* 26 Dateline (Thu.) NBC 5.56 27 Without a Trace CBS 5.47 28 Law & Order: SVU (Sat.) NBC 5.23 Dateline (Mon.) NBC 5.23 30 Numb3rs CBS 5.20 *--*

*--* 31 Dateline (Sun.) NBC 5.08 32 48 Hours Mystery CBS 5.06 33 House FOX 4.96 34 Manana Para Siempre (Mon.) UNI 4.78 35 Manana Para Siempre (Tue.) UNI 4.76 *--*

*--* Manana Para Siempre (Wed.) UNI 4.76 37 How I Met Your Mother CBS 4.72 38 Manana Para Siempre (Thu.) UNI 4.71 39 Rules of Engagement CBS 4.65 Primetime: Questions for the President: A Prescription ABC 4.65 for America *--*

*--* 41 Farrah’s Story NBC 4.59 *--*

*--* 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 CBS 6.51 10.57 NBC 5.52 7.05 ABC 4.47 8.01 FOX 4.20 8.64 UNI 3.25 3.83 *--*