PRIME-TIME TV RANKINGS

“Dancing With the Stars” drew its largest season-premiere audience, but less than half the viewers stuck around to watch the debut of mystery drama “Castle” that followed last Monday on ABC.

The two-hour “Dancing With the Stars” premiere averaged 22.83 million viewers, ABC’s largest audience in the Monday 8 to 10 p.m. slot since New Year’s Day 2001.

“Castle,” which followed, was second in its time slot and 23rd for the week with 10.76 million viewers, according to figures released Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research.

NBC’s two premieres last week, “Kings” and “The Chopping Block,” didn’t come close to matching the viewership of an episode of “ER” that included unpromoted guest appearances by original cast members George Clooney and Julianna Margulies. “Kings,” a modern-day version of the David and Goliath story, was 53rd, averaging 6.08 million viewers. The cooking competition series “The Chopping Block” averaged 3.77 million viewers, putting it 90th.

“ER” drew 10.86 million viewers, its most since Feb. 15, 2007.

CBS was the most-watched network for the 19th time in the season’s 25 weeks, with 10 of the 15 most-watched programs.

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Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (March 9-15) 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 25.77 2 American Idol (Wed.) FOX 25.55 3 Dancing With the Stars ABC 22.83 4 CSI CBS 17.13 5 Desperate Housewives ABC 14.60 *--*

*--* 6 Criminal Minds CBS 14.34 7 The Mentalist CBS 14.32 8 CSI: Miami CBS 14.21 9 Grey’s Anatomy (Thu., 9 p.m.) ABC 13.64 10 CSI: NY CBS 13.63 *--*

*--* 11 NCIS CBS 13.52 12 Two and a Half Men CBS 13.44 13 Cold Case CBS 13.02 14 60 Minutes CBS 12.87 15 Survivor: Tocantins CBS 12.82 *--*

*--* 16 House FOX 12.38 17 Eleventh Hour CBS 11.61 18 24 FOX 11.37 19 Lie to Me FOX 11.25 20 Law & Order: SVU NBC 11.07 *--*

*--* 21 The Unit CBS 10.87 22 ER NBC 10.86 23 Castle ABC 10.76 24 Ghost Whisperer CBS 10.57 25 Brothers & Sisters ABC 10.43 *--*

*--* 26 The Amazing Race CBS 10.33 27 Without a Trace CBS 10.22 28 Rules of Engagement CBS 9.95 29 Bones FOX 9.67 30 Numb3rs CBS 9.51 *--*

*--* 31 The Big Bang Theory CBS 9.47 32 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (8 p.m.) ABC 9.44 33 The Biggest Loser NBC 9.38 34 Flashpoint CBS 8.81 35 How I Met Your Mother CBS 8.67 *--*

*--* 36 Private Practice ABC 8.60 37 Hell’s Kitchen FOX 7.71 38 Office NBC 7.67 39 Law & Order NBC 7.64 40 Gary Unmarried CBS 7.63 *--*

*--* 41 America’s Funniest Home Videos ABC 7.60 42 The New Adventures of Old Christine CBS 7.46 43 Crimetime Saturday CBS 7.39 44 Family Guy FOX 7.29 45 Medium NBC 7.13 *--*

*--* 46 48 Hours Mystery CBS 7.12 Ugly Betty ABC 7.12 48 Celebrity Apprentice NBC 6.80 49 Heroes NBC 6.70 50 20/20 (Fri.) ABC 6.46 *--*

*--* 51 30 Rock NBC 6.43 52 Cops 2 FOX 6.13 53 Kings NBC 6.08 54 The Simpsons FOX 6.03 55 American Dad FOX 5.88 *--*

*--* 56 Chuck NBC 5.80 57 Crimetime Saturday (8 p.m.) CBS 5.65 58 King of the Hill FOX 5.48 59 America’s Most Wanted: America Fights Back FOX 5.32 60 Primetime: What Would You Do? ABC 5.25 *--*

*--* Manana Para Siempre (Thu.) UNI 5.25 62 Life NBC 5.21 63 Manana Para Siempre (Fri.) UNI 5.18 64 Dateline (Fri.) NBC 5.17 65 Homeland Security USA ABC 5.14 *--*

*--* 66 Cops FOX 5.11 67 Dancing With the Stars (Sat.) ABC 5.02 Manana Para Siempre (Wed.) UNI 5.02 69 Cuidado con el Angel (Tue.) UNI 4.93 Manana Para Siempre (Mon.) UNI 4.93 *--*

*--* 71 Cuidado con el Angel (Thu.) UNI 4.86 72 Cuidado con el Angel (Fri.) UNI 4.78 73 Manana Para Siempre (Tue.) UNI 4.75 74 Cuidado con el Angel (Wed.) UNI 4.69 75 Cuidado con el Angel (Mon.) UNI 4.66 *--*

*--* 76 Law & Order (Sat.) NBC 4.61 77 Supernanny ABC 4.51 78 Life on Mars ABC 4.49 79 America’s Next Top Model CW 4.45 80 Lost ABC 4.33 *--*

*--* 81 Dateline (Sun., 7 p.m.) NBC 4.30 82 Dollhouse FOX 4.26 83 My Name Is Earl NBC 4.17 84 Howie Do It 8:30 NBC 4.12 85 Howie Do It (8 p.m.) NBC 4.08 *--*

*--* 86 Friday Night Lights NBC 4.03 87 Wife Swap ABC 3.96 88 Kath & Kim NBC 3.89 89 Tontas No Van Cielo (Mon.) UNI 3.78 90 Chopping Block NBC 3.77 *--*

*--* 91 Tontas No Van Cielo (Thu.) UNI 3.70 92 Nuestra Belleza (Sun.) UNI 3.65 93 Rosa de Guadalupe (Fri.) UNI 3.59 94 Castle (Sat.) ABC 3.57 Smallville CW 3.57 *--*

*--* 96 Scrubs (Wed., 8 p.m.) ABC 3.55 Tontas No Van Cielo UNI 3.55 (Fri.) 98 Tontas No Van Cielo (Tue.) UNI 3.51 99 Rosa de Guadalupe (Thu.) UNI 3.40 100 Terminator: The Sarah Connor FOX 3.39 Chronicles *--*

*--* 101 Tontas No Van Cielo (Wed.) UNI 3.34 102 Scrubs (Wed.) ABC 3.25 103 Don Francisco Presenta (Wed.) UNI 3.13 *--*

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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 Lastweek Seasonto date CBS 11.23 11.18

FOX 11.2 8.97

ABC 7.97 8.47

NBC 6.02 7.86

UNI 3.73 3.92 *--*

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More on rankings

Scott Collins writes about the rankings in Company Town.

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