With ‘Survivor,’ CBS continues to thrive

With viewership for Sunday’s finale of the 18th season of “Survivor” nearly matching last spring’s finale and two other “Survivor” broadcasts also finishing among the Top 20, CBS was the most-watched network for the 11th consecutive week and the 28th time in the season’s 34 weeks.

Viewership for most competition series finales falls as the show ages. True to form, the average of 12.94 million viewers for Sunday’s “Survivor” conclusion was the lowest in series history. But it still won its 8-10 p.m. time slot, finishing 14th for the week, with an audience nearly identical to the 12.98 million for last spring’s finale.

With 14 of the 22 most-watched programs, CBS averaged 11.15 million viewers for its prime-time programming between May 11 and Sunday, 8% more than the similar week last year, according to figures released Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research.

ABC topped Fox Broadcasting for the first time since “American Idol” returned to the latter’s schedule in January, finishing second with an average of 9.41 million viewers.

ABC had the week’s most-watched scripted program, Thursday’s two-hour finale of “Grey’s Anatomy,” which finished fourth overall with 16.53 million viewers, behind the two “American Idol” broadcasts and the competition episode of ABC’s “Dancing With the Stars.”

NBC’s “The Biggest Loser” overcame the usual trend of declining viewership for competition series finales by averaging 11.85 million viewers, 4% more than last spring’s finale. “The Biggest Loser” averaged 10.2 million viewers for the season, the most since its inaugural 2004-2005 season.

The two-hour NBC News special “Farrah’s Story,” about Farrah Fawcett’s battle with cancer, was 31st with 9.01 million viewers.

TNT’s coverage of Sunday’s decisive Game 7 of the Boston Celtics-Orlando Magic series was the week’s most-watched cable program, drawing 8.38 million viewers, the most for a second-round NBA playoff game in cable history. That would have placed it 36th among the programs on the five major broadcast networks.

Game 6 of the Lakers-Houston Rockets series Thursday was second among the week’s cable programs with 7.35 million viewers.

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Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (May 11-17) 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 (Wed.) FOX 24.67 2 American Idol (Tue.) FOX 22.71 3 Dancing With the Stars ABC 18.55 4 Grey’s Anatomy (Thu., 9 p.m.) ABC 16.53 5 The Mentalist CBS 16.20 *--*

*--* 6 NCIS CBS 16.19 7 CSI CBS 14.81 8 Dancing With the Stars (Results) ABC 14.06 9 Desperate Housewives ABC 13.96 10 CSI: Miami CBS 13.59 *--*

*--* 11 Without a Trace CBS 13.40 12 Criminal Minds CBS 13.37 13 Two and a Half Men CBS 13.11 14 Survivor: Tocantins (Finale) CBS 12.94 15 CSI: NY (Thu., 10 p.m.) CBS 12.77 *--*

*--* 16 House FOX 12.74 17 CSI: NY CBS 12.33 18 Survivor: Tocantins CBS 12.18 19 Biggest Loser NBC 11.85 20 Survivor: Tocantins (Reunion) CBS 11.59 *--*

*--* 21 60 Minutes CBS 10.19 22 Rules of Engagement CBS 10.13 23 Castle ABC 9.96 24 24 FOX 9.79 25 The Big Bang Theory CBS 9.76 *--*

*--* 26 Numb3rs CBS 9.72 27 Lost ABC 9.43 28 Fringe FOX 9.28 29 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (8 p.m.) ABC 9.27 30 Ghost Whisperer CBS 9.15 *--*

*--* 31 Farrah’s Story NBC 9.01 32 Bones FOX 8.88 33 How I Met Your Mother CBS 8.78 34 Flashpoint CBS 8.50 35 Lie to Me FOX 8.46 *--*

*--* 36 Law & Order NBC 7.89 37 Hell’s Kitchen FOX 7.37 38 Family Guy FOX 7.35 39 Medium NBC 7.30 40 48 Hours Mystery CBS 6.96 *--*

*--* 41 The Office NBC 6.77 Ugly Betty ABC 6.77 43 The New Adventures of Old Christine CBS 6.50 44 Medium (Mon.) NBC 6.40 45 Lost (Wed., 8 p.m.) ABC 6.33 *--*

*--* 46 Rules of Engagement (Wed.) CBS 6.30 47 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (7 p.m.) ABC 6.03 48 Dateline (Sun., 7 p.m.) NBC 5.92 49 Crimetime Saturday CBS 5.90 50 The Simpsons FOX 5.85 *--*

*--* 51 America’s Funniest Home Videos (Fri.) ABC 5.76 52 20/20 (Fri.) ABC 5.74 53 30 Rock NBC 5.69 54 American Dad FOX 5.64 55 Law & Order: CI (Wed.) NBC 5.36 *--*

*--* 56 Dateline (Fri.) NBC 5.27 57 Manana Para Siempre (Tue.) UNI 5.25 58 King of the Hill FOX 5.21 Manana Para Siempre (Mon.) UNI 5.21 Manana Para Siempre (Wed.) UNI 5.21 *--*

*--* 61 Aqui Y Ahora (Tue.) UNI 5.05 Cupid ABC 5.05 63 Crimetime Saturday (8 p.m.) CBS 4.91 64 My Name Is Earl NBC 4.84 65 Manana Para Siempre (Thu.) UNI 4.79 *--*

*--* 66 Manana Para Siempre (Fri.) UNI 4.77 67 Southland NBC 4.65 68 Law & Order (Sat.) NBC 4.60 69 Law & Order: SVU (Wed., 9 p.m.) NBC 4.45 70 Nuestra Belleza (Sun.) UNI 4.33 *--*

*--* 71 America’s Most Wanted: America Fights Back FOX 4.32 72 America’s Next Top Model CW 4.31 73 Parks and Recreation NBC 4.29 74 Cops FOX 4.26 75 Deal or No Deal (Mon.) NBC 4.23 *--*

*--* 76 Cuidado con el Angel (Tue.) UNI 4.20 77 Cuidado con el Angel (Mon.) UNI 4.09 78 Cuidado con el Angel (Wed.) UNI 3.90 79 According to Jim (Tue., 8 p.m.) ABC 3.80 80 SNL: Just Shorts NBC 3.77 *--*

*--* 81 According to Jim (Tue., 8:30 p.m.) ABC 3.74 82 Movie: ‘Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire’ ABC 3.65 83 Cuidado con el Angel (Thu.) UNI 3.49 84 Cuidado con el Angel (Fri.) UNI 3.47 85 Mujeres Asesinas (Thu.) UNI 3.41 *--*

*--* 86 Law & Order: SVU (Sat.) NBC 3.33 87 Prison Break FOX 3.32 88 Don Francisco Presenta (Wed.) UNI 3.31 89 Nuestra Belleza Latina el Destape (Sun.) UNI 3.29 90 Tontas No Van Cielo (Mon.) UNI 3.26 *--*

*--* 91 Tontas No Van Cielo (Wed.) UNI 3.25 92 Cops FOX 3.25 93 Tontas No Van Cielo (Tue.) UNI 3.19 94 Rosa de Guadalupe (Fri.) UNI 3.13 Smallville CW 3.13 *--*

*--* 96 Cristina (Mon.) UNI 3.12 97 Tontas No Van Cielo (Thu.) UNI 2.98 98 Supernatural CW 2.89 99 American Dad (Sun., 7:30 p.m.) FOX 2.77 100 Southland (Sat.) NBC 2.74 *--*

*--* 101 Tontas No Van Cielo (Fri.) UNI 2.53 102 King of the Hill (Sun., 7 p.m.) FOX 2.44 103 Sabado Gigante (Sat.) UNI 2.42 104 Confesiones (Sun.) UNI 2.37 105 One Tree Hill (Mon.) CW 2.30 *--*

*--* Gossip Girl (Mon.) CW 2.30 107 90210 CW 2.08 108 Reaper CW 1.97 109 The Game CW 1.78 110 Movie: ‘Licence to Kill’ CW 1.50 *--*

*--* 111 Gilberto Gless: el Gran Imitador (Sat.) UNI 1.35 112 America’s Next Top Model (Encore) CW 1.34 113 90210 (Encore) CW 0.95 *--*

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 11.15 11.13

ABC 9.41 8.45

Fox 9.02 9.12

NBC 6.36 7.39

UNI 3.83 3.92 *--*