PRIME-TIME TV RANKINGS

Outside of CBS’ “NCIS: Los Angeles” and “The Good Wife,” viewers clearly preferred returning series to new entries during the third week of the prime-time television season.

“NCIS: Los Angeles” and “The Good Wife” were the third- and 11th-most-watched prime-time programs on the five major broadcast networks between Oct. 5 and Sunday. The next most-viewed new series was ABC’s “FlashForward,” which was 29th, according to figures released by Nielsen Co.

Few new series in recent seasons have been able to draw large audiences early. “NCIS: Los Angeles” benefits both from being a spinoff of “NCIS,” television’s most-watched series, and from following it.

With five of the seven most-watched programs on broadcast television, CBS was the most-watched network for the third time this season, averaging a season-high 12.19 million viewers.

ESPN’s five-week streak as cable’s most-watched network in prime time ended, as TBS’ coverage of Major League Baseball’s playoffs helped it average 5.41 million for its prime-time programming, the most in its 33-year history.

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Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (Oct. 5-11) as compiled by the Nielsen Company. 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 NCIS CBS 20.70 2 Dancing With the Stars ABC 16.35 3 NCIS: Los Angeles CBS 16.31 4 NFL Football: Indianapolis at Tennessee NBC 16.02 5 CSI CBS 14.90 *--*

*--* 6 The Mentalist CBS 14.70 7 60 Minutes CBS 14.54 8 Grey’s Anatomy (Thu., 9 p.m.) ABC 14.13 9 Criminal Minds CBS 14.05 10 House FOX 13.74 *--*

*--* 11 The Good Wife CBS 13.69 12 CSI: Miami CBS 13.43 13 Desperate Housewives ABC 13.42 14 Two and a Half Men CBS 13.30 15 The Big Bang Theory CBS 12.51 *--*

*--* 16 CSI: NY CBS 12.43 17 Dancing With the Stars (results) ABC 12.42 18 NFL Pregame NBC 12.32 19 Survivor CBS 11.69 20 The Amazing Race CBS 10.52 *--*

*--* 21 College football: Florida at LSU CBS 10.50 22 Bones FOX 10.29 23 Football Night America (Part 3) NBC 9.82 24 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (8 p.m.) ABC 9.81 25 Private Practice ABC 9.50 *--*

*--* 26 The Office NBC 9.42 27 The Biggest Loser NBC 9.24 28 Castle ABC 9.23 29 FlashForward ABC 9.00 30 Brothers & Sisters ABC 8.97 *--*

*--* 31 Family Guy FOX 8.97 32 Modern Family ABC 8.82 33 Ghost Whisperer CBS 8.78 34 Law & Order: SVU NBC 8.29 Medium CBS 8.29 *--*

*--* 36 How I Met Your Mother CBS 8.08 37 Lie to Me FOX 8.06 38 The Cleveland Show FOX 7.87 Cold Case CBS 7.87 40 Cougar Town ABC 7.84 *--*

*--* 41 The Simpsons FOX 7.60 42 The Forgotten ABC 7.55 43 Mercy NBC 7.43 44 Hell’s Kitchen FOX 7.43 45 America’s Funniest Home Videos ABC 7.39 *--*

*--* 46 Numb3rs CBS 7.34 47 Manana Es Para Siempre (Mon.) UNI 7.33 Three Rivers CBS 7.33 49 Glee FOX 7.28 50 Law & Order NBC 7.22 *--*

*--* 51 Accidentally on Purpose CBS 7.17 52 Dateline (Fri.) NBC 7.11 53 The New Adventures of Old Christine CBS 6.86 54 Gary Unmarried CBS 6.84 55 The Middle ABC 6.79 *--*

*--* 56 American Dad FOX 6.75 57 Hank ABC 6.45 58 20/20 (Fri.) ABC 6.36 59 So You Think You Can Dance (Wed.) FOX 6.22 60 Jay Leno Show (Tue.) NBC 6.21 *--*

*--* 61 Fringe FOX 5.83 62 Jay Leno Show (Wed.) NBC 5.71 63 Football Night America (Part 2) NBC 5.59 64 So You Think You Can Dance (Tue.) FOX 5.47 65 Heroes NBC 5.46 *--*

*--* 66 America’s Most Wanted: America Fights Back FOX 5.41 67 Trauma NBC 5.36 68 Cops 2 FOX 5.33 69 Jay Leno Show (Fri.) NBC 5.31 70 Shark Tank ABC 5.15 *--*

*--* 71 Eastwick ABC 5.14 72 Cops FOX 5.11 73 Law & Order: SVU (Sat.) NBC 4.90 74 Community NBC 4.87 75 Jay Leno Show (Thu.) NBC 4.84 *--*

*--* 76 Parks and Recreation NBC 4.75 77 College Football: Michigan at Iowa ABC 4.58 78 Sortilegio (Tue.) UNI 4.54 79 Jay Leno Show (Mon.) NBC 4.45 80 Sortilegio (Wed.) UNI 4.31 *--*

*--* 81 Sortilegio (Thu.) UNI 4.15 82 En Nombre del Amor (Thu.) UNI 4.09 83 Cristina (Tue.) UNI 4.04 84 En Nombre del Amor (Wed.) UNI 4.02 85 En Nombre del Amor (Tue.) UNI 3.89 *--*

*--* 86 En Nombre del Amor (Fri.) UNI 3.87 87 Sortilegio Fri UNI 3.86 88 The Cleveland Show (Sun., 7:30 p.m.) FOX 3.70 89 Vampire Diaries CW 3.52 90 Un Gancho al Corazon (Tue.) UNI 3.32 *--*

*--* 91 College Football Pregame ABC 3.28 92 America’s Next Top Model CW 3.16 93 Un Gancho al Corazon (Mon.) UNI 3.11 *--*

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 12.19 12.17

ABC 8.41 10.01

NBC 7.52 7.81

FOX 6.54 7.56

UNI 3.74 3.75 *--*