PRIME-TIME TV RANKINGS

ABC’s “Modern Family” is becoming an exception to the prime-time television season’s trend of new series generally struggling to find viewers.

After seeing its audience shrink each of the previous two weeks, the show’s viewership rose 6% last week to 9.35 million, making it the most-watched new comedy between Oct. 12-18, according to figures released Tuesday by the Nielsen Co.

“Modern Family” was 27th among all prime-time programs on the five major broadcast networks.

The NBC nursing drama “Mercy” was another new series with ratings success last week, winning its 8-9 p.m. Wednesday time slot.

With six of the week’s eight most-watched programs, CBS was the top-rated network for the fourth time in the season’s four weeks.

Its “NCIS” was the most-watched show on broadcast television for the fourth time, and “NCIS: Los Angeles” was the week’s most-watched new series for the fourth time.

This is the first time that the same network has had the same No. 1 show and No. 1 new show for each of the first four weeks of the season since 1998, when NBC’s “ER” and “Jesse” accomplished the feat.

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Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (Oct. 12-18) as compiled by the Nielsen Co. 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 21.03 2 NFL Football: Chicago Bears at Atlanta Falcons NBC 18.17 3 Dancing With the Stars ABC 16.79 4 NCIS: Los Angeles CBS 15.38 CSI CBS 15.38 *--*

*--* 6 The Mentalist CBS 15.08 7 60 Minutes CBS 14.32 8 Two and a Half Men CBS 14.17 9 Dancing With the Stars: Results ABC 13.95 10 Criminal Minds CBS 13.92 *--*

*--* 11 Grey’s Anatomy (Thu., 9 p.m.) ABC 13.79 12 Desperate Housewives ABC 13.68 13 House FOX 13.50 14 CSI: NY CBS 13.40 15 CSI: Miami CBS 13.27 *--*

*--* 16 The Big Bang Theory CBS 13.07 17 The Good Wife CBS 12.98 18 NFL Pregame (Sun.) NBC 12.00 19 Survivor: Samoa CBS 11.78 20 The Amazing Race CBS 10.92 *--*

*--* 21 Private Practice ABC 10.36 22 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (8 p.m.) ABC 10.33 23 Castle ABC 9.77 24 Brothers & Sisters ABC 9.72 25 Bones FOX 9.59 *--*

*--* 26 Baseball: ALCS Game 2: Angels at Yankees FOX 9.38 27 Modern Family ABC 9.35 28 The Biggest Loser NBC 9.14 29 FlashForward ABC 9.07 30 Law & Order: SVU NBC 8.77 *--*

*--* 31 The Simpsons FOX 8.69 32 How I Met Your Mother CBS 8.56 33 Baseball: ALCS Game 1: Angels at Yankees FOX 8.44 34 Family Guy FOX 8.13 35 Medium CBS 8.10 *--*

*--* 36 Ghost Whisperer CBS 8.05 37 Hell’s Kitchen FOX 8.04 38 The Office NBC 8.03 39 Numb3rs CBS 8.01 40 Cougar Town ABC 8.00 *--*

*--* 41 Lie to Me FOX 7.87 42 Three Rivers CBS 7.83 43 Law & Order NBC 7.73 Accidentally on Purpose CBS 7.73 45 America’s Funniest Home Videos ABC 7.72 *--*

*--* 46 Glee FOX 7.65 47 The Cleveland Show FOX 7.62 48 The Forgotten ABC 7.43 49 Mercy NBC 7.37 50 So You Think You Can Dance (Wed.) FOX 7.21 *--*

*--* 51 20/20 (Fri.) ABC 7.19 52 The New Adventures of Old Christine CBS 6.99 53 Gary Unmarried CBS 6.91 54 Football Night America (Part 3) NBC 6.83 55 The Middle ABC 6.77 *--*

*--* 56 30 Rock NBC 6.39 57 American Dad FOX 6.25 58 48 Hours Mystery CBS 6.24 59 The Jay Leno Show (Wed.) NBC 6.15 Hank ABC 6.15 *--*

*--* 61 Fringe FOX 5.78 62 The Jay Leno Show (Tue.) NBC 5.77 63 Secrets of the Lost Symbol NBC 5.72 64 Heroes NBC 5.55 65 Trauma NBC 5.49 *--*

*--* 66 Bank of America 500 ABC 5.48 67 The Jay Leno Show (Thu.) NBC 5.37 68 Law & Order: SVU (Sat.) NBC 5.26 69 Shark Tank ABC 5.24 70 The Jay Leno Show (Mon.) NBC 5.10 *--*

*--* 71 Eastwick ABC 5.08 72 Ugly Betty ABC 5.07 73 Crimetime Saturday CBS 5.06 74 The Jay Leno Show (Fri.) NBC 5.02 75 Community NBC 5.01 *--*

*--* 76 Crimetime (Sat., 8 p.m.) CBS 4.95 77 Sortilegio (Thu.) UNI 4.71 78 Sortilegio (Tue.) UNI 4.67 79 The Simpsons (Sun., 7:30 p.m.) FOX 4.55 80 Parks and Recreation NBC 4.53 *--*

*--* 81 Sortilegio (Fri.) UNI 4.47 82 Sortilegio (Mon.) UNI 4.37 83 En Nombre del Amor (Mon.) UNI 4.30 84 Sortilegio (Wed.) UNI 4.25 85 En Nombre del Amor (Tue.) UNI 4.24 *--*

*--* 86 En Nombre del Amor (Thu.) UNI 4.10 87 En Nombre del Amor (Wed.) UNI 4.08 88 Vampire Diaries CW 3.88 89 Cristina (Mon.) UNI 3.77 90 En Nombre del Amor (Fri.) UNI 3.59 *--*

*--* 91 Football Night America (Part 2) NBC 3.29 *--*

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 11.88

NBC 7.41

FOX 8.41

CW 2.26

UNI 3.36 *--*

Season to date numbers not available