PRIME-TIME TV RANKINGS

Friday’s premiere of Disney Channel’s “Wizards of Waverly Place: The Movie” was cable television’s most-watched program of the year and nearly beat out all of the week’s prime-time programming on the five major broadcast networks.

“Wizards of Waverly Place: The Movie,” a two-hour version of the series about three siblings with magical abilities, drew 11.43 million viewers, just 30,000 behind the Tuesday version of NBC’s “America’s Got Talent,” according to figures released Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research.

“Wizards of Waverly Place: The Movie” was the second-most-watched scripted program on cable television since 2007, trailing only the Aug. 17, 2007, premiere of “High School Musical 2,” which had 17.24 million viewers.

Disney Channel was the week’s most-watched cable network in prime time, averaging 3.92 million viewers, topping Walt Disney Co. corporate sibling ABC, which averaged 3.84 million viewers.

NBC had the week’s three most-watched prime-time programs on broadcast television, but CBS had each of the next seven to be the most-watched network for the 10th time in 11 weeks and 12th time in the 14 weeks of television’s summer season, averaging 6.6 million viewers.

CBS had each of the eight most-watched scripted programs, topped by “NCIS,” which finished fourth overall.

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Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (Aug. 24-30) 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 America’s Got Talent NBC 11.46 -- (Tue.) 2 America’s Got Talent NBC 11.19 -- (Wed.) 3 Preseason football: NBC 10.38 -- Chicago at Denver 4 NCIS CBS 10.06 5 60 Minutes CBS 9.71 *--*

*--* 6 Two and a Half Men CBS 9.55 7 The Big Bang Theory CBS 8.56 8 CSI CBS 8.40 9 The Mentalist CBS 8.07 10 Big Brother (Thu.) CBS 7.79 *--*

*--* 11 Hell’s Kitchen FOX 7.77 12 Wipeout ABC 7.63 13 The Mentalist (10 p.m.) CBS 7.59 14 Big Brother (Sun.) CBS 7.44 15 Big Brother (Tue.) CBS 7.27 *--*

*--* 16 CSI: Miami CBS 7.22 17 America’s Got Talent: NBC 6.57 -- Recap 18 Dateline (Fri.) NBC 6.55 19 CSI: NY CBS 6.43 20 America’s Funniest Home ABC 6.37 -- Videos *--*

*--* 21 Preseason football: New CBS 6.28 -- England at Washington 22 Law & Order: SVU (Wed.) NBC 6.04 23 Dateline (Mon.) NBC 5.97 24 America’s Got Talent NBC 5.89 -- (Tue.) (8 p.m.) 25 Preseason football: Miami FOX 5.80 -- at Tampa Bay *--*

*--* 26 Cold Case CBS 5.72 27 Criminal Minds CBS 5.71 28 How I Met Your Mother CBS 5.65 -- (8:30 p.m.) 29 Extreme Makeover: Home ABC 5.60 -- Edition 30 How I Met Your Mother CBS 5.36 *--*

*--* 31 The Simpsons (8:30 p.m.) FOX 5.22 32 Family Guy FOX 5.04 33 Manana Es Para Siempre UNI 4.98 -- (Wed.) 34 Manana Es Para Siempre UNI 4.95 -- (Tue.) 35 Shark Tank ABC 4.89 *--*

*--* 36 Crash Course ABC 4.81 37 Manana Es Para Siempre UNI 4.77 -- (Mon.) 38 Manana Es Para Siempre UNI 4.71 -- (Thu.) 39 America’s Most Wanted: FOX 4.69 -- America Fights Back 40 House FOX 4.65 *--*

*--* 41 Cops (8:30 p.m.) FOX 4.52 42 Are You Smarter Than a FOX 4.51 -- 5th Grader? (9 p.m.) 43 Dateline (Sun.) NBC 4.49 44 The Simpsons FOX 4.48 45 The Great American Road NBC 4.46 -- Trip *--*

*--* 46 Special: “Ted Kennedy: CBS 4.44 -- The Last Brother” 47 Bones (Wed.) FOX 4.40 48 Law & Order: SVU (Sat.) NBC 4.36 49 American Dad FOX 4.34 50 Are You Smarter Than a FOX 4.31 -- 5th Grader? *--*

*--* 51 Dating in the Dark ABC 4.27 -- Bones (Wed.) (9 p.m.) FOX 4.27 53 Manana Es Para Siempre UNI 4.25 -- (Fri.) 54 Law & Order NBC 4.18 55 Law & Order: Criminal NBC 4.16 -- Intent *--*

*--* 56 Lie to Me (Mon.) FOX 4.15 -- Preseason football: San CBS 4.15 -- Diego at Atlanta 58 Shaq Vs. ABC 4.14 59 20/20 ABC 4.07 60 The Office NBC 3.97 *--*

*--* 61 More to Love FOX 3.95 62 Special: “Remembering ABC 3.92 -- Ted Kennedy” 63 En Nombre del Amor UNI 3.80 -- (Tue.) 64 En Nombre del Amor UNI 3.80 -- (Wed.) 65 Southland NBC 3.69 *--*

*--* 66 There Goes Neighborhood CBS 3.68 67 Castle ABC 3.53 68 Aqui y Ahora UNI 3.50 69 30 Rock (8 p.m.) NBC 3.49 -- Cops FOX 3.49 *--*

*--* 71 En Nombre del Amor UNI 3.48 -- (Thu.) 72 En Nombre del Amor UNI 3.47 -- (Mon.) *--*

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 6.60 9.78 NBC 6.37 6.74 FOX 4.78 7.95 ABC 3.84 7.28 UNI 3.18 3.70 *--*