America watches its ‘Talent’

NBC’s “America’s Got Talent” swept the top two spots among prime-time broadcast television shows for the third consecutive week, including drawing the largest Wednesday audience of the summer.

A two-hour episode featuring performances by 10 of the 20 semifinalists was the most-watched program between Aug. 31 and Sunday, averaging 12.81 million viewers on Sept. 1, according to figures released this week by Nielsen Media Research.

The hourlong results show on Sept. 2 was second for the week with 12.39 million viewers, the most for any Wednesday program on television this summer.

CBS had each of the next six most-watched programs on broadcast television, making it the most-watched network for the 13th time in the 15 weeks of television’s summer season, averaging 5.93 million viewers.

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Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (Aug. 31-Sept. 5) 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.

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*--* -- Program Net- work View- ers Program Net- work View- ers *--*

*--* 1 America’s Got Talent (Tue.) NBC 12.81 2 America’s Got Talent (Wed., 9 p.m.) NBC 12.39 3 NCIS CBS 10.10 4 Two and a Half Men CBS 8.46 5 The Big Bang Theory CBS 8.34 *--*

*--* 6 CSI: Miami CBS 7.89 7 Big Brother (Tue.) CBS 7.79 8 The Mentalist CBS 7.73 9 Hell’s Kitchen FOX 7.63 10 Wipeout ABC 7.62 *--*

*--* 11 NCIS (10 p.m.) CBS 7.41 12 CMA Music Festival ABC 7.39 13 Criminal Minds CBS 7.30 14 Dateline (Fri.) NBC 7.12 15 College Football: Alabama vs. Virginia Tech ABC 7.08 *--*

*--* 16 60 Minutes CBS 7.05 17 Primetime: Crime ABC 6.96 -- America’s Got Talent: Recap NBC 6.96 19 Big Brother (Thu.) CBS 6.81 20 CSI CBS 6.80 *--*

*--* 21 CSI: NY CBS 6.60 22 Dateline (Mon.) NBC 6.34 23 Law & Order: SVU (Wed., 9 p.m.) NBC 6.08 24 Big Brother (Sun.) CBS 5.99 25 America’s Got Talent (Tue., 8 p.m.) NBC 5.98 *--*

*--* 26 48 Hours Mystery CBS 5.52 27 Law & Order: CI NBC 5.49 28 Manana es Para Siempre (Mon.) UNI 5.28 29 Manana es Para Siempre (Wed.) UNI 5.17 30 Manana es Para Siempre (Thu.) UNI 5.06 *--*

*--* 31 Law & Order: Criminal Intent (Mon.) NBC 4.85 32 Manana es Para Siempre (Tue.) UNI 4.83 33 Manana es Para Siempre (Fri.) UNI 4.73 34 So You Think You Can Dance: Special (Wed.) FOX 4.72 35 Cold Case CBS 4.63 *--*

*--* 36 How I Met Your Mother CBS 4.62 37 How I Met Your Mother (8:30 p.m.) CBS 4.60 38 Bones FOX 4.57 39 Law & Order (Sat.) NBC 4.55 40 America’s Funniest Home Videos ABC 4.51 *--*

*--* 41 Numb3rs CBS 4.50 -- Dateline (Sun.) NBC 4.50 43 Law & Order: SVU (Sat.) NBC 4.47 44 Crash Course ABC 4.46 45 Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? FOX 4.45 *--*

*--* 46 House FOX 4.34 47 Cops (8:30 p.m.) FOX 4.31 48 The New Adventures of Old Christine CBS 4.13 49 Ghost Whisperer CBS 4.11 50 Glee FOX 4.09 *--*

*--* -- Cops (9 p.m.) FOX 4.09 52 Medium CBS 4.07 53 Football Pregame (Sat.) ABC 4.05 54 En Nombre del Amor (Mon.) UNI 4.02 55 Law & Order NBC 3.99 *--*

*--* 56 48 Hours Mystery (9 p.m.) CBS 3.97 57 20/20 (Fri.) ABC 3.96 58 Cops (9:30 p.m.) FOX 3.95 59 En Nombre del Amor (Wed.) UNI 3.89 60 More to Love FOX 3.81 *--*

*--* 61 Primetime: The Outsiders ABC 3.68 62 En Nombre del Amor (Tue.) UNI 3.66 63 En Nombre del Amor (Thu.) UNI 3.64 64 Lie to Me (Mon., 9 p.m.) FOX 3.61 65 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition ABC 3.57 *--*

*--* 66 Cops FOX 3.54 67 Fall Preview CBS 3.46 68 Grey’s Anatomy ABC 3.37 69 Shark Tank ABC 3.35 70 Shaq Vs. ABC 3.29 *--*

*--* 71 Rosa de Guadalupe UNI 3.27 72 Law & Order: Criminal Intent (Sat.) NBC 3.24 73 En Nombre del Amor (Fri.) UNI 3.18 74 Southland NBC 3.08 75 Cristina UNI 2.99 *--*

*--* 76 Fringe FOX 2.97 77 Aqui y Ahora (Tue.) UNI 2.95 78 Don Francisco Presenta UNI 2.92 79 There Goes the Neighborhood CBS 2.91 80 Un Gancho al Corazon (Mon.) UNI 2.88 *--*

*--* 81 Grey’s Anatomy (Thu., 8 p.m.) ABC 2.87 *--*

*--* 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 5.93 9.7

NBC 5.7 6.72

ABC 4.66 7.23

FOX 3.83 7.87

UNI 3.21 3.69 *--*

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