NBC Has Unleashed a Victory

NBC’s “Law & Order” franchise combined with the all-unscripted Monday lineup led by “Dog Eat Dog” to help the network secure a second consecutive ratings win over CBS last week, based on viewing estimates issued Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research.

Despite the hubbub surrounding original summer shows, CBS’ “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” has been the most-watched program five consecutive weeks. As a sign of how well the crime drama is repeating, its audience last Thursday more than doubled tune-in for the “ER” rerun that followed on NBC.

“Monday Night Football’s” preseason Hall of Fame game, meanwhile, featuring John Madden’s debut, exceeded viewing of last year’s contest by 1.5 million viewers but fell short of Dennis Miller’s heavily touted first appearance in 2000.

The game and pregame show were nevertheless ABC’s lone entries among the week’s top 20.

Thanks primarily to its twice-weekly hit “American Idol,” Fox is up 4% for the summer (which by the TV calendar officially began in late May) versus last year.

CBS and NBC are also near year-ago summer levels, and all three of those networks increased viewership last week compared to 2001.

Only “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire”-less ABC is experiencing a significant decline, down 22% in its year-to-year summer average.

Brian Lowry

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National Nielsen Viewership

Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (Aug. 5-11) 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 269 million potential viewers in the U.S. age 2 and older. Viewership is listed in millions.

*--* Program Network Viewers 1 CSI CBS 14.14 2 Dog Eat Dog NBC 12.65 3 60 Minutes CBS 12.19 4 American Idol (Tue.) FOX 12.15 5 Everybody Loves Raymond CBS 12.05 6 Law & Order NBC 11.33 7 Dateline NBC (Tue.) NBC 10.99 8 American Idol (Wed.) FOX 10.82 9 Dateline NBC (Tue.) NBC 10.77 10 48 Hours (Mon.) CBS 10.70 11 Becker CBS 10.68 12 Law & Order: Criminal Intent NBC 10.59 13 NFL Hall of Fame Game ABC 10.52 14 Meet My Folks (Mon.) NBC 10.51 15 “AFC/NFC Showcase” ABC 10.09 16 Fear Factor NBC 9.26 17 Law & Order: SVU NBC 9.11 18 Crime & Punishment NBC 8.89 19 Big Brother 3 (Wed.) CBS 8.68 20 Big Brother 3 (Thu.) CBS 8.64 21 Yes, Dear CBS 8.55 King of Queens CBS 8.55 23 Friends NBC 8.22 24 Primetime Thursday ABC 8.16 25 Will & Grace NBC 8.15 26 Dateline NBC (Fri.) NBC 8.05 27 The Agency CBS 8.04 28 The Bernie Mac Show FOX 7.93 29 30 Seconds (8:30 p.m.) FOX 7.89 30 My Wife & Kids (8:30 p.m.) ABC 7.85 31 “Color of Love” CBS 7.62 32 20/20 (Fri.) ABC 7.48 33 Mole II: The Next Betrayal ABC 7.40 34 The West Wing NBC 7.26 35 JAG CBS 7.21 36 48 Hours (Wed.) CBS 7.09 37 Judging Amy CBS 7.06 38 The Simpsons FOX 6.95 39 ER NBC 6.92 40 Frasier NBC 6.90 Scrubs (Thu.) NBC 6.90 42 The Guardian (Tue.) CBS 6.76 43 My Wife & Kids ABC 6.73 44 30 Seconds to Fame FOX 6.69 45 60 Minutes II CBS 6.68 46 Malcolm/Middle (9:30 p.m.) FOX 6.64 47 According to Jim (8:30 p.m.) ABC 6.63 48 Rerun Show (Thu.) NBC 6.60 49 Spy TV NBC 6.55 50 Funniest Home Videos ABC 6.47 51 Big Brother 3 (Sat.) CBS 6.44 52 The Simpsons (Tue.) FOX 6.42 53 The Guardian (Sun.) CBS 6.21 54 Malcolm in the Middle FOX 6.15 55 King of the Hill FOX 6.01 56 Scrubs NBC 6.00 57 America’s Most Wanted FOX 5.96 58 Rerun Show NBC 5.81 59 According to Jim ABC 5.80 60 The Drew Carey Show ABC 5.78 61 “The Wedding” Part 1 ABC 5.67 62 That ‘70s Show FOX 5.64 63 Beyond Belief: Fact/Fiction FOX 5.58 64 48 Hours CBS 5.52 65 The District CBS 5.50 66 “Funny Flubs & Screw-Ups” CBS 5.46 67 “Peter Pan” ABC 5.40 68 Drew Carey (9:30 p.m.) ABC 5.29 69 The Agency (Sat.) CBS 5.25 70 “ICU:/Children’s Hospital” ABC 5.19 71 Widows ABC 5.16 72 Cops (8:30 p.m.) FOX 5.05 73 U.S. Gymnastics (Sun.) NBC 4.98 74 Crossing Jordan NBC 4.97 75 “Crocodile Hunter” NBC 4.82 76 “Excess Baggage” ABC 4.79 77 Cops FOX 4.62 78 Pulse FOX 4.04 79 Meet My Folks (Sat.) NBC 3.99 80 WWE Smackdown! UPN 3.96 81 “The Spy Who Loved Me” ABC 3.89 82 Boston Public FOX 3.84 83 Titus (9:30 p.m.) FOX 3.76 84 U.S. Gymnastics (Sat.) NBC 3.68 85 Greg the Bunny FOX 3.55 86 Futurama FOX 3.48 87 7th Heaven WB 3.45 88 Titus FOX 3.34 89 “Annual Family TV Awards” ABC 3.31 90 “Celine Dion: A New Day” CBS 3.30 91 “Invasion: Hidden Cameras” FOX 3.20 92 Reba WB 3.15 93 One on One (9:30 p.m.) UPN 3.10 94 Smallville WB 3.09 95 “Hid. Cameras” (8:30 p.m.) FOX 3.05 96 Gilmore Girls WB 2.91 One on One (8:30 p.m.) UPN 2.91 98 Girlfriends UPN 2.90 99 Reba (Thu.) WB 2.70 100 Jamie Kennedy (Thu.) WB 2.56 101 Raising Dad WB 2.51 102 The Parkers UPN 2.43 103 Enterprise UPN 2.41 104 Smallville (Mon.) WB 2.29 105 Off Centre WB 2.24 106 “Happy Campers” WB 2.15 “The Rubicon Conspiracy” UPN 2.15 108 Sabrina (8:30 p.m.) WB 2.14 109 The X-Files FOX 2.13 110 Jamie Kennedy WB 2.12 111 Buffy the Vampire Slayer UPN 1.98 112 Sabrina, the Teenage Witch WB 1.96 113 Enterprise (9 p.m.) UPN 1.79 114 The Hughleys UPN 1.74 115 The Parkers UPN 1.72 116 Angel WB 1.56 117 Charmed WB 1.50 118 For Your Love (7:30 p.m.) WB 1.49 119 For Your Love WB 1.43

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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 NBC 7.93 12.16 CBS 7.73 11.25 ABC 6.25 8.76 FOX 5.62 8.37 UPN 2.58 3.92 WB 2.33 3.43

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