Viewers stick with favorites over finales

Viewers didn’t find last week’s finales and specials all that special, according to figures released Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research.

The 10 most-watched programs between May 8 and Sunday were virtually unchanged from the previous week.

Sunday’s finale of “The West Wing” drew a season-high 10.11 million viewers, but not enough to keep it out of third place from 8-9 p.m. behind the season finale of CBS’ “Survivor: Panama -- Exile Island” and ABC’s “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.”

Neither of the week’s two magic specials did much to conjure up viewers. “David Blaine: Drowned Alive” finished 35th for the week with 10.05 million viewers, and CBS’ “Keith Barry: Extraordinary” drew 5.72 million viewers, 75th for the week.

The ABC made-for-television movie “Fatal Contact: Bird Flu in America” was 80th for the week, averaging 5.28 million viewers.

CBS was the most-watched network for the ninth consecutive week, averaging 13.2 million viewers. Fox finished first among viewers ages 18 to 49.

HBO’s “The Sopranos” was the week’s most-watched cable program, drawing 8.14 million viewers, which would have put it 48th among the programs on the six major broadcast networks.

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Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (May 8-14) 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 277.93 million potential viewers in the U.S. ages 2 and older. Viewership is listed in millions.

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

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*--* 1 American Idol (Tue.) FOX 28.85 2 American Idol (Wed.) FOX 27.88 3 CSI CBS 27.04 4 House FOX 24.29 5 Grey’s Anatomy ABC 22.60

6 Desperate Housewives ABC 21.03 7 CSI: Miami CBS 19.96 8 Without a Trace CBS 19.19 9 “Survivor: Panama, Exile Island Finale” CBS 17.07 10 Survivor: Panama, Exile Island CBS 16.96

11 Lost ABC 16.35 12 Deal or No Deal (Mon.) NBC 15.90 13 NCIS CBS 15.71 14 Deal or No Deal (Wed.) NBC 15.54 15 CSI: NY CBS 15.16

16 Two and a Half Men CBS 14.86 17 Unan1mous FOX 14.21 18 The Unit (9 p.m.) CBS 14.18 19 24 FOX 13.86 20 ER NBC 13.24

21 Law & Order: SVU (Tue.) NBC 12.88 22 Law & Order NBC 12.68 23 Deal or No Deal (Fri.) NBC 12.67 Criminal Minds CBS 12.67 25 Numb3rs CBS 12.34

26 The Unit (10 p.m.) CBS 12.33 27 Law & Order: Criminal Intent (Sun.) NBC 11.92 28 Old Christine CBS 11.87 29 60 Minutes CBS 11.82 30 “Survivor: Panama, Exile Island Reunion” CBS 11.65

31 Medium NBC 11.44 32 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition ABC 10.89 33 Dateline (Wed.) NBC 10.27 34 The West Wing (9 p.m.) NBC 10.11 35 “David Blaine: Drowned Alive” ABC 10.05

36 Las Vegas NBC 9.76 37 Bones FOX 9.50 38 Apprentice 5 NBC 9.46 39 Will & Grace NBC 9.36 40 My Name Is Earl NBC 9.35

41 Boston Legal ABC 9.33 42 Prison Break FOX 9.13 43 Close to Home CBS 8.84 44 20/20 (10 p.m.) ABC 8.67 45 Amazing Race 9 CBS 8.40

The Simpsons (8 p.m.) FOX 8.40 47 Law & Order: Criminal Intent (Sat.) NBC 8.26 48 How I Met Your Mother CBS 8.07 49 Family Guy FOX 8.03 50 King of Queens CBS 7.98

51 Crimetime Saturday (9 p.m.) CBS 7.89 52 “Fox NASCAR Nextel Cup” (7:10 p.m.) FOX 7.86 53 “That ‘70s Show: Goodbye” FOX 7.80 54 America’s Funniest Home Videos (Sun.) ABC 7.79 55 “Fox NASCAR Nextel Cup” (10:50) FOX 7.76

56 Invasion ABC 7.68 57 Office NBC 7.66 58 7th Heaven WB 7.56 59 48 Hours Mystery CBS 7.51 60 Malcolm in the Middle FOX 7.38

61 American Inventor ABC 6.98 62 “X-Men: Last Stand Preview” FOX 6.91 63 American Dad FOX 6.86 64 Dateline (Sat.) NBC 6.58 65 Crimetime Saturday (8 p.m.) CBS 6.55

66 Primetime ABC 6.52 67 What About Brian ABC 6.40 68 Scrubs (9 p.m.) NBC 6.20 69 20/20 (9 p.m.) ABC 6.19 70 That ‘70s Show FOX 6.18

Conviction NBC 6.18 72 Law & Order: SVU (Sat.) NBC 6.17 73 Alias ABC 6.08 74 The West Wing (7 p.m.) NBC 5.83 75 “Keith Barry: Extraordinary” CBS 5.72

76 Scrubs (9:30 p.m.) NBC 5.59 77 America’s Funniest Home Videos (Fri.) ABC 5.52 78 Gilmore Girls WB 5.33 79 Most Outrageous Moments (8:30 p.m.) NBC 5.29 80 “Fatal Contact: Bird Flu in America” ABC 5.28

81 King of the Hill FOX 5.15 82 American Inventor (8 p.m. Thu.) ABC 5.08 83 Most Outrageous Moments (8 p.m.) NBC 4.92 84 Smallville (8 p.m.) WB 4.85 America’s Next Top Model 6 (Wed.) UPN 4.85

86 “NBA Playoffs on ABC” (Sat.) ABC 4.66 87 Everwood WB 4.27 88 Barrera de Amor (Mon.) UNI 3.95 89 Barrera de Amor (Thu.) UNI 3.89 Fea Mas Bella (Thu.) UNI 3.89

91 Fea Mas Bella (Tue.) UNI 3.88 Reyes de la Pista UNI 3.88 93 WWE Smackdown! UPN 3.81 94 The Simpsons (7 p.m.) FOX 3.79 95 Barrera de Amor (Tue.) UNI 3.77

96 Charmed WB 3.72 97 Fea Mas Bella (Mon.) UNI 3.71 98 Barrera de Amor (Fri.) UNI 3.70 99 Fea Mas Bella (Fri.) UNI 3.57 100 Fea Mas Bella (Wed.) UNI 3.48

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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 CBS 13.20 12.59

FOX 10.77 9.84

NBC 9.98 9.71

ABC 8.69 10.78

UNI 3.26 3.82

WB 3.01 3.15

UPN 2.98 3.14

TEL 0.84 0.95

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