CBS reclaims the top spot from Fox

With Fox’s postseason baseball coverage completed, CBS returned to the top of television’s weekly prime-time ratings after a two-week absence, according to figures released Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research.

With seven of the 13 most-watched shows, CBS averaged 12.33 million viewers for its prime-time programming between Oct. 29 and Sunday to become the most-watched network for the third time in the season’s six weeks.

Fox, which had finished first the previous two weeks thanks to its baseball playoff coverage, was fourth.

For the second consecutive week, the Monday edition of ABC’s “Dancing With the Stars” was the week’s most-watched program, averaging 21.43 million viewers. It was ABC’s largest audience in the Monday 8-9:30 p.m. time period, other than for sporting events, since May 1, 2000.

“Samantha Who?” continued its success in retaining the audience from “Dancing With the Stars” and was the week’s most-watched new series for the third time.

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Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (Oct. 29-Nov. 4) 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 Dancing With the Stars (Mon.) ABC 21.43 2 Grey’s Anatomy ABC 19.31 3 60 Minutes CBS 19.24 4 CSI CBS 19.06 5 Dancing With the Stars (Tue.) ABC 18.86

6 Desperate Housewives ABC 18.58 7 House (Tue.) FOX 17.30 8 Sunday Night Football NBC 16.45 9 NCIS CBS 16.33 10 Criminal Minds CBS 14.94

11 CSI: Miami CBS 14.85 12 Without a Trace CBS 14.58 13 Survivor: China CBS 14.44 14 Samantha Who? ABC 14.18 15 Cold Case CBS 13.88

16 Two and a Half Men CBS 13.72 -- Amazing Race 12 CBS 13.72 18 CSI: NY CBS 13.40 19 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition ABC 13.04 20 “NFL Pre-Game” (Sun.) NBC 12.31

21 Brothers & Sisters ABC 12.09 22 The Simpsons (8 p.m.) FOX 11.74 23 “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown” ABC 11.40 Boston Legal ABC 11.40 25 Private Practice ABC 11.34

26 Shark CBS 11.16 27 The Unit CBS 10.67 28 Rules of Engagement CBS 10.56 29 Heroes NBC 10.51 30 Family Guy (8:30 p.m.) FOX 10.47

31 Family Guy (9 p.m.) FOX 10.46 32 Ugly Betty ABC 9.90 33 The Bachelor ABC 9.76 34 Football Night in America, Part 3 NBC 9.67 35 Women’s Murder Club ABC 9.60

36 Deal or No Deal (Fri.) NBC 9.44 37 Numb3rs CBS 9.34 38 Ghost Whisperer CBS 9.17 39 E.R. NBC 9.15 40 Bones FOX 8.98

41 Law & Order: SVU (Tue.) NBC 8.63 42 Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? (9 FOX 8.61 p.m.) 43 Pushing Daisies ABC 8.57

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-- Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? (8 FOX 8.50 p.m.) 45 The Big Bang Theory CBS 8.41

46 The Office NBC 8.36 47 Dirty Sexy Money ABC 8.20 48 Cane CBS 8.05 49 The Simpsons (7:30 p.m.) FOX 7.93 50 How I Met Your Mother CBS 7.82

51 America’s Funniest Home Videos ABC 7.55 -- Moonlight CBS 7.55 53 Las Vegas NBC 7.50 54 Big Shots ABC 7.32 55 My Name Is Earl NBC 7.30

56 20/20 (Fri.) ABC 7.28 57 Chuck (Mon.) NBC 7.14 58 American Dad FOX 7.08 59 Football Night in America, Part 2 NBC 6.74 60 Kid Nation CBS 6.70

61 Destilando Amor (Fri.) UNI 6.69 62 Crimetime Saturday (9 p.m.) CBS 6.65 63 Scrubs NBC 6.58 64 College Football (Sat.) ABC 6.46 65 America’s Most Wanted FOX 6.32

-- Biggest Loser 4 NBC 6.32 67 Destilando Amor (Tue.) UNI 6.28 68 Destilando Amor (Thu.) UNI 6.27 69 Phenomenon NBC 6.16 70 Crimetime Saturday (8 p.m.) CBS 6.14

71 Cops (8:30 p.m.) FOX 6.12 72 House (Mon.) FOX 5.97 -- Destilando Amor (Mon.) UNI 5.97 74 Men in Trees ABC 5.86 75 Journeyman NBC 5.75

76 Life NBC 5.71 77 Singing Bee NBC 5.60 78 Cops (8 p.m.) FOX 5.47 79 Destilando Amor (Wed.) UNI 5.42 -- Friday Night Lights NBC 5.42

81 Back to You FOX 5.26 82 Law & Order: SVU (Sat.) NBC 5.08 83 Til Death FOX 5.01 84 The Simpsons (7 p.m.) FOX 4.74 85 Familia P. Luche UNI 4.73

86 Friday Night Smackdown! CW 4.72 87 Smallville CW 4.38 88 Cristina UNI 4.36 89 Retro P. Luche UNI 3.91 90 K-Ville FOX 3.86

91 Bionic Woman (Sat.) NBC 3.74 92 “College Football Pre-Game” (Sat.) ABC 3.73 93 Kitchen Nightmares FOX 3.71 94 Don Francisco Presenta UNI 3.59 95 Aqui y Ahora UNI 3.50

96 Chuck (Sat.) NBC 3.43 97 America’s Top Model 3 CW 3.24 -- Supernatural CW 3.24 99 Amar Sin Limites (Thu.) UNI 3.15 100 Amar Sin Limites (Fri.) UNI 3.06

101 Amar Sin Limites (Tue.) UNI 2.95 102 Yo Amo Juan Querendon (Tue.) UNI 2.84 103 Como Ama Una Mujer UNI 2.76 104 Yo Amo Juan Querendon (Mon.) UNI 2.74 105 Amar Sin Limites (Mon.) UNI 2.71

106 Yo Amo Juan Querendon (Thu.) UNI 2.66 107 Reaper CW 2.60 108 Cine Especial UNI 2.54 109 Sabado Gigante UNI 2.50 110 Yo Amo Juan Querendon (Fri.) UNI 2.48

111 Everybody Hates Chris CW 2.44 -- Amar Sin Limites (Wed.) UNI 2.44 -- “Festival Mariachi desde Disney” UNI 2.44 114 The Game CW 2.42 115 Next Great American Band FOX 2.34

116 Beauty and the Geek 2 CW 2.30 117 Girlfriends CW 2.25 118 Yo Amo Juan Querendon (Wed.) UNI 2.17 *--*

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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 12.33 11.69

ABC 11.33 11.15

NBC 7.98 8.40

FOX 7.01 9.34

UNI 3.68 3.39

CW 2.64 2.92 *--*