‘Desperate’ for the outcome

A classic teaser episode -- who’s going to be killed on Wisteria Lane? -- led ABC’s “Desperate Housewives” to a series-best 27.2 million viewers Sunday, making it the most popular show on television during Thanksgiving week.

But overall, CBS easily won the week, averaging 13.9 million viewers.

NBC’s “Nightly News” won the evening news ratings race during Tom Brokaw’s final full week as anchorman, averaging 11.3 million viewers. ABC’s “World News Tonight” had 10.1 million viewers.

On the week Dan Rather announced he was stepping down as “CBS Evening News” anchor, the show averaged 7.9 million viewers.

Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (Nov. 22-28) 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. age 2 and older. Viewership is listed in millions.

*--* Program Network Viewers 1 Desperate Housewives ABC 27.24 2 CSI CBS 24.27 3 CSI: Miami CBS 22.11 4 Without a Trace CBS 19.72 5 Two and a Half Men CBS 18.94

6 Everybody Loves Raymond CBS 18.54 7 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition ABC 18.21 8 60 Minutes CBS 17.69 9 Cold Case CBS 17.51 10 Survivor: Vanuatu CBS 16.47

11 Monday Night Football ABC 15.63 12 Law & Order: SVU NBC 15.20 13 NCIS CBS 14.70 14 “The Seinfeld Story” NBC 14.11 15 CSI (Fri.) CBS 13.73

16 “When Angels Come Home” CBS 13.69 17 Boston Legal ABC 13.64 18 CSI: NY CBS 13.49 19 Apprentice 2 NBC 12.92 20 Law & Order NBC 12.61

21 Fear Factor NBC 12.12 22 America’s Fun. Home Videos ABC 12.07 23 NFL Monday Showcase ABC 12.05 24 The West Wing NBC 11.76 25 According to Jim ABC 11.47

26 Amazing Race: 6 CBS 11.45 27 Still Standing CBS 11.17 28 Listen Up CBS 10.92 29 “Tim McGraw: Here and Now” NBC 10.61 30 Rodney ABC 10.47

31 “Shrek” NBC 10.43 32 “Spider-Man” FOX 10.37 33 Judging Amy CBS 10.28 34 NYPD Blue ABC 10.21 35 JAG CBS 10.20

36 The Bachelor (Wed.) ABC 10.19 37 The Bachelor ABC 10.01 38 Football: Notre Dame-USC ABC 9.83 39 Dateline NBC (Fri.) NBC 9.72 40 Biggest Loser NBC 9.55

41 King of Queens CBS 9.46 42 48 Hours Mystery CBS 9.26 43 Joan of Arcadia CBS 8.96 44 Cold Case (Sat.) CBS 8.92 45 “The Christmas Carol” NBC 8.87

46 Crimetime Saturday CBS 8.73 47 The $25 Million Hoax NBC 8.69 48 Dateline NBC (Fri., 8 p.m.) NBC 8.49 49 “Ice Age” FOX 8.46 50 George Lopez Show ABC 8.37

51 My Wife and Kids ABC 8.34 52 “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” ABC 8.31 53 Center of the Universe CBS 8.23 54 Scrubs NBC 8.13 55 “Men in Black II” FOX 8.11

56 Will & Grace NBC 8.09 57 60 Minutes Wednesday CBS 8.08 58 “Charlie Brown Thanksgiving” ABC 7.91 59 Trading Spouses FOX 7.70 60 7th Heaven WB 7.51

61 8 Simple Rules ABC 7.08 62 The Simpsons FOX 6.98 63 The Swan 2 FOX 6.91 64 “Mr. Deeds” FOX 6.81 65 20/20 ABC 6.79

66 King of the Hill FOX 6.60 67 That ‘70s Show FOX 6.45 68 Hope & Faith ABC 6.34 69 House FOX 6.05 70 Samantha (Tue.) WB 6.04

71 “It’s a Wonderful Life” NBC 5.93 72 Less Than Perfect ABC 5.67 73 Complete Savages ABC 5.66 74 “American Idol: Home for Christmas” FOX 5.60 75 Quintuplets FOX 5.34

76 Everwood WB 5.28 77 Life of Luxury ABC 5.18 78 America’s Next Model 3 UPN 4.54 79 WWE Smackdown! UPN 4.32 80 Charmed WB 4.17

81 Rebel Billionaire FOX 4.16 82 Reba WB 4.11 83 Girlfriends UPN 3.76 84 “A Walk to Remember” WB 3.69 85 Second Time Around UPN 3.46

86 Kevin Hill UPN 3.40 87 Enterprise UPN 3.37 88 Half and Half UPN 3.22 89 “Blue Collar TV” WB 3.21 90 All of Us UPN 3.10

91 One on One UPN 3.04 92 Eve UPN 3.28 93 Veronica Mars UPN 2.76 94 Steve Harvey Big Time WB 2.58 95 Grounded WB 2.47

96 Samantha (Thu.) WB 2.36 97 What I Like About You WB 2.18 98 WWE Tough Enough UPN 1.50 99 The Mountain WB 1.42

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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 13.91 13.40

ABC 11.03 10.25

NBC 10.02 10.27

FOX 7.47 9.61

WB 3.94 3.94

UPN 3.40 3.62

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