Trump finale scores big, but NBC can’t beat CBS

NBC won Thursday night last week thanks to a three-hour marathon with the Donald, but that wasn’t enough to halt CBS’ ratings hot streak.

For the first time in 17 years, CBS has won six straight weeks among young-adult viewers, according to figures released Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research. For years, CBS has skewed toward older viewers, but its new generation of crime dramas and reality hits is hauling in plenty of 18- to 49-year-olds, the group most important to advertisers.

As usual, CBS also won among total viewers (averaging 12.6 million per hour of prime time), trailed by NBC (9.8 million), ABC (9.6 million) and Fox (5.8 million).

Five of the top 10 shows overall were CBS crime dramas produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, including No. 2 “CSI: Miami” (20.5 million viewers). The others were “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation,” “Without a Trace,” “CSI: NY” and “Cold Case.”

NBC’s best performance came from the three-hour season finale of “The Apprentice” with Donald Trump, which dominated its time period among young adults and narrowly edged past CBS in total viewers (16.9 million versus 16.4 million). But the finale was down 40% compared with the April 15 finale of the program’s first season, when Trump’s signature “You’re fired!” line became a pop culture sensation.

ABC’s Sunday soap smash “Desperate Housewives” was the week’s most-watched program (22.3 million viewers). “Housewives” is now tied with “CSI” as the highest-rated program among young adults this season.

For the most part, however, the week ending Sunday was fairly quiet as TV-watching levels tapered off and viewers began preparing for the holidays.

UPN moved past the WB in total viewers (3.5 million versus 3 million) and 18- to 49-year-olds.

On basic cable, the most-watched program was Sunday night’s NFL game between the Ravens and the Colts on ESPN (12.1 million viewers). ESPN was the most-watched network in prime time (3.4 million average), and Nickelodeon had the most viewers for the entire day (2.3 million).

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Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (Dec. 13-19) 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.

*--* 1 Desperate Housewives ABC 22.33 2 CSI: Miami CBS 20.54 3 CSI CBS 19.51 4 60 Minutes CBS 18.55 5 Apprentice 2 NBC 16.93

6 Two and a Half Men CBS 16.22 7 Without a Trace CBS 16.20 8 Everybody Loves Raymond CBS 15.91 9 CSI: NY CBS 15.60 10 Cold Case CBS 14.81

11 NCIS CBS 14.64 12 Monday Night Football ABC 13.80 13 CSI (8 p.m.) CBS 13.56 14 Boston Legal ABC 12.68 15 The West Wing NBC 12.53

16 Lost ABC 11.57 17 “Fallen Angel” CBS 11.51 18 According to Jim ABC 11.33 19 Law & Order NBC 11.27 20 George Lopez ABC 11.19

21 Judging Amy CBS 11.18 22 Biggest Loser NBC 11.01 23 Law & Order: SVU NBC 10.91 24 Amazing Race: 6 CBS 10.73 25 Listen Up CBS 10.34

26 Dateline: NBC (Sun.) NBC 10.33 27 NYPD Blue ABC 10.32 28 “Want a Dog for Christmas” ABC 10.27 29 NFL Monday Showcase ABC 10.20 30 Still Standing CBS 10.10

31 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition ABC 9.88 32 King of Queens CBS 9.84 33 Center of the Universe CBS 9.18 34 Wife Swap ABC 9.13 35 JAG CBS 9.03

36 Fear Factor NBC 8.95 America’s Funniest Home Videos ABC 8.95 38 “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” CBS 8.94 39 Crossing Jordan NBC 8.93 40 Law & Order: Criminal Intent NBC 8.86

41 Law & Order: Criminal Intent (Fri.) NBC 8.76 42 “Charlie Brown Christmas” ABC 8.62 43 48 Hours Mystery CBS 8.59 44 20/20 (Fri.) ABC 8.19 45 Trading Spouses FX 8.17

46 The Simpsons FX 8.08 47 Las Vegas NBC 7.69 48 The Swan 2 FOX 7.53 49 Nanny 911 FOX 7.47 50 Hope & Faith ABC 7.15

51 Law & Order: Criminal Intent (Sat.) NBC 7.13 52 8 Simple Rules ABC 7.08 53 “Seinfeld Story” NBC 7.05 54 60 Minutes (Wed.) CBS 7.03 55 “Secret Santa” NBC 6.94

56 Crimetime Saturday CBS 6.92 57 House FOX 6.91 58 “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation” NBC 6.88 59 48 Hours Mystery (Fri.) CBS 6.83 60 Wonderful World of Disney ABC 6.63

61 America’s Most Wanted FOX 6.55 Scrubs NBC 6.55 63 Complete Savages ABC 6.54 64 America’s Next Top Model 3 UPN 6.47 65 Less Than Perfect ABC 6.31

66 The O.C. FOX 6.27 67 That ‘70s Show FOX 6.17 68 Cops (8:30 p.m.) FOX 6.06 69 Primetime Live ABC 5.63 70 Arrested Development FOX 5.62

71 WWE Smackdown! UPN 5.32 72 Quintuplets FOX 5.12 Malcolm in the Middle FOX 5.12 74 Las Vegas (SP) NBC 5.09 75 Life of Luxury (Mon.) ABC 4.80

76 “Story of Santa Claus” CBS 4.75 77 Malcolm in the Middle (Sun.) FOX 4.67 78 The Simpsons (Fri.) FOX 4.51 79 King of the Hill FOX 4.45 80 “Popeye’s Voyage” FOX 4.17

81 “The Wizard of Oz” WB 4.05 82 7th Heaven WB 3.99 83 North Shore FOX 3.74 84 Rebel Billionaire FOX 3.64 85 Girlfriends UPN 3.62

86 That ‘70s Show (Sun.) FOX 3.47 87 Reba WB 3.46 88 Gilmore Girls WB 3.28 89 “Jingle Ball Rock ‘04” FOX 3.24 90 Eve UPN 3.19

91 All of Us UPN 3.17 92 Kevin Hill UPN 3.15 Life As We Know It ABC 3.15 94 Blue Collar TV WB 3.06 95 Smallville WB 3.03

96 One on One UPN 2.87 97 Half and Half UPN 2.84 98 Second Time Around UPN 2.82 99 High School Reunion WB 2.78 100 Everwood WB 2.69

101 BMOC WB 2.28 102 “Crossroads” WB 2.27 103 What I Like About You WB 2.20 104 Grounded for Life WB 2.04 105 America’s Next Top Model 3 (Fri.) UPN 1.99

106 Veronica Mars UPN 1.97 NFL postgame FOX 1.97 108 Enterprise UPN 1.87 109 Steve Harvey’s Big Time WB 1.82

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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 12.58 13.28

NBC 9.82 10.19

ABC 9.55 10.22

FOX 5.82 8.93

UPN 3.54 3.59

WB 3.00 3.77

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