Viewers give back to ‘Oprah’s Big Give’

Books, TV movies, a presidential candidate and now a philanthropic reality show. Maybe everything Oprah Winfrey touches really does turn to gold.

Sunday’s premiere of “Oprah’s Big Give” on ABC was seen by 15.7 million people, the largest audience in prime-time last week for any program not named “American Idol,” according to Nielsen Media Research. It was the third-largest audience for any series premiere this season, trailing only Fox’s “Moment of Truth” and “Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.”

ABC also did well with Monday’s prime-time remake of “A Raisin in the Sun,” which finished in the top 10 with 12.7 million viewers.

Meanwhile, NBC found that few people cared about its much-ballyhooed transfer of a series, “Quarterlife,” from the Internet to broadcast. Only 3.1 million people watched, earning it a shift to the Bravo cable network. Among the top four broadcasters, only a Saturday night rerun of “All-Star Tribute to Jimmy Kimmel” had a smaller audience.

In a sign of the time for television networks, and a residue of the writers strike, none of the seven most-watched programs last week were scripted. “Lost” was the only traditional comedy or drama to hit the top 10.

The premiere of the competition series “Here Come the Newlyweds,” which followed “Oprah’s Big Give,” also won its time slot, with 10.01 million viewers, finishing 19th among all prime-time programs broadcast between Feb. 25 and Sunday.

A third ABC premiere also won its time slot, the newsmagazine “Primetime: What Would You Do?,” which drew 7.67 million viewers from 10-11 p.m. last Tuesday, topping CBS’ “Jericho” (6.9 million) and “Quarterlife.”

The week’s other premiere, the Fox comedy “Unhitched,” drew 5.77 million viewers, finishing fourth in its Sunday 10-10:30 p.m. time slot, but first among viewers ages 12 to 17 and men 18 to 34.

MSNBC’s coverage of last Tuesday’s Democratic presidential debate was the week’s most-watched cable program with 7.78 million viewers, the most-watched program in the network’s 11-year history.

USA Network was the week’s most-watched cable channel.--

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Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (Feb. 25-March 2) 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 American Idol (Tue.) FOX 28.59 2 American Idol (Wed.) FOX 27.55 3 American Idol (Thu.) FOX 26.23 4 “Oprah’s Big Give” ABC 15.68 5 Deal or No Deal (Mon.) NBC 15.42 *--*

*--* 6 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition ABC 14.87 7 Don’t Forget the Lyrics FOX 14.39 8 Lost (9 p.m.) ABC 12.89 9 “A Raisin in the Sun” ABC 12.69 10 Survivor: Micronesia CBS 12.53 *--*

*--* 11 60 Minutes CBS 12.34 12 Two and a Half Men CBS 12.20 13 Back to You (Tue.) FOX 12.15 14 Back to You (Wed.) FOX 11.68 15 CSI CBS 11.55 *--*

*--* 16 Law & Order (Wed.) NBC 11.44 17 NCIS CBS 11.08 18 Without a Trace CBS 10.45 19 Here Come the Newlyweds ABC 10.09 20 The Price Is Right Primetime CBS 9.49 *--*

*--* 21 Deal or No Deal (Wed.) NBC 9.30 22 The New Adventures of Old Christine CBS 9.14 23 CSI: Miami CBS 8.63 24 Deal or No Deal (Sun.) NBC 8.61 25 The Moment of Truth (Mon.) FOX 8.51 *--*

*--* 26 Supernanny ABC 8.30 27 Law & Order: Criminal Intent (Wed.) NBC 8.22 28 The Simpsons FOX 8.18 29 Criminal Minds CBS 8.14 30 Law & Order: SVU (Sun.) NBC 8.13 *--*

*--* 31 America’s Funniest Home Videos ABC 8.01 32 CSI: NY CBS 7.95 33 My Dad Is Better Than Your Dad NBC 7.80 34 Family Guy FOX 7.80 35 King of the Hill FOX 7.75 *--*

*--* 36 Primetime: What Would You Do? ABC 7.67 37 Apprentice 7 NBC 7.67 38 Medium NBC 7.61 39 Biggest Loser 5 NBC 7.47 40 Dateline: NBC (Sun.) NBC 7.33 *--*

*--* 41 Numb3rs CBS 7.31 42 Cold Case CBS 7.18 43 Eli Stone ABC 7.15 44 Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles FOX 7.12 45 House FOX 7.02 *--*

*--* 46 Ghost Whisperer CBS 7.02 47 Jericho CBS 6.90 48 Dexter CBS 6.90 49 Dateline: NBC (Fri.) NBC 6.72 50 Big Brother 9 (Tue.) CBS 6.72 *--*

*--* 51 20/20 (9 p.m.) ABC 6.51 52 20/20 (10 p.m.) ABC 6.48 53 Law & Order (Sat.) NBC 6.46 54 Cops (8:30 p.m.) FOX 6.41 55 Bones FOX 6.38 *--*

*--* 56 Big Brother 9 (Sun.) CBS 6.23 57 How I Met Your Mother CBS 6.18 58 America’s Most Wanted FOX 6.13 59 Cops (8 p.m.) FOX 5.85 60 48 Hours Mystery CBS 5.81 *--*

*--* 61 Unhitched FOX 5.77 62 “Secondhand Lions” CBS 5.67 63 Men in Trees ABC 5.63 64 Lipstick Jungle NBC 5.61 65 Wife Swap ABC 5.49 *--*

*--* 66 Big Brother 9 (Wed.) CBS 5.38 67 Law & Order: SVU (Sat.) NBC 5.33 68 Welcome to the Captain CBS 5.30 69 Al Diablo con los Guapos (Thu.) UNI 5.17 70 Lost (8 p.m.) ABC 5.16 *--*

*--* 71 Al Diablo con los Guapos (Tue.) UNI 5.07 72 Amnesia NBC 4.99 73 Al Diablo con los Guapos (Mon.) UNI 4.91 74 Al Diablo con los Guapos (Wed.) UNI 4.89 75 Al Diablo con los Guapos (Fri.) UNI 4.84 *--*

*--* 76 Just for Laughs (8 p.m.) ABC 4.75 77 Friday Night Smackdown! CW 4.69 78 According to Jim ABC 4.61 79 Just for Laughs (8:30 p.m.) ABC 4.55 80 Grey’s Anatomy ABC 3.99 *--*

*--* 81 The Office NBC 3.99 82 America’s Top Model 4 (Wed.) CW 3.82 83 Pasion (Thu.) UNI 3.75 84 Pasion (Wed.) UNI 3.73 85 “Old School” ABC 3.68 *--*

*--* 86 Pasion (Mon.) UNI 3.65 87 Pasion (Tue.) UNI 3.60 88 Yo Amo Juan Querendon (Tue.) UNI 3.53 89 Carpoolers ABC 3.46 90 Yo Amo Juan Querendon (Wed.) UNI 3.45 *--*

*--* 91 Pasion (Fri.) UNI 3.42 92 Nuestra Belleza UNI 3.26 93 Yo Amo Juan Querendon (Thu.) UNI 3.26 94 Law & Order Criminal Intent (Sat.) NBC 3.21 95 One Tree Hill CW 3.18 *--*

*--* 96 “Quarterlife” NBC 3.12 97 “All-Star Salute to Jimmy Kimmel” ABC 3.10 98 Yo Amo Juan Querendon (Mon.) UNI 3.06 99 Cristina UNI 3.04 100 Aqui y Ahora UNI 2.92 *--*

*--* 101 Familia P. Luche UNI 2.87 102 Yo Amo Juan Querendon (Fri.) UNI 2.80 103 5 Magnificos UNI 2.74 104 Sabado Gigante UNI 2.71 105 Don Francisco Presenta UNI 2.69 *--*

*--* 106 Hora Pico UNI 2.45 107 Amas de Casa Desesperadas UNI 2.43 108 Pussycat Dolls (Wed.) CW 1.95 109 Reaper (Tue.) CW 1.81 110 Smallville CW 1.80 *--*

*--* 111 Pussycat Dolls (Mon.) CW 1.73 112 Chavo Animado UNI 1.71 113 Reaper (Thu.) CW 1.53 114 Everybody Hates Chris CW 1.45 115 America’s Top Model (Sun.) CW 1.36 *--*

*--* 116 The Game CW 1.30 117 Gossip Girls CW 1.28 118 Familia de Diez UNI 1.24 119 Girlfriends CW 1.24 120 Aliens in America CW 1.10 *--*

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 FOX 13.68 11.45 CBS 8.05 10.74 ABC 7.90 9.43 NBC 7.23 8.61 UNI 3.45 3.52 CW 2.24 2.61 *--*