For some variety, ABC takes No. 1

NEW YORK —  Television viewers didn’t abandon their sets during a spring holiday weekend -- just ask Jessica Simpson and Janet Jackson.

Struggling ABC had a rare ratings winner with the Easter variety special starring Simpson and husband Nick Lachey. The 11.5-million-viewer audience was relatively modest, but it enabled ABC to win Sunday night among the young viewers craved by advertisers.

Jackson’s guest-host appearance on NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” helped that show to its best performance since Al Gore was on in December 2002, according to Nielsen Media Research ratings.

As if Donald Trump’s self-image needed any help, “The Apprentice” hit a milestone last week by outdrawing producer Mark Burnett’s other creation, “Survivor.”

Peter Jennings’ three-hour special on Jesus and Paul drew 11.2 million viewers last Monday. While not up to the 16.6 million audience for Jennings’ “In Search of Jesus” special in 2000, it was still a strong showing for ABC.

Fox’s “The Swan” flew high in its Wednesday premiere following the “American Idol” results show (which was the week’s fourth most-watched show); “Swan” finished the week in 8th place with just under 15 million viewers. It came down to earth a bit in its regular Monday time slot this week, attracting 8.2 million viewers.

CBS won the week in prime time, averaging 11 million viewers. NBC was second with 10.2 million viewers, but won among the 18-to-49-year-old demographic. Fox had 8.6 million viewers, ABC 7.7 million and the WB and UPN both had 2.7 million.

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Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (April 5-11) 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 272.04 million potential viewers in the U.S. age 2 and older. Viewership is listed in millions.

*--* 1 American Idol (Tue.) FOX 23.46 2 The Apprentice NBC 22.03 3 Survivor: All-Stars CBS 20.76 4 American Idol (Wed.) FOX 20.58 5 ER NBC 19.99

6 CSI CBS 19.54 7 NCAA Basketball (Mon.) CBS 17.08 8 The Swan FOX 14.97 9 Friends NBC 13.78 10 Without a Trace CBS 13.77

11 Will & Grace NBC 13.28 12 Law & Order NBC 13.25 13 Fear Factor NBC 12.82 14 “Prelude to a Championship” CBS 12.73 15 Law & Order: SVU NBC 12.48

16 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition ABC 11.87 17 Nick-Jessica Variety Hour ABC 11.48 18 “Peter Jennings Reporting” ABC 11.19 19 Law & Order (Wed.) NBC 11.13 20 The Bachelor ABC 11.07

21 Average Joe: Adam Returns NBC 10.89 22 Navy NCIS CBS 10.83 23 60 Minutes CBS 10.80 24 24 FOX 10.76 25 Judging Amy CBS 10.43

26 Frasier NBC 10.36 27 Everybody Loves Raymond CBS 10.11 28 “The Patriot” CBS 10.02 29 Two and a Half Men CBS 9.92 30 King of Queens CBS 9.76

31 Law & Order: Criminal Intent NBC 9.45 32 The Guardian CBS 9.40 33 48 Hours Investigates CBS 9.32 34 60 Minutes II CBS 9.04 35 King of Queens (9:30 p.m.) CBS 8.97

36 NYPD Blue ABC 8.93 37 “Homeland Security” NBC 8.81 38 Third Watch NBC 8.66 39 The Simpsons (8:30 p.m.) FOX 8.55 40 Alias ABC 8.47

41 According to Jim (9 p.m.) ABC 8.42 42 Law & Order (Sat.) NBC 8.23 43 The District (Fri.) CBS 8.17 44 Dateline NBC (Fri.) NBC 8.05 45 Scrubs NBC 8.02

46 The Simpsons (9 p.m.) FOX 7.92 47 America’s Funniest Home Videos ABC 7.90 48 JAG CBS 7.88 49 America’s Most Wanted FOX 7.87 50 “The Whole Nine Yards” CBS 7.54

51 The Simpsons FOX 7.14 52 My Wife and Kids ABC 7.04 53 Cops (8:30 p.m.) FOX 6.96 54 That ‘70s Show (9:30 p.m.) FOX 6.92 55 It’s All Relative ABC 6.90

56 My Wife and Kids (8:30 p.m.) ABC 6.88 57 Hope & Faith ABC 6.82 58 Primetime Thursday ABC 6.72 59 Dateline NBC (Sun.) NBC 6.57 60 The District CBS 5.93

61 Life With Bonnie ABC 6.46 62 Joan of Arcadia CBS 6.41 63 George Lopez ABC 6.38 64 That ‘70s Show (9 p.m.) FOX 6.31 65 8 Simple Rules ABC 6.25

66 Cops FOX 5.89 67 Extreme Makeover (Thu.) ABC 5.79 68 Whoopi NBC 5.49 69 Arrested Development FOX 5.39 70 I’m With Her ABC 5.35

71 Happy Family NBC 5.32 72 “Men in Black” NBC 5.18 73 The Big House ABC 5.13 74 The Apprentice (Wed.) NBC 4.96 75 The D.A. ABC 4.95

76 America’s Funniest Home Videos (Sat.) ABC 4.79 77 WWE Smackdown! UPN 4.78 78 King of the Hill FOX 4.65 79 Bernie Mac FOX 4.59 80 “World’s Craziest Videos” FOX 4.54

81 Everwood WB 4.21 82 The Swan (9 p.m.) FOX 4.16 83 Tru Calling FOX 4.02 84 King of the Hill (Sun, 7 p.m.) FOX 3.98 85 “Stephen King’s Kingdom Hospital” ABC 3.65

86 The Bachelor (Sat.) ABC 3.61 87 “Totally Outrageous Behavior” FOX 3.49 88 Cracking Up FOX 3.38 89 Steve Harvey: Big Time WB 3.32 90 One Tree Hill WB 3.23

91 7th Heaven WB 3.22 92 Reba WB 3.21 93 Smallville WB 2.84 94 Eve UPN 2.80 95 Smallville (Wed.) WB 2.79

96 What I Like About You WB 2.74 97 Girlfriends UPN 2.71 98 High School Reunion WB 2.59 99 Forever Eden (Fri.) FOX 2.53 100 Grounded for Life WB 2.52

101 Jamie Kennedy Experiment WB 2.50 102 Like Family WB 2.45 103 “Double Take” UPN 2.38 104 Gilmore Girls WB 2.36 105 Jamie Kennedy Experiment (Thu.) WB 2.31

106 All of Us UPN 2.28 107 The Parkers UPN 2.26 108 Charmed WB 2.21 109 Half and Half UPN 2.19 110 One on One UPN 1.86

111 Help WB 1.82 112 Enterprise UPN 1.77 113 Enterprise (9 p.m.) UPN 1.74 114 Half and Half (Tue.) UPN 1.69 115 Rock Me Baby UPN 1.68

116 High School Reunion (Sun.) WB 1.43

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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 10.98 13.33

NBC 10.17 10.90

FOX 8.55 9.76

ABC 7.74 9.25

WB 2.72 3.65

UPN 2.66 3.47

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Los Angeles Times