NBC wins week with early debuts

NBC had hoped to get a jump start on the new TV season with season and series debuts last week, and sure enough “The Apprentice” and “Will & Grace,” which returned Thursday, were the top two shows in the young adult demographic that the network targets.

But while NBC won the week ending Sunday among the key 18-to-49-year-olds, it just barely squeaked by CBS, whose lineup was primarily repeats, according to data from Nielsen Media Research. A “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” rerun and the debut of “Survivor: Vanuatu” took the top slots among overall viewers, indicating that the momentum is firmly behind CBS as the 2004-05 season starts. This week, CBS will roll out new episodes of “CSI,” “Without a Trace” and “Cold Case” as well as the series premiere of “CSI: NY.”

ABC’s telecast of the 56th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards delivered just 13.8 million viewers, off slightly from the initial estimates. The TV industry’s main awards showcase did not even make the week’s top 10 and fared even worse (13th) among viewers 18 to 49.

“Siegfried & Roy: Miracles,” a Wednesday special with Maria Shriver, performed well for NBC, attracting more than 14 million viewers. But the animated comedy series inspired by the Vegas performers’ lions, “Father of the Pride,” stumbled into 29th place with fewer than 10 million viewers.

NBC drew better results with another new comedy, the “Friends” spinoff “Joey,” which finished eighth for the week but a close sixth just behind time-slot rival “Survivor” in the 18-49 demographic. And “Apprentice 2,” “Will & Grace” and “Joey” led among viewers 18-34.

Overall for the week, CBS averaged 10.9 million viewers, followed by NBC (9.9), ABC (8.8), Fox (4.8), the WB (3.7) and UPN (2.8).

ESPN’s Sunday night football coverage, TNT’s Nextel Cup NASCAR racing and Spike’s “WWE Entertainment” demonstrated the dominance of sports on cable. Nickelodeon’s durable cartoon “SpongeBob SquarePants” remained the most-watched show among young kids and teens.

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

*--* 1 CSI CBS 22.32 2 Survivor: Vanuatu Special CBS 20.06 3 NFL Monday Night Football ABC 18.75 4 Will & Grace NBC 16.54 5 Without a Trace CBS 16.07

6 60 Minutes CBS 16.00 7 Apprentice 2 NBC 15.90 8 Joey NBC 15.37 9 NFL Monday Showcase ABC 15.33 10 “Siegfried and Roy: Miracle” NBC 14.50

11 “Emmy Awards” ABC 13.79 12 LAX NBC 13.02 13 Cold Case CBS 12.76 14 Las Vegas NBC 12.01 15 CSI: Miami (Sun.) CBS 11.48

16 20/20 (Fri.) ABC 10.84 17 Law & Order: SVU NBC 10.75 18 CSI: Miami CBS 10.40 19 Fear Factor NBC 10.34 20 Everybody Loves Raymond CBS 10.34

21 Amazing Race: 5 CBS 10.30 22 Without a Trace (Sun.) CBS 10.17 23 Third Watch NBC 10.14 24 Navy NCIS CBS 10.09 25 Law & Order NBC 10.06

26 Big Brother 5 (Tue.) CBS 9.99 27 “Miss America” ABC 9.81 28 Two and a Half Men CBS 9.78 29 Father of the Pride NBC 9.66 30 CSI: Miami CBS 9.30

31 Hawaii NBC 9.26 32 Dateline: NBC (Fri.) NBC 9.19 33 “Titanic” NBC 8.59 34 Yes, Dear CBS 8.28 35 Medical Investigation NBC 8.13

36 Big Brother 5 (Fri.) CBS 8.10 37 60 Minutes II CBS 8.07 38 CSI (Fri.) CBS 8.06 39 King of Queens (9:30 p.m.) CBS 7.71 40 My Wife and Kids ABC 7.64

41 Still Standing CBS 7.57 42 Scrubs NBC 7.56 43 Trading Spouses FOX 7.41 44 King of Queens CBS 7.35 45 7th Heaven WB 7.26

46 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition ABC 7.21 47 According to Jim ABC 6.94 48 America’s Most Wanted FOX 6.92 49 That ‘70s Show FOX 6.61 50 College Football CBS 6.47

51 “World Music Awards” ABC 6.33 52 Cops (8:30 p.m.) FOX 6.29 53 Quintuplets FOX 6.19 54 Everwood WB 5.97 55 America’s Funniest Home Videos ABC 5.94

56 “Countdown to Emmy 2004” ABC 5.94 57 Last Comic Standing 3 NBC 5.81 58 Joan of Arcadia CBS 5.79 59 Renovate My Family FOX 5.61 60 Bernie Mac FOX 5.48

61 The Benefactor ABC 5.47 62 Cops FOX 5.36 63 Primetime Live ABC 5.14 64 George Lopez ABC 5.12 65 “Speed” FOX 4.95

66 Crossing Jordan NBC 4.92 67 Charmed WB 4.84 68 Reba WB 4.82 Next Great Champ FOX 4.82 70 WWE Smackdown! UPN 4.74

71 North Shore FOX 4.72 72 8 Simple Rules ABC 4.57 73 Apprentice 2 (Sat.) NBC 4.27 74 Extreme Makeover ABC 4.00 75 King of the Hill FOX 3.98

76 Method and Red FOX 3.94 77 World’s Craziest Videos FOX 3.93 78 The Benefactor (Tue.) ABC 3.74 79 Amish in the City UPN 3.69 80 Smallville (9 p.m.) WB 3.58

81 Blue Collar TV (Thu., 8:30 p.m.) WB 3.50 82 Blue Collar TV (Fri.) WB 3.47 83 Grounded for Life WB 3.39 84 Gilmore Girls WB 3.38 85 What I Like About You WB 3.30

86 “O.C.: Obsess Completely” FOX 3.28 Blue Collar TV (Thu., 8 p.m.) WB 3.28 88 Totally Outrageous Behavior FOX 3.16 89 Jack & Bobby WB 3.08 90 Girlfriends (9:30 p.m.) UPN 2.90

91 The Benefactor (Thu.) ABC 2.88 92 Smallville WB 2.84 93 All of Us UPN 2.80 94 Girlfriends UPN 2.79 95 Eve UPN 2.70

96 Half and Half UPN 2.69 97 One on One UPN 2.44 98 Complex: Malibu FOX 2.32 99 Steve Harvey’s Big Time WB 2.23 100 One Tree Hill WB 2.21

101 The Player (Wed.) UPN 1.93 102 The Player (Tue.) UPN 1.87 103 Jack & Bobby (Thu.) WB 1.88 104 Enterprise UPN 1.70 105 Next Great Champ (Fri.) FOX 1.59

106 Amish in the City (Fri.) UPN 1.25

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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 10.89 11.56

NBC 9.87 10.60

ABC 8.81 8.00

FOX 4.77 8.24

WB 3.70 3.25

UPN 2.81 3.14

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