‘Idol’ on top despite ratings dip

Viewership was down for both of last week’s “American Idol” broadcasts on Fox compared with a year ago, but they were still the two most-watched programs of the week, according to figures released Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research.

Last Tuesday’s competition show drew 28.18 million viewers, 11% fewer than a year ago. The Wednesday results broadcast attracted 26.89 million viewers, down 3% from 2006.

The figures show that even television’s most-watched series was not immune to the ratings decline most programs have experienced since the switch to daylight-savings time.

CBS’ coverage of Saturday’s NCAA men’s basketball semifinal between UCLA and eventual national champion Florida bucked that trend, however, finishing ninth for the week with 14.37 million viewers, 9% more than the UCLA-LSU semifinal a year ago.

Thanks to winning four of the week’s seven nights, CBS was the week’s most-watched network for the second consecutive week.

The week’s only premiere, the ABC competition series “The Great American Dream Vote,” drew such low ratings for its two episodes that it was pulled from the schedule.

Nickelodeon’s “Kids Choice Awards” was cable’s most-watched show of the week, with 6.12 million viewers.

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Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (March 26-April 1) 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 283.5 million potential viewers in the U.S. ages 2 and older. Viewership is listed in millions.

*--* Program Net- work View- ers Program Net- work View- ers

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*--* 1 American Idol (Tue.) FOX 28.18 2 American Idol (Wed.) FOX 26.89 3 CSI CBS 22.71 4 House (Tue.) FOX 20.80 5 Dancing With the Stars (Mon.) ABC 20.42

6 Dancing With the Stars (Tue., 9 p.m.) ABC 17.93 7 Shark (Thu.) CBS 14.49 8 ‘Til Death FOX 14.46 9 “NCAA Basketball Tournament” (Sat., 8:30 p.m.) CBS 14.37 10 Survivor: Fiji CBS 13.70

11 Cold Case CBS 13.23 12 CSI: Miami CBS 13.12 13 Law & Order: SVU NBC 12.85 14 Deal or No Deal (Mon.) NBC 12.18 15 “NCAA Basketball Tournament” (Sat., 8:10 p.m.) CBS 11.95

16 24 FOX 11.78 17 60 Minutes CBS 11.61 18 Lost ABC 11.52 19 Criminal Minds CBS 10.98 Deal or No Deal (Mon.) NBC 10.98

21 NCIS CBS 10.84 22 Numb3rs CBS 10.74 23 CSI: NY CBS 10.69 24 Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? FOX 10.59 25 Bones FOX 10.58

26 Deal or No Deal (Sun.) NBC 10.42 27 Two and a Half Men CBS 10.37 28 Desperate Housewives ABC 9.87 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition ABC 9.87 30 Close to Home CBS 9.65

31 Dancing With the Stars (Tue., 8 p.m.) ABC 9.62 32 Grey’s Anatomy (Thu.) ABC 9.46 33 Ghost Whisperer CBS 9.36 34 Brothers & Sisters ABC 9.15 35 Amazing Race 11 CBS 8.94

36 Law & Order: Criminal Intent (Tue.) NBC 8.85 37 America’s Funniest Home Videos ABC 8.76 38 Jericho CBS 8.52 39 October Road ABC 8.24 Prison Break FOX 8.24

41 Rules of Engagement CBS 7.99 42 Medium NBC 7.66 43 Shark (Tue.) CBS 7.59 44 Law & Order: Criminal Intent (Sat.) NBC 7.57 45 Dateline: NBC (Sun.) NBC 7.47

Law & Order (Fri.) NBC 7.47 47 Ugly Betty ABC 7.41 48 The Unit CBS 7.34 49 Crossing Jordan NBC 7.02 50 Raines NBC 6.97

51 What About Brian ABC 6.79 52 Family Guy (Sun.) FOX 6.75 53 The Simpsons FOX 6.63 54 King of the Hill FOX 6.39 55 America’s Most Wanted FOX 6.23

56 Cops (8:30 p.m.) FOX 6.13 57 Apprentice 6 NBC 6.00 58 American Dad FOX 5.94 59 “The Great American Dream Vote” (Tue.) ABC 5.88 Law & Order (Sat.) NBC 5.88

61 Dateline: NBC (Tue.) NBC 5.84 62 House (Fri.) FOX 5.82 63 20/20 ABC 5.81 64 The Office (9 p.m.) NBC 5.77 65 Friday Night Lights NBC 5.68

66 Old Christine CBS 5.66 Identity NBC 5.66 68 How I Met Your Mother CBS 5.61 69 Black Donnellys NBC 5.43 70 Cops (8 p.m.) FOX 5.32

America’s Top Model 2 (Wed.) CW 5.32 72 Dateline: NBC (Sat.) NBC 5.12 73 Office NBC 5.04 74 La Fea Mas Bella (Wed.) UNI 5.02 75 La Fea Mas Bella (Mon.) UNI 4.92

76 La Fea Mas Bella (Tue.) UNI 4.87 77 The Office (8 p.m.) NBC 4.77 78 Destilando Amor (Mon.) UNI 4.66 79 La Fea Mas Bella (Thu.) UNI 4.61 80 “The Great American Dream Vote” (Wed.) ABC 4.54

81 According to Jim ABC 4.48 82 Friday Night Smackdown CW 4.44 83 “The Rookie” ABC 4.40 84 Wedding Bells FOX 4.36 85 The Office (10 p.m.) NBC 4.34

Family Guy (Thu., 9 p.m. FOX 4.34 87 Family Guy (Thu., 9:30 p.m.) FOX 4.32 88 In Case of Emergency ABC 4.31 89 Destilando Amor (Wed.) UNI 4.25 90 The Office (10:30 p.m.) NBC 4.24

91 Destilando Amor (Tue.) UNI 4.18 92 Andy Barker P.I. NBC 4.16 93 Destilando Amor (Thu.) UNI 4.08 94 La Fea Mas Bella (Fri.) UNI 4.03 95 Grey’s Anatomy (Fri.) ABC 4.00

96 Cristina UNI 3.78 97 Don Francisco Presenta UNI 3.72 98 War at Home (7:30 p.m.) FOX 3.65 99 Destilando Amor (Fri.) UNI 3.62 100 War at Home (7 p.m.) FOX 3.39

101 Bailando Boda Suenos UNI 3.38 102 Nuestra Belleza (Tue.) UNI 3.28 103 Duelo de Pasiones (Mon.) UNI 3.22 104 Aqui y Ahora (Thu.) UNI 3.13 105 Six Degrees ABC 3.12

106 Duelo de Pasiones (Wed.) UNI 3.11 107 Pussycat Dolls (Wed.) CW 3.10 108 Nuestra Belleza (Fri.) UNI 3.07 109 Duelo de Pasiones (Tue.) UNI 3.01 110 Smallville CW 2.81

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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 FOX 10.40 10.22

CBS 11.35 12.78

ABC 8.65 9.81

NBC 7.30 9.34

UNI 3.67 3.61

CW 2.83 3.25

TEL 0.76 0.84

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