Fox tops with ‘Idol,’ ‘Smarter’

The three-night premiere of the game show “Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?” and three “American Idol” broadcasts gave Fox the week’s six most-watched shows and a wide victory in the weekly ratings race, figures from Nielsen Media Research showed Tuesday.

The premiere of “Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?” last Tuesday drew 26.48 million viewers, the most for a series premiere since Sept. 24, 1998, when 27 million tuned into the NBC comedy “Jesse.”

The premiere of the NBC drama “The Black Donnellys” was third in its Monday 10 to 11 p.m. time slot among total viewers, with 7.93 million, and viewers ages 18 to 49, but first among men 18 to 34.

For the third time in four weeks, ABC’s “World News With Charles Gibson” was the most-watched network nightly newscast, averaging 9.57 million viewers. NBC was second.

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Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (Feb. 26-March 4) 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 30.65 2 American Idol (Wed.) FOX 29.78 3 American Idol (Thu.) FOX 27.39 4 “Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?” (Tue.) FOX 26.48 5 “Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?” (Wed.) FOX 23.46

6 “Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?” FOX 23.37 7 Desperate Housewives ABC 18.31 8 CSI: Miami CBS 17.42 9 Deal or No Deal (Mon.) NBC 17.26 10 Two and a Half Men CBS 16.58

11 NCIS CBS 16.16 12 CSI CBS 15.69 13 Without a Trace CBS 14.88 14 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition ABC 14.71 15 Survivor: Fiji CBS 14.67

16 Criminal Minds CBS 14.50 17 Heroes NBC 14.42 18 CSI: NY CBS 14.33 19 Rules of Engagement CBS 13.57 20 Cold Case CBS 13.13

21 60 Minutes CBS 13.05 22 The Unit CBS 12.87 23 24 FOX 12.80 24 Lost ABC 12.78 25 Shark CBS 11.88

26 Law & Order: SVU (Tue.) NBC 11.73 27 Brothers & Sisters ABC 11.59 28 Deal or No Deal (Sun.) NBC 11.04 29 Amazing Race 11 CBS 10.77 30 Grey’s Anatomy (Thu.) ABC 10.60

31 Criminal Minds (Tue.) CBS 10.51 32 Supernanny ABC 10.14 33 “To Iraq and Back” ABC 10.11 34 Close to Home CBS 9.89 35 1 vs. 100 NBC 9.72

36 America’s Funniest Home Videos ABC 9.70 37 Prison Break FOX 9.42 38 How I Met Your Mother CBS 9.33 39 Law & Order: Criminal Intent (Tue.) NBC 9.26 40 Deal or No Deal (Wed.) NBC 9.21

41 The Simpsons FOX 9.04 42 Wife Swap (Mon.) ABC 8.97 43 Ghost Whisperer CBS 8.96 44 The Class CBS 8.85 45 “Building a Dream” (Mon.) ABC 8.84

46 Family Guy FOX 8.59 47 Numb3rs CBS 8.58 48 Jericho CBS 8.31 49 Las Vegas NBC 8.04 50 Black Donnellys (Mon.) NBC 7.93

51 Medium NBC 7.63 52 20/20 ABC 7.55 53 My Name Is Earl NBC 7.29 54 Law & Order: Criminal Intent (Sat.) NBC 7.27 55 Law & Order NBC 7.15

56 The Winner (8:30 p.m.) FOX 7.14 57 Ugly Betty ABC 7.08 58 America’s Most Wanted FOX 6.92 59 48 Hours Mystery CBS 6.89 60 Cops (8:30 p.m.) FOX 6.83

61 Scrubs NBC 6.76 62 Men in Trees ABC 6.67 63 Crimetime Saturday (8 p.m.) CBS 6.58 64 Apprentice 6 NBC 6.53 65 The Office NBC 6.52

66 Crimetime Saturday (9 p.m.) CBS 6.46 67 Grease: You’re the One That I Want NBC 6.22 68 Dateline: NBC (Sun.) NBC 6.13 69 Dateline: NBC (Tue.) NBC 6.11 70 George Lopez ABC 6.04

71 The Winner (9:30 p.m.) FOX 6.02 72 Cops (8 p.m.) FOX 5.94 73 La Fea Mas Bella (Thu.) UNI 5.76 74 30 Rock NBC 5.74 75 America’s Funniest Home Videos (Tue.) ABC 5.72

76 Law & Order: SVU (Sat.) NBC 5.63 77 La Fea Mas Bella (Tue.) UNI 5.58 78 La Fea Mas Bella (Mon.) UNI 5.45 79 Primetime: The Outsiders ABC 5.42 80 America’s Top Model (Wed.) CW 5.36

81 Black Donnellys (Thu.) NBC 5.16 82 Dateline: NBC (Sat.) NBC 5.15 83 Friday Night Lights NBC 5.07 84 La Fea Mas Bella (Wed.) UNI 5.04 85 According to Jim ABC 4.95

86 La Fea Mas Bella (Fri.) UNI 4.80 87 Friday Night Smackdown CW 4.67 88 Wife Swap (Fri.) ABC 4.43 89 In Case of Emergency ABC 4.42 90 Mundo de Fieras (Thu.) UNI 4.31

91 “Building a Dream” (Sat.) ABC 4.27 92 The War at Home FOX 4.26 93 Grey’s Anatomy (Fri.) ABC 4.18 94 Gilmore Girls CW 4.17 95 The Knights of Prosperity ABC 4.11

96 Mundo de Fieras (Tue.) UNI 3.94 97 38th NAACP Image Awards FOX 3.87 98 Mundo de Fieras (Wed.) UNI 3.83 99 “Head of State” ABC 3.79 100 American Dad FOX 3.77

101 Mundo de Fieras (Mon.) UNI 3.76 102 Duelo de Pasiones (Tue.) UNI 3.69 103 Bailando Boda Suenos UNI 3.65 104 Duelo de Pasiones (Wed.) UNI 3.52 105 Duelo de Pasiones (Mon.) UNI 3.46

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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 15.28 9.92

CBS 11.81 13.01

NBC 8.19 9.57

ABC 8.12 10.07

UNI 3.78 3.60

CW 3.37 3.28

TEL 0.84 0.84

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