CBS overcomes ABC’s young

ABC had three of last week’s four most-watched new series, but returning favorites enabled CBS to claim the title of most-watched network, according to Nielsen Media Research figures released Tuesday.

For the second time in the 3-week-old season, “Private Practice,” ABC’s “Grey’s Anatomy” spinoff, was the most-watched new series, finishing 18th among all prime-time programs shown last week.

Both NBC and Fox continue their struggles to find viewers for their fall programming. NBC’s most-watched show of the week was the Wednesday edition of “Deal or No Deal,” at No. 16. “Law and Order: Special Victims Unit” was its only other top 20 program, finishing 19th.

Although its medical drama “House” was fifth for the week, Fox’s next most-watched program was Game 2 of the American League Championship Series, which was 37th.

Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (Oct. 8-14) 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 CSI CBS 19.79 2 Dancing With the Stars (Mon.) ABC 19.62 3 Grey’s Anatomy ABC 19.04 4 Desperate Housewives ABC 18.89 5 House FOX 18.03

6 60 Minutes CBS 17.23 7 Dancing With the Stars (Tue.) ABC 16.36 -- NCIS CBS 16.36 9 Criminal Minds CBS 14.55 10 CSI: Miami CBS 14.45

11 Survivor: China CBS 14.22 12 Cold Case CBS 13.88 13 Without a Trace CBS 13.62 14 CSI: NY CBS 13.43 15 Two and a Half Men CBS 13.02

16 Deal or No Deal (Wed.) NBC 12.57 17 Brothers & Sisters ABC 12.51 18 Private Practice ABC 12.42 19 Law & Order: SVU (Tue.) NBC 12.30 20 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition ABC 12.23

21 Sunday Night Football NBC 11.19 22 Shark CBS 11.06 23 The Unit CBS 11.03 24 Heroes NBC 10.91 25 Women’s Murder Club ABC 10.85

26 Rules of Engagement CBS 10.68 27 Boston Legal ABC 10.58 28 Ugly Betty ABC 10.40 29 Bionic Woman NBC 10.28 30 Pushing Daisies ABC 10.26

31 Deal or No Deal (Fri.) NBC 10.21 32 Numb3rs CBS 9.16 33 Cane CBS 9.11 34 Ghost Whisperer CBS 8.90 35 The Office NBC 8.87

36 The Bachelor ABC 8.82 37 Baseball Playoff: ALCS Game 2 (Sat.) FOX 8.79 38 The Simpsons (8 p.m.) FOX 8.70 39 Dirty Sexy Money ABC 8.64 40 Big Shots ABC 8.53

-- ER NBC 8.53 42 Bones FOX 8.48 43 The Big Bang Theory CBS 8.35 44 Life (Wed.) NBC 8.10 45 Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? FOX 8.07

46 How I Met Your Mother CBS 7.96 47 My Name Is Earl NBC 7.76 48 America’s Funniest Home Videos ABC 7.71 49 King of the Hill (8:30 p.m.) FOX 7.53 50 Baseball Playoff: ALCS Game 1 (Fri.) FOX 7.42

51 “NFL Pre-Game” (Sun.) NBC 7.36 52 Prison Break FOX 7.35 53 Carpoolers ABC 7.27 54 Chuck (Mon.) NBC 7.20 55 Las Vegas NBC 7.16

56 Moonlight CBS 7.10 57 Family Guy FOX 7.09 58 Men in Trees ABC 7.05 59 Cavemen ABC 6.96 60 Journeyman NBC 6.94

61 Kid Nation CBS 6.90 62 Football Night in America, Part 3 NBC 6.82 -- Crimetime Saturday (9 p.m.) CBS 6.82 64 The Singing Bee NBC 6.65 65 Back to You FOX 6.62

66 Bank of America 500 ABC 6.60 67 30 Rock NBC 6.59 68 Biggest Loser 4 NBC 6.54 69 Til Death FOX 6.49 70 Kitchen Nightmares FOX 6.37

71 American Dad FOX 6.20 72 Crimetime Saturday (8 p.m.) CBS 5.98 73 20/20 ABC 5.70 74 Don’t Forget the Lyrics FOX 5.64 75 48 Hours Mystery CBS 5.51

76 Destilando Amor (Thu.) UNI 5.49 77 Friday Night Lights NBC 5.46 78 Destilando Amor (Mon.) UNI 5.42 -- Destilando Amor (Tue.) UNI 5.42 *--*

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 12.38 11.88

ABC 11.03 11.24

NBC 8.05 9.06

FOX 7.78 7.26

UNI 3.28 3.27

CW 3.04 2.91

TEL 0.91 0.95 *--*