Two weeks into a new television season, CBS is continuing its domination.
The network, which has won eight of the past nine TV seasons, beat its closest broadcast rival last week by an average of 3.5 million viewers in prime time, the Nielsen ratings company said on Tuesday. Twelve of the 20 most popular shows were on CBS.
CBS has shown particular strength with its comedies. Perhaps due to its new star, Ashton Kutcher, "Two and a Half Men" topped the ratings for the second week in a row. That helped other Monday night comedies like "How I Met Your Mother" and "Mike & Molly," which are both up from last year. The new comedy "2 Broke Girls" is also off to a fast start.
That makes up for some weakness among veteran dramas, particularly the once-dominant "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation." For the season, CBS is up slightly over 2010, largely due to the Kutcher-curious.
ABC is the second-place network, although it has dropped from last year. "Desperate Housewives" is on its last legs, down 28 percent in viewers for its final season, but the Monday night drama "Castle" continues to grow in popularity.
Two 1960s-era dramas modeled on "Mad Men" have not caught on. It was a slow start for ABC's "Pan Am," but it still tops the remake of "Charlie's Angels" and NBC's "The Playboy Club," which became the first broadcast network show canceled this season.
The exit of "The Playboy Club" is an indication of how rough this season is shaping up for NBC, which finished in fourth place despite a high-rated NFL game in prime time on Sunday. NBC's most-watched scripted show last week, "Harry's Law," finished No. 44 in Nielsen's weekly rankings.
Fox so far is a victim of high expectations. "The X-Factor" after two weeks is solid but hardly a sensation, so much so that star Simon Cowell told the website TV Line that the ratings were "humbling." The long-awaited Steve Spielberg drama "Terra Nova" is also not a dramatic success, finishing No. 34 last week.
Still, Fox is far more competitive than it usually is during the fall, where in past years it has struggled while waiting for the mid-season return of "American Idol." Through two weeks, the network is averaging nearly 2 million more viewers in prime time than it did last fall.
CBS averaged 12.2 million viewers last week (7.6 rating, 12 share), ABC was second with an 8.7 million average (5.6, 9), Fox had 7.4 million (4.3, 7), NBC had 7.1 million (4.5, 7), the CW had 1.8 million (1.2, 2) and ION Television had 830,000 (0.6, 1).
Among the Spanish-language networks, Univision led with an average of 4 million viewers (2.1, 3), Telemundo had 1.1 million (0.4, 1), TeleFutura had 450,000 (0.3, 0), Estrella had 200,000 and Azteca had 180,000 (both 0.1, 0).
NBC's "Nightly News" topped the evening newscasts with an average of 8 million viewers (5.4, 11). ABC's "World News" was second with 7.5 million (5.1, 10), and the "CBS Evening News" had 5.9 million viewers (4.1, 8).
A ratings point represents 1,147,000 households, or 1 percent of the nation's estimated 114.7 million TV homes. The share is the percentage of in-use televisions tuned to a given show.
For the week of Sept. 26-Oct. 2, the top 10 shows, their networks and viewerships: Two and a Half Men," CBS, 20.53 million; "NCIS," CBS, 19.51 million; NFL Football: N.Y Jets vs. Baltimore, NBC, 18.9 million; "60 Minutes," CBS, 17.11 million; "NCIS: Los Angeles," CBS, 16.27 million; "Dancing With the Stars," ABC, 16.23 million; "The Big Bang Theory," CBS, 14.74 million; "Dancing With the Stars Results," ABC, 14.39 million; "Sunday Night NFL Night Pre-Kick," NBC, 14.09 million; "Mike & Molly," CBS, 13.86 million.
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ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Co. CBS is owned by CBS Corp. CW is a joint venture of Warner Bros. Entertainment and CBS Corp. Fox and My Network TV are units of News Corp. NBC and Telemundo are owned by Comcast Corp. ION Television is owned by ION Media Networks. TeleFutura is a division of Univision. Azteca America is a wholly owned subsidiary of TV Azteca S.A. de C.V.
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Online:
http://www.nielsen.com