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CBS scores easy ratings victory with 12 shows

[October 12, 2011] NEW YORK (AP) -- CBS' strength in scripted material made for another non-competitive week in television ratings.

Increasingly, it appears ABC, Fox and NBC have a few hit shows and CBS has a hit network, topping its nearest competitor by an average of more than 3 million viewers in prime-time, the Nielsen ratings company said on Tuesday.

Through the first three weeks of the season, 20 of the 30 most popular prime-time shows were on CBS, Nielsen said, believed to be the first time one network had so many.

Last week, CBS had 11 scripted series in Nielsen's top 20, plus "60 Minutes." NBC had a football game and two pregame shows, ABC had two "Dancing With the Stars" editions and Fox had two "The X-Factor" episodes. The only non-CBS scripted show in the top 20 was ABC's "Modern Family."

CBS isn't perfect, though: Its new comedy "How to Be a Gentleman" was moved to the Saturday schedule and eventual extinction. NBC's "Free Agents" and "The Playboy Club" were canceled last week.

CBS averaged 11.3 million viewers for the week (7.1 rating, 11 share), ABC was second with 8.2 million (5.3, 9), NBC had 7.3 million (4.6, 7), Fox had 7.1 million (4.2, 7), the CW had 1.7 million (1.1, 2) and ION Television had 890,000 (0.6, 1).

Among the Spanish-language networks, Univision led with a 3.9 million prime-time average (2.1 rating, 3 share), Telemundo had 1 million (0.6, 1), TeleFutura had 380,000 (0.2, 0) and Azteca and Estrella each had 210,000 (0.1, 0).

NBC's "Nightly News" topped the evening newscasts with an average of 7.9 million viewers (5.4, 11). ABC's "World News" was second with 7.3 million (5.0, 11) and the "CBS Evening News" had 5.5 million viewers (3.7, 8).

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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 Oct. 3-9, the top 10 shows, their networks and viewerships: NFL Football: Green Bay at Atlanta, NBC, 22.05 million; "NCIS," CBS, 19.35 million; "Two and a Half Men," CBS, 17.71 million; "Dancing With the Stars," ABC, 16.56 million; "Sunday Night NFL Pre-Kick," NBC, 15.54 million; "Dancing With the Stars Results," ABC, 15.28 million; "NCIS: Los Angeles," CBS, 14.78 million; "The Big Bang Theory," CBS, 13.92 million; "Criminal Minds," CBS, 13.43 million; "60 Minutes," CBS, 13.29 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/

[Associated Press; By DAVID BAUDER]

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