Viewers give CBS most-watched show last week

[February 23, 2012]  NEW YORK (AP) -- Viewers gave CBS the week's most-watched show along with 21 others in the top 30 ranking.

Fox was represented only by its two editions of "American Idol" -- which ranked second and third -- while NBC's lone entry, "The Voice," took fourth place, according to Nielsen Co. figures released Wednesday.

CBS' durable drama "NCIS" won the top spot with a remarkable audience of nearly 20 million viewers.

For the week, CBS' prime-time average was 10.9 million viewers (6.8 rating, 11 share). Fox had 8.7 million viewers (5.1 rating, 8 share), ABC had 6.7 million (4.2 rating, 7 share), NBC had 5.6 million (3.5 rating, 6 share), the CW had 1.1 million (0.9 rating, 1 share) and ION Television had 1.1 million (0.7 rating, 1 share).

Among the Spanish-language networks, Univision led with a 3.8 million viewer average (1.9 rating, 3 share), Telemundo had 1.0 million (0.6 rating, 1 share), Telefutura had 660,000 (0.4 rating, 1 share), Estrella had 220,000 and Azteca 130,000 (both 0.1 rating, 0 share).

NBC's "Nightly News" topped the evening newscasts with an average of 9.4 million viewers (6.2 rating, 11 share). ABC's "World News" was second with 8 million (5.4 rating, 10 share), while the "CBS Evening News" had 6.8 million viewers (4.5 rating, 8 share).

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 Feb. 13-19, the top 10 shows, their networks and viewerships: "NCIS," CBS, 19.59 million; "American Idol" (Wednesday), Fox, 18.89 million; "American Idol" (Thursday), Fox, 18.71 million; "The Voice," NBC, 16.28 million; "NCIS: Los Angeles," CBS, 16.15 million; "The Big Bang Theory," CBS, 15.65 million; "The Mentalist," CBS, 13.55 million; "Person of Interest," CBS, 13.16 million; "Two and a Half Men," CBS, 12.45 million; "Criminal Minds," CBS, 12.20 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 FRAZIER MOORE]

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