CBS wins the 1st week as long TV season begins

[September 30, 2009]  NEW YORK (AP) -- CBS began the fall season with a bang, winning the first week overall, scoring the top-rated program and premiering the most-watched new show, according to Nielsen ratings figures released Tuesday.

CBS' veteran hit "NCIS" took the No. 1 spot, with its spinoff, "NCIS: Los Angeles," debuting in the runner-up position. Another new CBS drama, "The Good Wife," got a warm viewer welcome with a 15th-place ranking.

ABC's new Wednesday comedies "Modern Family" and "Cougar Town" did well, ranking 20th and 23rd, respectively, while that network's new thriller "FlashForward" nabbed 21st place with its premiere.

Other than football, NBC's top performers were its new hospital drama "Mercy" and long-running cop drama "Law & Order: SVU," which shared 38th place in viewer rankings.

Meanwhile, the infant season claimed its first victim among the new fall crop: The neglected melodrama "The Beautiful Life: TBL" was axed by the CW after just two airings.

For the week in prime time, CBS led with 11.77 million viewers (7.3 household rating, 12 share), with runner-up ABC averaging 11.04 million viewers (7.1 rating, 12 share). NBC was a distant third place with 7.56 million viewers (4.8 rating, 8 share), just ahead of Fox with 7.35 million viewers (4.3 rating, 7 share).

The CW had 2.17 million viewers (1.5 rating, 2 share), My Network TV had 1.36 million (0.9 rating, 1 share), and ION Television had 630,000 (0.4 rating, 1 share).

Among the Spanish-language networks, Univision led with 3.66 million (1.9 rating, 3 share), Telemundo had 880,000 (0.5 rating, 1 share), and Azteca had 200,000 (0.1 rating, 0 share).

Among the evening newscasts, NBC's "Nightly News" held its customary lead with 7.72 million viewers (5.2 household rating, 11 share), followed by ABC's "World News" with 7.27 million viewers (4.9 rating, 10 share). The "CBS Evening News" had 5.54 million viewers (3.8 rating, 8 share).

A ratings point represents 1,149,000 households, or 1 percent of the nation's estimated 114.9 million TV homes. The share is the percentage of in-use televisions tuned to a given show.

For the week of Sept. 21-27, the top 10 shows, their networks and viewerships: "NCIS," CBS, 20.60 million; "NCIS: Los Angeles," CBS, 18.73 million; "Dancing with the Stars" (Monday), ABC, 17.79 million; NFL Football (Sunday): Indianapolis at Arizona, NBC, 17.47 million; "House," Fox, 17.16 million; "Grey's Anatomy," ABC, 17.03 million; "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," CBS, 16.01 million; "Criminal Minds," CBS, 15.84 million; "Dancing with the Stars" (Tuesday), ABC, 15.367 million; "Dancing with the Stars" (Wednesday), ABC, 15.356 million.

___

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 General Electric Co. 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.

___

On the Net:

Nielsen: http://www.nielsenmedia.com/

[Associated Press; By FRAZIER MOORE]

Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.