Football, dramas, comedies make CBS most-watched

[February 04, 2010]  (AP) -- It was a remarkable ratings streak last week for CBS, which claimed the top spot with football and seized a dozen more of the 16 most-watched programs.

The No. 1 show was the AFC divisional playoff game between Baltimore and Indianapolis, which brought CBS nearly 30.6 million viewers, said the Nielsen Co.

Ranked second and third for the week were, respectively, the Tuesday and Wednesday season debuts of "American Idol" on Fox.

NBC's broadcast of the Golden Globes award show ranked seventh and was that network's most-watched show. Far down the list, its "Biggest Loser," ranked 34th, was next.

Meanwhile, the top of the Nielsen roster was dominated by CBS comedies, dramas and "60 Minutes," which landed in ninth place.

Overall in prime-time for the week, CBS averaged a hefty 16.36 million viewers (9.7 household rating, 16 share). "Idol"-stoked runner-up Fox averaged 12.34 million viewers (7.0 rating, 11 share), followed far behind by NBC with 7.31 million (4.6 rating, 7 share) and ABC with 6.44 million (4.1 rating, 7 share). ION Television had 1.07 million (0.7 rating, 1 share) and the CW had 1 million (0.7 rating, 1 share).

Among the Spanish-language networks, Univision had 3.55 million viewers (1.8 rating, 3 share), Telemundo had 1.1 million (0.5 rating, 1 share), TeleFutura had 1.05 million (0.5 rating, 1 share) and Azteca had 190,000 (0.1 rating, 0 share).

NBC's "Nightly News" kept its winning ways among evening newscasts with an average of 10.3 million viewers (6.7 rating, 12 share). ABC's "World News" was second with 8.5 million (5.7 rating, 11 share). The "CBS Evening News" had 6.7 million viewers (4.5 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 Jan. 11-17, the top 10 shows, their networks and viewerships: AFC Divisional Playoff: Baltimore vs. Indianapolis, CBS, 30.57 million; "American Idol" (Tuesday), Fox, 29.94 million; "American Idol" (Wednesday), Fox, 26.39 million; AFC Football Post-Game Show, CBS, 25.81 million; "NCIS," CBS, 20.85 million; "Two and a Half Men," CBS, 17.27 million; "Golden Globe Awards," NBC, 16.98 million; "The Big Bang Theory," CBS, 15.82 million; "60 Minutes," CBS, 15.78 million; "NCIS: Los Angeles," CBS, 15.60 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 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.

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[Associated Press]

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