Rerun season hurts CBS; Fox's 'Idol' dominates

[March 16, 2011]  NEW YORK (AP) -- The March rerun season probably cost CBS a victory in the weekly ratings race.

What's that? Reruns in March? In order to stretch a limited number of original episodes across a September-to-May season, networks need to find a few pockets to stick in reruns.

The holiday season is one. Last week was another, as reruns dominated the schedule. Television's most popular scripted show, CBS' "NCIS," had 13.3 million viewers last week. With originals the previous three weeks, "NCIS" topped 19 million viewers each time, once reaching 21.3 million, according to the Nielsen Co.

That means Fox's two "American Idol" episodes dominated the landscape even more than usual.

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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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Online:

http://www.nielsen.com/

[Associated Press]

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