ABC - IN LATEST RATINGS, CBS REMAINS POWERFUL; NBC, WEAK

IN LATEST RATINGS, CBS REMAINS POWERFUL; NBC, WEAK

CBS's long-running NCIS and its spin-off NCIS Los Angeles dealt a powerful one-two punch to their competition last week. Together with The Good Wife , they captured every half hour of primetime last Tuesday night -- and, as it turned out, this Tuesday as well, although the second hour of Fox's Hell's Kitchen ranked No. 1 among younger viewers. The three-show combo helped lead CBS to another easy ratings win over its rivals, as it placed seven shows among Nielsen's top eleven (there was a tenth-place tie). But if the news continued to be good for that network, it continued to be dreadful for NBC. Aside from its Sunday Night Football telecast, the network's highest-rated program was The Biggest Loser , which came in at No. 33 among total viewers. Particularly worrisome for the network was the performance of its nightly The Jay Leno Show , which ranked no higher than No. 60 among 18-49-year-old viewers, the key demographic group. The Associated Press observed Tuesday that among those younger viewers, the show posted a 1.5 rating on Monday and a 1.4 on Friday -- putting it, the wire service noted, "precariously close to the 1.5 rating the network says it has promised to advertisers" before having to grant them free "make good" ads. Commented the A.P. "If it were measured in traditional TV terms, The Jay Leno Show wouldn't be long for this world." The nightly newscasts lined up in the usual order, with NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams drawing 8.1 million viewers; ABC World News with Charles Gibson, 7.3 million; and The CBS Evening News with Katie Couric , 5.3 million.

The top ten shows of the week according to Nielsen Research 1. NCIS, CBS, 13/21; 2. NBC Sunday Night Football, NBC, 12/19; 3. Dancing with the Stars, ABC, 11.1/17; 4. Grey's Anatomy, ABC, 11/17; 4. NCIS Los Angeles, CBS, 11/17; 6. The Mentalist, CBS, 10.2/17; 7. CSI Crime Scene Investigation, CBS, 10/16; 8. House , Fox, 9.8/14; 9. NFL Post Game, CBS, 9.7/18; 10. Criminal Minds, CBS, 9.4/15; 10. The Good Wife, CBS, 9.4/16.

14/10/2009