It's a revelation: NBC found something to compete against "American Idol."
NBC's spiritual miniseries "Revelations" reached 15.6 million viewers for its debut last week, positive ratings news for a network that needs it. It was the most-watched NBC show airing opposite the Wednesday edition of Fox's "American Idol" since a National Basketball Assn. finals game in 2002, according to Nielsen Media Research figures released Tuesday.
CBS scored another easy victory as the most popular network in prime time last week. "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" was the most-watched program.
Fox's Emmy-winning comedy "Arrested Development" ended its season last week with an episode seen by only 6 million people. The sitcom has garnered critical raves, but those ratings put it at risk of not returning.
Despite the continuing domination of "Desperate Housewives" and its Sunday night lineup, ABC slipped to fourth place. The lackluster showings of new series "Eyes," "Blind Justice" and "Jake in Progress" prove not everything ABC programmers touch turns to gold.
NBC's "Nightly News" won the evening news ratings race.
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*--* Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (April 11-17) as compiled by Nielsen Media Research. They are based on the average number of people who watched a program from start to finish. Nielsen estimates there are 277.93 million potential viewers in the U.S. age 2 and older. Viewership is listed in millions. Program Net- work View- ers Program Net- work View- ers
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*--* 1 CSI CBS 27.54 2 American Idol (Tue.) FOX 25.62 3 Desperate Housewives ABC 25.27 4 American Idol (Wed.) FOX 24.96 5 CSI: Miami CBS 20.67
6 Survivor: Palau CBS 20.37 7 Without a Trace CBS 19.98 8 Grey's Anatomy ABC 19.18 9 House FOX 17.83 10 Law & Order NBC 16.85
11 Two and a Half Men CBS 16.36 12 Everybody Loves Raymond CBS 15.96 13 Revelations NBC 15.59 14 NCIS CBS 13.89 15 Cold Case CBS 13.47
16 Law & Order: Trial By Jury NBC 13.19 17 Amazing Race: 7 CBS 12.97 18 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition ABC 12.66 19 Apprentice 3 NBC 12.56 20 60 Minutes CBS 12.17
21 24 FOX 11.64 22 Law & Order: SVU NBC 11.58 23 Judging Amy CBS 11.17 24 CSI: NY CBS 11.00 25 Dateline: NBC (Wed.) NBC 10.83
26 Numb3rs CBS 10.54 27 Lost ABC 10.38 28 ER NBC 10.06 29 Law & Order: Criminal Intent NBC 9.90 30 Law & Order (Sat.) NBC 9.59
