CBS dominates in Nielsens; ABC sees some success after 4 weeks of new TV season

Another banner week for CBS

NEW YORK — If television’s weekly list of the most popular programs is starting to get monotonous by the fourth week of the new TV season, that’s OK by CBS.

The network was nation’s most popular in prime-time again last week, with an average of nearly three million more viewers than second-place ABC. “NCIS” and “NCIS: Los Angeles” were the most-watched program and new program for the fourth straight week, the first time a network can claim that at the start of a season since NBC did it with “ER” and “Jesse” in 1998, the Nielsen Co. said.

There are other small stories developing. ABC’s “Modern Family” and “Cougar Town” are moderate successes as the network tries to establish a Wednesday comedy night. That same night, ABC’s “Hank” (No. 60 last week) is looking like a failure for star Kelsey Grammer. NBC’s nurse-centric “Mercy” is faring better than the network’s more action-oriented “Trauma.”

ABC’s “Flash Forward” signs of being a successful science fiction drama on Thursdays. Nielsen said the show’s pilot episode was watched more often on computer than any other show on a broadcast Web site in September.

For the week, CBS averaged 11.9 million viewers (7.5 rating, 12 share), and was also most popular among viewers aged 18-to-49. ABC averaged 9 million in prime-time (5.8, 10), Fox had 8.1 million (4.8, 8), NBC had 7.4 million (4.7, 8), the CW had 2.3 million (1.5, 2) and ION Television had 910,000 (0.6, 1).

Among the Spanish-language networks, Univision led with a 3.4 million average in prime-time (1.8 rating, 3 share), Telemundo had 1.1 million (0.6, 1), TeleFutura had 920,000 (0.5, 1) and Azteca had 220,000 (0.1, 0).

NBC’s “Nightly News” topped the evening newscasts with an average of 8.8 million viewers (5.7, 11). ABC’s “World News” was second with 7.7 million (5.2, 10) and the “CBS Evening News” had 5.9 million viewers (4.1, 8).

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 Oct 12-18, the top 10 shows, their networks and viewerships: “NCIS,” CBS, 21.04 million; NFL Sunday Night Football: Chicago at Atlanta, NBC, 18.17 million; “Dancing With the Stars,” ABC, 16.79 million; “NCIS: Los Angeles,” CBS, 15.384 million; “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation,” CBS, 15.376 million; “The Mentalist,” CBS, 15.08 million; “60 Minutes,” CBS, 14.38 million; “Two and a Half Men,” CBS, 14.17 million; “Dancing With the Stars Results,” ABC, 13.96 million; “Criminal Minds,” CBS, 13.92 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.

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