CBS claims ratings victory, logging six of last week's Top 10 prime-time shows

NEW YORK -- CBS maintained its perfect score so far this season, grabbing its 12th consecutive ratings win last week.

The network averaged 11.7 million viewers in prime time (7.5 rating, 12 share) and claimed six of the week's top 10 programs and 13 of the top 20 (including "CSI," the week's No. 1 show), according to Nielsen Media Research figures.

NBC was second with 10.2 million viewers (6.6 rating, 11 share). Its Sunday night football telecast was the No. 2 show, with Monday's "Deal or No Deal" ranked No. 3, and freshman drama "Heroes" No. 6.

ABC had 8.4 million viewers (5.3 rating, 9 share), while Fox had 6.1 million viewers (3.9 rating, 6 share), the CW had 3.6 million viewers (2.4 rating, 4 share), and the i network logged 640,000 viewers (0.4 rating, 1 share).

Among the Spanish-language networks, Univision led with 3.6 million viewers (2.0 rating, 3 share), Telemundo had 900,000 viewers (0.5 rating, 1 share) and TeleFutura had 570,000 viewers (0.4 rating, 1 share).

NBC's "Nightly News" won the evening news race, averaging 9.1 million viewers (6.3 rating, 12 share), followed closely by ABC's "World News" with 9.0 million viewers (6.3 rating, 12 share). "The CBS Evening News" had 7.5 million viewers (5.3 rating, 10 share).

A ratings point represents 1,114,000 households, or 1 percent of the nation's estimated 111.4 million TV homes. The share is the percentage of in-use televisions tuned to a given show.

'CSI' leads competition

For the week of Dec. 4-10, the top 10 shows, their networks and viewerships: "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," CBS, 23.25 million; Sunday Night Football: New Orleans at Dallas, NBC, 19.90 million; "Deal or No Deal" (Monday), NBC, 17.38 million; "60 Minutes," CBS, 15.83 million; "Survivor: Cook Islands," CBS, 15.72 million; "Heroes," NBC, 14.95 million; "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition," ABC, 14.21 million; "Cold Case," CBS, 14.05 million; "Shark," CBS, 13.98 million; "Without a Trace," CBS, 13.89 million.

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ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Co. CBS is a division of CBS Corp. Fox is a unit of News Corp. NBC is owned by General Electric Co. Telemundo is owned by General Electric. TeleFutura is a division of Univision. The i network is owned by ION Media Networks.

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