Thursday lineup, basketball boost CBS in ratings

NEW YORK -- CBS' strong Thursday night lineup and the NCAA men's basketball tournament helped the network dominate the prime-time ratings competition last week.

Led by "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," all three of CBS's Thursday programs were among the six most-watched programs of the week, according to Nielsen Media Research. Three of NBC's programs that night were in reruns.

The basketball semifinals Saturday night also finished among Nielsen's top 12. The ABC medical drama "Grey's Anatomy" cracked Nielsen's top 10 for its second episode Sunday, helped by its plum time slot following the sensation "Desperate Housewives."

NBC's remake of "The Office" ranked a disappointing No. 74, with fewer than 6 million viewers, in its premiere. Fox's new "Life on a Stick" did much better on the surface, with 9.5 million people watching March 30, but that was less than half the audience of its "American Idol" lead-in.

For the week, CBS averaged 13.4 million viewers (8.5 rating, 14 share), and won among the 18-to-49-year-old demographic sought by advertisers. ABC had 9.6 million viewers (6.2, 10), NBC 9.3 million (6.3, 10), Fox 9.1 million (5.6, 9), UPN 3.4 million (2.4, 4), the WB 2.7 million (1.8, 3) and Pax TV 520,000 viewers (0.4, 1).

NBC's "Nightly News" won the evening news ratings race, averaging 10 million viewers (7.1, 15). ABC's "World News Tonight" had 9.5 million viewers (6.7, 13) and the "CBS Evening News" 7.6 million (5.3, 10).

A ratings point represents 1,096,000 households, or 1 percent of the nation's estimated 109.6 million TV homes. The share is the percentage of in-use televisions tuned to a given show.

For the week of March 28 to Sunday, the top 10 shows, their networks and viewerships: "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," CBS, 28.2 million; "American Idol" (Tuesday), Fox, 26.4 million; "American Idol" (Wednesday), Fox, 24.9 million; "Desperate Housewives," ABC, 24.6 million; "Without a Trace," CBS, 21.3 million; "Survivor: Palau," CBS, 20.9 million; "House," Fox, 18.3 million; "Lost," ABC, 17.8 million; "Grey's Anatomy," ABC, 17.7 million; NCAA men's basketball semifinal: North Carolina vs. Michigan St., CBS, 17.5 million.