Fun and games rule the TV ratings

Deseret News (Salt Lake City), Jun 26, 2008 by Associated Press

NEW YORK -- Broadcast networks are the place to be for prime- time competitions -- if little else.

Nine of the 20 most-watched programs on the networks last week involved some sort of game, from the Boston Celtics clinching the National Basketball Association title to the eager guys seeking a date on "The Bachelorette," according to Nielsen Media Research. ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox are heading into their slowest weeks of the year.

NBC's "America's Got Talent" opened a new season with 12.8 million viewers, by far the most popular prime-time show after the Celtics-Lakers. The talent competition and "Deal or No Deal" enabled NBC to claim the status of No. 1 network for the first time since the first week of the year.

Disney's rollout of the new kids' movie "Camp Rock" was the week's biggest event, shown to a total of 16.1 million people over three networks on three nights.

More people watched "Camp Rock" on its Disney Channel debut Friday (8.9 million) than the 3.7 million who watched Sunday on ABC Family. Only 3.5 million watched Saturday on ABC -- illustrating how the distinction between broadcast and cable networks mean little to young viewers.

Illustrating ABC's problems in getting viewers to watch its reruns, "Grey's Anatomy" reached 3.2 million people, a smaller audience than 14 programs that aired on Univision. "Desperate Housewives" had virtually the same size audience as Univision's "Amas Casa Desperados."

For the week, NBC averaged 6.5 million viewers (4.2 rating, 7 share). CBS had 6.4 million viewers (4.3, 8), Fox 6.1 million (3.8, 7), ABC 5.4 million (3.6, 6), the CW 1.7 million (1.1, 2), My Network TV 1.2 million (0.8, 1) and ION Television 330,000 (0.2, 0).

Among Spanish language networks, Univision led with 3.8 million viewers (1.9, 3), Telemundo had 950,000 (0.6, 1), TeleFutura had 530,000 (0.3, 1) and Azteca had 100,000 (0.1, 0).

A ratings point represents 1,128,000 households, or 1 percent of the nation's estimated 112.8 million TV homes. The share is the percentage of in-use televisions tuned to a given show.

For the week of June 16-22, the top 10 shows, their networks and viewerships: NBA Finals, Game 6, ABC, 16.88 million; "America's Got Talent," NBC, 12.78 million; "60 Minutes," CBS, 9.1 million; "Two and a Half Men," CBS, 8.95 million; "So You Think You Can Dance" (Thursday), Fox, 8.87 million; "So You Think You Can Dance" (Wednesday), Fox, 8.86 million; "Deal or No Deal" (Tuesday), NBC, 8.72 million; "House," Fox, 8.63 million; "Deal or No Deal" (Wednesday), NBC, 8.34 million; "Hell's Kitchen," Fox, 8.25 million.