ABC shoots, but CBS scores

ABC’s “Dancing With the Stars” and its coverage of Game 5 of the NBA Finals were last week’s two most-watched shows, but CBS was the week’s most-watched network, according to figures released Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research.

Through five games, the NBA Finals between the Detroit Pistons and San Antonio Spurs averaged 11.2 million viewers per telecast. That’s a 37.4% decrease from the more than 17.9 million who watched last year’s finals between the Lakers and Pistons, but an 18% increase over the 2003 finals between the Spurs and New Jersey Nets.

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Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (June 13-19) 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. ages 2 and older. Viewership is listed in millions.

*--* 1 Dancing With the Stars (9 p.m.) ABC 15.67 2 “NBA Finals: Game 5” (Sun.) ABC 13.09 3 CSI CBS 12.36 4 CSI: Miami CBS 11.26 5 “NBA Finals: Game 4” (Thu.) ABC 10.92

6 Without a Trace CBS 10.91 7 “NBA Finals: Game 3” (Tue.) ABC 10.63 8 Two and a Half Men CBS 10.60 9 “Twelve Mile Road” CBS 9.86 10 Law & Order NBC 9.60

11 NCIS CBS 9.29 12 48 Hours Mystery (Tue.) CBS 9.27 13 Cold Case CBS 9.21 14 CSI: NY CBS 9.07 15 Everybody Loves Raymond CBS 8.76

16 House FOX 8.50 17 Law & Order: Criminal Intent NBC 8.44 18 60 Minutes CBS 8.17 19 Dancing With the Stars (8 p.m.) ABC 8.12 20 Law & Order: SVU NBC 8.10

21 Medium NBC 7.61 22 Hell’s Kitchen FOX 7.54 23 Law & Order (9 p.m.) NBC 7.40 24 Family Guy FOX 7.17 25 Crossing Jordan NBC 7.07

26 The Simpsons (8:30 p.m.) FOX 7.01 27 Fire Me Please CBS 6.91 28 60 Minutes Wednesday CBS 6.85 29 20/20 ABC 6.81 30 American Dad FOX 6.55

31 Crimetime Saturday CBS 6.38 32 Law & Order: Trial by Jury NBC 6.34 33 Dateline: NBC (Fri.) NBC 6.32 34 Lost ABC 6.24 35 King of Queens CBS 6.06

36 Las Vegas NBC 6.00 37 Hit Me Baby One More Time (Thu.) NBC 5.98 Dateline: NBC (Sun.) NBC 5.98 39 Nanny 911 FOX 5.95 40 48 Hours Mystery (Sat.) CBS 5.82

41 Psychic Detectives CBS 5.80 42 Numb3rs CBS 5.75 43 “Men in Black II” ABC 5.67 44 “NBA Gametime: Game 5” (Sun.) ABC 5.65 45 The Simpsons FOX 5.64

46 Yes, Dear (Wed.) CBS 5.60 47 Dateline: NBC (Mon.) NBC 5.55 48 “48 Hours: Michael Jackson” CBS 5.54 49 America’s Most Wanted FOX 5.33 50 WWE Smackdown! UPN 5.32

51 The Cut CBS 5.26 52 ER NBC 5.21 JAG (9 p.m.) CBS 5.21 54 “Bone Collector” NBC 5.20 55 NCIS (Sat.) CBS 5.19

My Wife and Kids (Tue.) ABC 5.19 57 Will & Grace (8:30 p.m.) NBC 5.18 58 Trading Spouses FOX 4.99 59 “NBA Gametime: Game 4” (Thu.) ABC 4.94 60 JAG (8 p.m.) CBS 4.89

61 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition ABC 4.75 62 America’s Funniest Home Videos ABC 4.71 63 Yes, Dear (Mon.) CBS 4.63 64 Cops (8:30 p.m.) FOX 4.54 Beauty and the Geek (Wed.) WB 4.54

66 The Scholar ABC 4.34 67 Will & Grace (8 p.m.) CBS 4.26 68 My Wife and Kids (Thu.) ABC 4.18 69 “NBA Gametime: Game 3” (Tue.) ABC 4.16 70 “The Wedding Singer” FOX 4.10

71 The Inside FOX 4.04 72 Cops FOX 4.03 73 Hit Me Baby One More Time (Tue., 9 p.m.) NBC 4.00 74 That ‘70s Show FOX 3.97 75 America’s Funniest Home Videos (Sat.) ABC 3.94

76 8 Simple Rules ABC 3.77 77 Dateline: NBC (Sat.) NBC 3.76 78 Hope & Faith ABC 3.56 79 Stacked FOX 3.53 80 Blue Collar TV (8:30 p.m.) WB 3.45

81 Hit Me Baby One More Time (Tue., 8 p.m.) NBC 3.37 82 Less Than Perfect ABC 3.33 83 King of the Hill FOX 3.28 84 Complete Savages ABC 3.12 85 Blue Collar TV WB 3.08

86 Wonderful World of Disney ABC 2.89 87 One on One UPN 2.88 88 Beauty and the Geek (Thu.) WB 2.74 89 Malcolm in the Middle FOX 2.69 90 Cuts UPN 2.67

91 Smallville WB 2.57 92 7th Heaven WB 2.55 93 The O.C. FOX 2.52 94 The O.C. FOX 2.51 95 Girlfriends UPN 2.46

96 Half and Half UPN 2.28 97 Eve UPN 2.22 98 Summerland WB 2.20 99 Reba WB 2.19 Steve Harvey’s Big Time WB 2.19

101 Gilmore Girls WB 2.15 102 Britney & Kevin: Chaotic UPN 2.10 103 All of Us UPN 2.03 104 Charmed (8 p.m.) WB 1.83 105 Living With Fran WB 1.69

106 Veronica Mars (Tue.) UPN 1.61 107 One Tree Hill WB 1.60 108 Veronica Mars (Wed.) UPN 1.57 109 Charmed (7 p.m.) WB 1.38 110 What I Like About You (8:30 p.m.) WB 1.32

111 “Driven” UPN 1.23 112 What I Like About You WB 1.14

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Network averages

Here is the number of viewers (in millions) that each network averaged per hour of prime time, for last week and for the season.

*--* Network Last week Season to date CBS 7.82 12.47

ABC 6.91 9.72

NBC 6.13 9.48

FOX 4.92 9.61

UPN 2.57 3.29

WB 2.32 3.25

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Los Angeles Times