NFL, ‘Idol’ work their magic

Television’s two most popular forms of programming -- NFL playoff games and “American Idol” -- combined over the last week to produce the season’s five most-watched broadcasts, according to figures released Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research.

CBS’ coverage of Sunday’s AFC championship game averaged 46.7 million viewers, the most for an AFC championship game since 1986. It was the second most-watched show of the season, behind CBS’ initial five-minute postgame show, which drew 47.7 million.

A second, 18-minute postgame show was fifth for the week. For advertising reasons, the two postgame shows were considered separate programs.

The football programming helped CBS become the most-watched network for the week. CBS had finished second behind NBC and Fox the previous two weeks, after winning each of the first 15 weeks of the season.

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Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (Jan. 15-21) 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 283.5 million potential viewers in the U.S. 2 and older. Viewership is listed in millions.

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*--* Program Net- work View- ers Program Net- work View- ers

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*--* 1 “NFL Postgame” CBS 47.70 2 “NFL Playoff: New England-Indianapolis” CBS 46.69 3 American Idol (Tue.) FOX 37.44 4 American Idol (Wed.) FOX 36.94 5 “NFL Postgame 2” CBS 29.39

6 Grey’s Anatomy (Thu.) ABC 21.94 7 CSI (9 p.m.) CBS 21.41 8 “Golden Globe Awards” NBC 20.04 9 Desperate Housewives (Sun.) ABC 17.14 10 NCIS CBS 15.95

11 24 FOX 15.73 12 Shark CBS 15.09 13 Law & Order: SVU (Tue.) NBC 14.17 14 Ugly Betty ABC 14.10 15 CSI: NY CBS 13.77

16 Without a Trace CBS 13.71 17 Criminal Minds CBS 12.99 18 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition ABC 12.61 19 CSI: Miami CBS 12.03 20 The Unit CBS 11.93

21 CSI (8 p.m.) CBS 11.92 22 Brothers & Sisters ABC 11.79 23 Two and a Half Men CBS 11.10 24 Men in Trees ABC 10.42 25 Boston Legal ABC 9.89

26 My Name Is Earl NBC 9.77 27 Old Christine CBS 9.40 28 The Office NBC 9.32 29 Supernanny ABC 8.99 30 Medium NBC 8.95

31 Deal or No Deal (Sun.) NBC 8.88 32 1 vs. 100 NBC 8.81 33 Deal or No Deal (Wed.) NBC 8.60 34 Las Vegas NBC 8.55 35 Close to Home CBS 8.46

36 America’s Funniest Home Videos (Sun.) ABC 8.40 37 Wife Swap ABC 8.36 38 Grease: You’re the One That I Want NBC 8.13 39 48 Hours Mystery (Tue) CBS 8.10 40 20/20 ABC 8.06

41 Numb3rs CBS 8.00 42 Law & Order NBC 7.81 43 Law & Order: Criminal Intent NBC 7.68 44 Crossing Jordan NBC 7.57 45 Primetime ABC 7.56

46 48 Hours Mystery (Sat.) CBS 7.38 47 How I Met Your Mother CBS 6.96 48 Dateline: NBC (Tue.) NBC 6.92 49 Ghost Whisperer CBS 6.91 According to Jim (8 p.m.) ABC 6.91

According to Jim (9 p.m.) ABC 6.91 52 The Class CBS 6.90 53 Apprentice 6 NBC 6.86 54 America’s Most Wanted FOX 6.71 55 Scrubs NBC 6.48

56 La Fea Mas Bella (Mon.) UNI 6.35 57 The Simpsons FOX 6.33 58 Law & Order: SVU (Sat.) NBC 6.32 59 Cops (8:30 p.m.) FOX 6.29 60 La Fea Mas Bella (Wed.) UNI 6.26

61 La Fea Mas Bella (Thu.) UNI 6.25 62 ER NBC 6.14 63 La Fea Mas Bella (Tue.) UNI 6.06 Trading Spouses FOX 6.06 65 Crimetime Saturday (8 p.m.) CBS 6.04

66 La Fea Mas Bella (Fri.) UNI 6.03 67 “Seabiscuit” ABC 6.00 68 Crimetime Saturday (9 p.m.) CBS 5.99 69 Family Guy FOX 5.90 70 America’s Funniest Home Videos (Tue.) ABC 5.89

71 Armed & Famous CBS 5.79 72 Cops (8 p.m.) FOX 5.61 73 Grey’s Anatomy (Fri.) ABC 5.54 74 American Dad (8:30 p.m.) FOX 5.53 75 Smallville CW 5.26

Dateline: NBC (Sat.) NBC 5.26 77 Til Death (Thu.) FOX 5.10 78 Nanny 911 FOX 5.06 79 Mundo de Fieras (Wed.) UNI 5.05 80 30 Rock NBC 5.04

American Dad (9:30 p.m.) FOX 5.04 82 What About Brian ABC 4.74 83 Mundo de Fieras (Thu.) UNI 4.68 84 Friday Night Smackdown CW 4.54 Mundo de Fieras (Mon.) UNI 4.54

86 Til Death (Sun.) FOX 4.52 87 Friday Night Lights NBC 4.46 88 Mundo de Fieras (Tue.) UNI 4.34 89 War at Home (Thu.) FOX 4.32 90 Mundo de Fieras (Fri.) UNI 4.10

91 Desperate Housewives (Fri.) ABC 4.03 92 The O.C. FOX 3.96 93 Don Francisco Presenta UNI 3.84 94 Knights of Prosperity ABC 3.82 95 Aqui y Ahora UNI 3.74

96 Duelo de Pasiones (Tue.) UNI 3.73 97 Duelo de Pasiones (Mon.) UNI 3.62 98 Crossing Jordan NBC 3.61 99 Supernatural CW 3.44 100 Cristina UNI 3.41

101 In Case of Emergency ABC 3.36 102 War at Home (Sun.) FOX 3.35 103 7th Heaven CW 3.33 104 Reba CW 3.32 Duelo de Pasiones (Thu.) UNI 3.32

106 Bailando Boda Suenos UNI 3.26 107 Duelo de Pasiones (Wed.) UNI 3.22 108 Beauty and the Geek (Wed.) CW 3.15 109 Ver Para Creer UNI 2.89 Duelo de Pasiones (Fri.) UNI 2.89

111 Sabado Gigante UNI 2.84 112 Casos Vida UNI 2.74 113 Hora Pico UNI 2.30 114 Reba Sun CW 2.22 115 One Tree Hill CW 2.20

Everybody Hates Chris CW 2.20 117 Casos Familia UNI 1.88 118 Beauty and the Geek (Sun.) CW 1.85 119 All of Us CW 1.76 120 Gilmore Girls CW 1.66

121 Girlfriends CW 1.63 122 The Game CW 1.58 123 Veronica Mars CW 1.20 124 Viuda de Blanco (Mon.) TEL 1.16 125 Viuda de Blanco (Thu.) TEL 1.15

126 Viuda de Blanco (Wed.) TEL 1.14 127 Marina (Mon.) TEL 1.10 128 Marina (Thu.) TEL 1.09 129 Viuda de Blanco (Tue.) TEL 1.08 130 Marina (Tue.) TEL 1.07

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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 16.50 12.55

FOX 15.20 8.86

NBC 9.28 9.92

ABC 8.83 10.20

UNI 4.15 3.48

CW 2.89 3.25

TEL 0.92 0.84

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