America voted, Fox’s ‘Idol’ won

Thanks to three “American Idol” episodes finishing among the week’s top four, Fox was the week’s most-watched network for the second consecutive week.

Fox averaged 13.47 million viewers between March 6 and Sunday, according to ratings released Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research. The network also led among all demographic groups for which figures were available, with the exception of 55 and older, which CBS won.

NBC’s post-Winter Olympics doldrums continued with its second-consecutive fourth-place finish, with viewership falling 13% from the previous week. NBC placed only one show in the top 20.

The new NBC legal drama “Conviction” continued to struggle. Viewership for its second episode fell 25% from its premiere a week earlier, to 7.74 million.

CBS’ military drama “The Unit” was easily the most-watched of the week’s three series premieres with 18.5 million viewers.

ABC’s heavily promoted improvisational comedy “Son & Daughters” drew 8.41 million viewers for its premiere.

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Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (March 6-12) 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 American Idol (Wed.) FOX 30.38 2 American Idol (Tue.) FOX 28.56 3 CSI CBS 27.15 4 American Idol (Thu.) FOX 26.62 5 Grey’s Anatomy ABC 22.51

6 Desperate Housewives ABC 22.20 7 House FOX 20.56 8 Without a Trace CBS 20.28 9 CSI: Miami CBS 18.61 10 The Unit CBS 18.50

11 NCIS CBS 17.21 12 Two and a Half Men CBS 17.06 13 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (8 p.m.) ABC 16.79 14 Criminal Minds CBS 15.27 15 Survivor: Panama, Exile Island CBS 15.20

16 Cold Case CBS 15.05 17 Deal or No Deal (Mon.) NBC 14.66 18 24 FOX 13.98 19 CSI: NY CBS 13.91 20 Courting Alex CBS 13.77

21 Law & Order: Criminal Intent NBC 12.27 22 24 (Mon., 8 p.m.) FOX 11.89 23 Bones FOX 11.82 24 60 Minutes CBS 11.80 25 Law & Order (10 p.m.) NBC 11.79

26 Numb3rs CBS 11.67 27 Boston Legal ABC 11.40 28 Medium NBC 10.67 29 Crossing Jordan NBC 10.54 30 King of Queens CBS 10.48

31 Ghost Whisperer CBS 10.34 32 Law & Order: SVU (Tue.) NBC 10.30 33 Deal or No Deal (Fri.) NBC 10.26 34 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (7 p.m.) ABC 10.25 35 How I Met Your Mother CBS 10.15

36 Close to Home CBS 9.88 37 Apprentice 5 NBC 9.78 38 The Simpsons FOX 9.71 39 Supernanny ABC 9.70 40 Amazing Race 9 CBS 9.46

41 Las Vegas NBC 9.21 42 Lost ABC 8.77 43 My Name Is Earl NBC 8.62 44 Wife Swap ABC 8.60 45 Miracle Workers ABC 8.56

46 Sons & Daughters (9 p.m.) ABC 8.41 47 Family Guy FOX 8.06 48 Conviction (Fri.) NBC 7.74 49 Dateline: NBC (Sun.) NBC 7.61 50 Sons & Daughters (9:30 p.m.) ABC 7.50

51 “How to Lose a Guy in Ten Days” CBS 7.44 52 ER NBC 7.37 53 Still Standing (8:30 p.m.) CBS 7.36 The O.C. FOX 7.36 55 20/20 ABC 7.34

56 48 Hours Mystery CBS 7.33 57 “Bringing Down the House” ABC 7.13 Law & Order (9 p.m.) NBC 7.13 59 War at Home FOX 7.04 60 The West Wing NBC 7.02

61 Dateline: NBC (Sat.) NBC 6.98 62 Still Standing (8 p.m.) CBS 6.88 63 Office NBC 6.84 64 Invasion ABC 6.74 65 Primetime ABC 6.66

66 America’s Most Wanted FOX 6.50 67 Cops (8:30 p.m.) FOX 6.26 68 Trading Spouses FOX 6.25 69 America’s Funniest Home Videos (Fri.) ABC 6.12 70 Law & Order: SVU (Sat.) NBC 6.06 71 George Lopez ABC 6.01 72 According to Jim (8 p.m.) ABC 5.84 73 According to Jim (8:30 p.m.) ABC 5.83 74 Cops (8 p.m.) FOX 5.71 Scrubs (9:30 p.m.) NBC 5.71

76 Scrubs (9 p.m.) NBC 5.70 77 Free Ride FOX 5.67 78 Conviction (Sat.) NBC 5.55 79 Will & Grace (8:30 p.m.) NBC 5.40 80 Crimetime Saturday CBS 5.38

81 “What Lies Beneath” ABC 5.37 82 Freddie ABC 5.30 83 America’s Next Top Model 6 UPN 5.26 84 Will & Grace (8 p.m.) NBC 5.24 85 In Justice ABC 5.09

86 Bailando por un Sueno UNI 5.05 87 Contra Viento y Marea (Thu.) UNI 4.95 88 Contra Viento y Marea (Mon.) UNI 4.92 89 Alborada (Mon.) UNI 4.87 90 Alborada (Tue.) UNI 4.80

91 Nanny 911 FOX 4.79 92 Alborada (Wed.) UNI 4.76 93 Contra Viento y Marea (Wed.) UNI 4.75 94 Alborada (Thu.) UNI 4.72 95 Contra Viento y Marea (Tue.) UNI 4.69

96 Biggest Loser NBC 4.60 97 Crimetime Saturday CBS 4.27 98 Joey NBC 4.09 Contra Viento y Marea (Fri.) UNI 4.09 100 Alborada (Fri.) UNI 3.95

101 WWE Smackdown! UPN 3.93 102 Joey NBC 3.76 103 Beauty and the Geek (Thu.) WB 3.70 104 7th Heaven WB 3.57 105 Peregrina (Thu.) UNI 3.32

106 Cristina UNI 3.30 107 Aqui y Ahora (Thu.) UNI 3.20 108 Peregrina (Wed.) UNI 3.18 109 All of Us UPN 3.16 110 Girlfriends UPN 3.14

111 Peregrina (Mon.) UNI 3.13 112 Don Francisco Presenta UNI 3.11 113 Smallville WB 3.00 114 Gilmore Girls WB 2.93 115 Peregrina (Fri.) UNI 2.91

116 Peregrina (Tue.) UNI 2.90 117 Half and Half UPN 2.87 118 Everybody Hates Chris (Thu.) UPN 2.73 119 Related WB 2.69 One on One UPN 2.69 121 Casos Vida UNI 2.64

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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 FOX 13.47 9.59

CBS 12.61 12.68

ABC 9.12 11.50

NBC 8.28 10.01

UNI 3.94 4.01

UPN 3.15 3.21

WB 2.36 3.25

TEL 0.95 1.09

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