Fox hangs on to the top spot

Fox Broadcasting was the most-watched network for the ninth time in the nine weeks that “American Idol” has aired this season, despite mixed results for its new series “Canterbury’s Law” and “The Return of Jezebel James.”

With the two “American Idol” episodes in their customary 1-2 positions for the week, Fox averaged 11.28 million viewers for its 15 hours of prime-time programming between March 10 and Sunday, according to figures released Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research. CBS was second with 7.61 million.

The March 10 premiere of the Fox legal drama “Canterbury’s Law” won its 8-9 p.m. time slot with 7.72 million viewers, putting it 29th for the week. But in a development that could cause problems for its future, it was fourth in its time slot among viewers ages 18-49, the group Fox, ABC and NBC target and advertisers covet.

The premiere of the Fox comedy “The Return of Jezebel James” was sixth in its Friday 8-8:30 p.m. time slot with 3.13 million viewers, trailing not only ABC, CBS and NBC but also the Univision Spanish-language telenovela “Al Diablo Con Guapos” and the CW’s professional wrestling telecast, “Friday Night Smackdown.” A second episode at 8:30 p.m. did slightly better with 3.18 million viewers, 97th for the week.

With two hourlong segments of the “Monday Night Raw” professional wrestling telecasts finishing 1-2 on cable for the week, USA Network was the most-watched cable network for the 11th consecutive week, averaging 2.79 million viewers in prime time.

In a week when the anchors for both of the two most-watched network nightly newscasts were absent, “NBC Nightly News” was first for the 13th time in the past 15 weeks, averaging 8.32 million viewers with Ann Curry anchoring. ABC’s “World News With Charles Gibson” was second with 8.1 million, as Elizabeth Vargas substituted for Gibson on Monday and Tuesday and George Stephanopoulos anchored the final three nights.

“The CBS Evening News With Katie Couric” was third for the 77th consecutive week, averaging 6.3 million viewers, with Couric anchoring four nights.

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Prime-Time TV Rankings

Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (March 10-16) 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 286 million potential viewers in the U.S. ages 2 and older. Viewership is listed in millions.

*--* -- PROGRAM NETWORK VIEWERS 1 American Idol (Tue.) FOX 29.88 2 American Idol (Wed.) FOX 27.13 3 Survivor: Micronesia CBS 13.22 4 Lost (9 p.m.) ABC 12.08 5 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition ABC 12.05 *--*

*--* 6 Law & Order (Wed.) NBC 11.85 7 Two and a Half Men CBS 11.82 8 Deal or No Deal (Mon.) NBC 11.82 9 60 Minutes CBS 11.30 10 CSI CBS 11.22 *--*

*--* 11 Moment of Truth FOX 10.58 12 CSI: Miami CBS 10.24 13 Deal or No Deal (Wed.) NBC 10.19 14 Without a Trace CBS 9.78 15 Oprah’s Big Give ABC 9.74 *--*

*--* 16 Old Christine (9:30 p.m) CBS 9.62 17 Law & Order: SVU (Tue.) NBC 9.52 18 Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? FOX 9.42 19 Medium NBC 9.34 20 New Amsterdam FOX 8.83 *--*

*--* 21 Don’t Forget the Lyrics FOX 8.74 22 NCIS CBS 8.51 23 Apprentice 7 NBC 8.24 24 Price Is Right Primetime CBS 8.14 25 Dateline: NBC (Sun.) NBC 8.10 *--*

*--* 26 Cold Case CBS 8.10 27 Law & Order: Criminal Intent (Wed.) NBC 7.90 28 Law & Order: SVU (Sun.) NBC 7.88 29 Canterbury’s Law FOX 7.72 30 Biggest Loser 5 NBC 7.66 *--*

*--* 31 Primetime: What Would You Do? ABC 7.60 32 “The Bachelor: Where Are They Now?” ABC 7.57 33 Criminal Minds CBS 7.44 34 Old Christine (8:30 p.m.) CBS 7.38 35 America’s Funniest Home Videos ABC 7.31 *--*

*--* 36 Law & Order (Sun.) NBC 7.10 37 Cops (8:30 p.m.) FOX 6.98 38 Eli Stone ABC 6.92 39 My Dad Is Better Than Your Dad NBC 6.81 40 Family Guy FOX 6.75 *--*

*--* 41 Here Come the Newlyweds (Sun.) ABC 6.75 42 The Simpsons FOX 6.63 43 Dateline: NBC (Fri.) NBC 6.52 44 How I Met Your Mother CBS 6.50 45 America’s Most Wanted FOX 6.47 *--*

*--* 46 Dexter CBS 6.46 47 Numb3rs CBS 6.38 48 CSI: NY CBS 6.35 49 Big Brother 9 (Sun.) CBS 6.28 50 48 Hours Mystery CBS 6.26 *--*

*--* 51 Law & Order (Sat.) NBC 6.24 52 Wife Swap ABC 6.18 53 Ghost Whisperer CBS 6.12 54 King of the Hill (8:30 p.m.) FOX 6.03 55 Supernanny ABC 5.94 *--*

*--* 56 Big Brother 9 (Tue.) CBS 5.87 57 Cops (8 p.m.) FOX 5.85 58 Jericho CBS 5.83 59 Men in Trees ABC 5.67 60 House FOX 5.61 *--*

*--* 61 20/20 (10 p.m.) ABC 5.53 62 Lipstick Jungle NBC 5.37 63 Lost (8 p.m.) ABC 5.33 64 Al Diablo con los Guapos (Mon.) UNI 5.31 65 Big Brother 9 (Wed.) CBS 5.31 *--*

*--* 66 Law & Order: SVU (Sat.) NBC 5.03 67 Al Diablo con los Guapos (Thu.) UNI 5.00 68 According to Jim (9 p.m.) ABC 4.96 69 Al Diablo con los Guapos (Wed.) UNI 4.91 70 According to Jim (9:30 p.m.) ABC 4.89 *--*

*--* 71 Crimetime Saturday (9 p.m.) CBS 4.89 72 Al Diablo con los Guapos (Tue.) UNI 4.79 73 October Road ABC 4.68 74 20/20 (9 p.m.) ABC 4.64 75 Just for Laughs (8:30 p.m.) ABC 4.54 *--*

*--* 76 My Name Is Earl (8:30 p.m.) NBC 4.52 77 Al Diablo con los Guapos (Fri.) UNI 4.52 78 Just for Laughs (8 p.m.) ABC 4.47 79 Law & Order: Criminal Intent (Sat.) NBC 4.44 80 Unhitched FOX 4.43 *--*

*--* 81 Amnesia NBC 4.42 82 Friday Night Smackdown! CW 4.29 83 My Name Is Earl (8 p.m.) NBC 4.14 84 Don Francisco Presenta UNI 4.13 85 Pasion (Mon.) UNI 4.07 *--*

*--* 86 Smallville CW 3.80 87 Pasion (Wed.) UNI 3.72 88 Pasion (Tue.) UNI 3.66 89 America’s Top Model 4 (Wed.) CW 3.65 90 Pasion (Thu.) UNI 3.65 *--*

*--* 91 Grey’s Anatomy ABC 3.61 92 American Dad FOX 3.59 93 Crimetime Saturday (8 p.m.) CBS 3.57 94 Cristina UNI 3.43 95 King of the Hill (7 p.m.) FOX 3.29 *--*

*--* 96 Pasion (Fri.) UNI 3.19 97 Return of Jezebel James (8:30 p.m.) FOX 3.18 98 Yo Amo Juan Querendon (Mon.) UNI 3.17 99 Return of Jezebel James (8 p.m.) FOX 3.13 100 Yo Amo Juan Querendon (Wed.) UNI 3.12 *--*

*--* 101 Nuestra Belleza UNI 2.97 102 Sabado Gigante UNI 2.91 103 Yo Amo Juan Querendon (Thu.) UNI 2.90 104 Yo Amo Juan Querendon (Tue.) UNI 2.82 105 Yo Amo Juan Querendon (Fri.) UNI 2.82 *--*

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 11.28 11.20

CBS 7.61 10.11

NBC 7.50 8.19

ABC 6.07 8.87

UNI 3.40 3.51

CW 2.35 2.48 *--*