‘Idol’ crushes its competition

With the National Football League taking its customary hiatus between the conference championship games and the Super Bowl, Fox’s “American Idol” dominated the weekly prime-time rankings, drawing more than 11 million viewers more than the next most-watched show, according to figures released Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research.

Wednesday’s two-hour audition show from New York City was the most-watched prime-time program between Jan. 22 and Sunday, drawing 33.87 million viewers, while Tuesday’s hourlong look at auditions in Memphis, Tenn., was second with 32.6 million. ABC’s “Grey’s Anatomy” was next with 21.5 million.

Through its first four episodes, “American Idol” is averaging 35.21 million viewers, 5% more than the last season’s first four episodes.

In a week with a significant amount of reruns, Fox led with an average of 12.56 million viewers, with CBS second with 11.64 million.

*

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (Jan. 22-28) 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. ages 2 and older. Viewership is listed in millions.

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

*--*

*--* 1 American Idol (Wed.) FOX 33.87 2 American Idol (Tue.) FOX 32.60 3 Grey’s Anatomy (Thu.) ABC 21.50 4 CSI CBS 21.17 5 CSI: Miami (Mon.) CBS 18.85

6 Deal or No Deal (Mon.) NBC 17.61 7 Two and a Half Men (Mon.) CBS 15.85 8 Cold Case CBS 15.13 9 Heroes NBC 14.90 10 NCIS CBS 14.83

11 “Hallmark Hall Of Fame: Valley of Light” CBS 14.77 12 24 FOX 14.47 13 60 Minutes CBS 14.27 14 Shark CBS 14.11 15 CSI: NY CBS 13.35

16 Old Christine CBS 12.81 17 CSI: Miami (Thu.) CBS 12.23 18 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition ABC 12.08 19 Men in Trees ABC 10.66 20 America’s Funniest Home Videos (Sun.) ABC 10.43

21 Deal or No Deal (Wed.) NBC 9.88 22 Prison Break FOX 9.86 23 Ugly Betty ABC 9.84 24 Desperate Housewives ABC 9.70 25 How I Met Your Mother CBS 9.42

26 1 vs. 100 NBC 9.36 27 Supernanny ABC 9.17 28 Criminal Minds CBS 9.03 29 The Class CBS 8.89 30 “State of the Union Analysis” NBC 8.81

31 Family Guy FOX 8.80 32 Medium NBC 8.72 33 Wife Swap ABC 8.57 34 Numb3rs CBS 8.54 35 Close to Home CBS 8.42

36 My Name Is Earl NBC 8.12 37 Apprentice 6 NBC 8.08 38 The Simpsons FOX 8.04 39 48 Hours Mystery CBS 7.97 40 Law & Order NBC 7.94

41 Crossing Jordan (Sun.) NBC 7.92 42 The Office (Thu., 8:30 p.m.) NBC 7.78 43 20/20 ABC 7.50 44 American Dad FOX 7.49 45 Ghost Whisperer CBS 7.47

46 Grease: You’re the One That I Want NBC 7.34 47 King of the Hill FOX 7.27 48 Studio 60 NBC 7.25 49 Crimetime Saturday (9 p.m.) CBS 7.05 50 “State of the Union Analysis” ABC 6.86

51 Crimetime Saturday (8 p.m.) CBS 6.82 52 Las Vegas NBC 6.63 53 “State of the Union Analysis” CBS 6.58 54 Cops (8:30 p.m.) FOX 6.53 55 La Fea Mas Bella (Tue.) UNI 6.44

56 Dateline: NBC (Tue.) NBC 6.42 57 America’s Most Wanted FOX 6.37 58 Grey’s Anatomy (Fri.) ABC 6.34 59 Trading Spouses FOX 6.32 60 La Fea Mas Bella (Wed.) UNI 6.27

61 “Catch Me If You Can” ABC 6.26 62 According to Jim ABC 6.19 63 George Lopez ABC 6.08 64 La Fea Mas Bella (Mon.) UNI 6.05 65 Cops (8 p.m.) FOX 5.94

66 La Fea Mas Bella (Thu.) UNI 5.86 67 Two and a Half Men (Tue.) CBS 5.85 68 Law & Order: Criminal Intent NBC 5.82 69 Primetime ABC 5.81 70 Brothers & Sisters (Sun.) ABC 5.75

71 Friday Night Lights NBC 5.66 72 La Fea Mas Bella (Fri.) UNI 5.46 73 ‘Til Death (Thu.) FOX 5.41 74 What About Brian ABC 5.33 75 “State of the Union Analysis 2” ABC 5.31

76 America’s Funniest Home Videos (Tue.) ABC 5.16 77 Smallville CW 5.00 78 Scrubs NBC 4.98 79 Dateline: NBC (Sat.) NBC 4.96 80 War at Home (Thu.) FOX 4.77

81 The Office (Thu.,10 p.m.) NBC 4.69 82 Nanny 911 FOX 4.58 83 Friday Night Smackdown CW 4.50 84 The Office (Tue.) NBC 4.38 85 Brothers & Sisters (Fri.) ABC 4.26

86 Mundo de Fieras (Mon.) UNI 4.22 Armed & Famous CBS 4.22 88 The Office (Thu., 10:30 p.m.) NBC 4.11 89 Mundo de Fieras (Wed.) UNI 4.04 90 30 Rock NBC 3.86

91 Gilmore Girls CW 3.72 92 Mundo de Fieras (Fri.) UNI 3.67 93 Crossing Jordan (Sat.) NBC 3.61 94 Mundo de Fieras (Thu.) UNI 3.59 95 Knights of Prosperity ABC 3.57

Duelo de Pasiones (Tue.) UNI 3.57 The O.C. FOX 3.57 98 Reba (7:30 p.m.) CW 3.56 99 Cristina UNI 3.46 100 Supernatural CW 3.42

101 Duelo de Pasiones Wed UNI 3.37 102 War at Home (Sun.) FOX 3.31 103 Don Francisco Presenta UNI 3.24 104 Veronica Mars CW 3.23 105 Duelo de Pasiones (Thu.) UNI 3.20

Mundo de Fieras (Tue.) UNI 3.20 107 Bailando Boda Suenos UNI 3.18 108 7th Heaven CW 3.16 109 Beauty and the Geek (Wed.) CW 3.11 110 In Case of Emergency ABC 2.98

111 Duelo de Pasiones (Mon.) UNI 2.95 112 ‘Til Death (Sun.) FOX 2.94 113 Duelo de Pasiones (Fri.) UNI 2.92 114 Sabado Gigante UNI 2.86 115 Everybody Hates Chris CW 2.83

116 Aqui y Ahora UNI 2.78 117 Casos Vida UNI 2.71 118 Reba (7 p.m.) CW 2.61 119 All of Us CW 2.46 120 The Game CW 2.25

Girlfriends CW 2.25 122 One Tree Hill CW 2.23 123 Beauty and the Geek (Sun.) CW 1.88 124 Casos Familia UNI 1.79 125 Objetivo Fama UNI 1.58

126 Viuda de Blanco (Thu.) TEL 1.21 127 Viuda de Blanco (Fri.) TEL 1.17 128 Marina (Thu.) TEL 1.13 129 Amor Mio (Fri.) TEL 1.10 130 Viuda de Blanco (Wed.) TEL 1.09

131 Viuda de Blanco (Mon.) TEL 1.08 132 Marina (Tue.) TEL 1.04 Marina (Fri.) TEL 1.04 134 Viuda de Blanco (Tue.) TEL 1.02 135 Marina (Mon.) TEL 1.00

136 Amor Mio (Wed.) TEL 0.99 137 Amor Mio (Thu.) TEL 0.97 Marina (Wed.) TEL 0.97 139 Cinemundo Premier II TEL 0.96

*--*

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 12.07 8.74

CBS 11.44 12.08

ABC 7.84 9.74

NBC 7.55 9.48

UNI 3.85 3.49

CW 3.18 3.12

TEL 0.85 0.84

*--*