Strong ratings for CBS, cable shows

NEW YORK (AP) -- Duck callers, pawn shop operators and zombies offer the latest evidence of how the television world has expanded.

CBS was the most popular television last week with six of its programs reaching season highs in ratings: "2 Broke Girls," ''Mike & Molly," ''Hawaii Five-0," ''Criminal Minds," ''CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" and "The Amazing Race.

Yet it was also a big week for some cable networks as the big broadcasters head toward their holiday season hibernation.

The Tru TV network scored the highest ratings in the network's history with the sixth season premiere of "Hardcore Pawn," seen by 3.1 million people last Tuesday, the Nielsen company said. Spike TV also achieved a high-water mark, the network's highest-rated special, for its Eddie Murphy comedy show.

AMC said the Sunday night audience for "Walking Dead" at 10 p.m. Eastern was 10.5 million. Add in the viewers from the two other showings of that episode Sunday, and the total was 15.2 million. "NCIS" on CBS was the only drama with a bigger audience last week.

Two reality shows are also showing real strength in the ratings. A&E's "Duck Dynasty" had just under five million viewers for two new episodes last week, while Discovery's fortune hunters on "Gold Rush" hit 4.6 million viewers, Nielsen said.

Brian Williams' "Rock Center" newsmagazine is on the move again after getting 3.4 million viewers in its Thursday time slot last week. It will move to Fridays in February to be paired on the schedule with "Dateline NBC." Adding in Monday and Wednesday that makes the fourth night the show has aired in its young life.

CBS won the week with an average of 11.4 million viewers (7.2 rating, 12 share). ABC had 8.03 million (5.1, 8), NBC had 7.97 million (4.9, 8), Fox had 5.2 million (3.1, 5), the CW had 1.7 million (1.1, 2) and ION Television had 1.1 million (0.8, 1)

Among the Spanish-language networks, Univision led the way with an average of 3.9 million viewers (1.9, 3). Telemundo had 1.2 million (0.7. 1), TeleFutura had 630,000 (0.3, 1), Estrella had 200,000 and Azteca 130,000 (both 0.1, 0).

NBC's "Nightly News" topped the evening newscasts with an average of 9.4 million viewers (6.3, 11). ABC's "World News" was second with 8.4 million (5.6, 11) and the "CBS Evening News" had 6.9 million viewers (4.7, 8).

A ratings point represents 1,147,000 households, or 1 percent of the nation's estimated 114.7 million TV homes. The share is the percentage of in-use televisions tuned to a given show.

For the week of Nov. 26-Dec. 2, the top 10 shows, their networks and viewerships: NFL Football: Philadelphia at Dallas, NBC, 20.42 million; "NCIS," CBS, 19.76 million.; "The Big Bang Theory," CBS, 17.25 million; "Dancing With the Stars Results," ABC, 16.73 million; "Dancing With the Stars," ABC, 16.3 million; "60 Minutes," CBS, 16.15 million; "Sunday Night NFL Pre-Kick," NBC, 14.57 million.; "NCIS: Los Angeles," CBS, 14.49 million; "Person of Interest," CBS, 14.43 million; 10. "Two and a Half Men," CBS, 13.74 million.

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ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Co. CBS is owned by CBS Corp. CW is a joint venture of Warner Bros. Entertainment and CBS Corp. Fox and My Network TV are units of News Corp. NBC and Telemundo are owned by Comcast Corp. ION Television is owned by ION Media Networks. TeleFutura is a division of Univision. Azteca America is a wholly owned subsidiary of TV Azteca S.A. de C.V.

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Online:

http://www.nielsen.com