CBS Wins 5th Consecutive Week in Top TV Spot

(EDITOR'S NOTE: The CBS Radford Studios are based in Studio City and many of the shows mentioned below are filmed locally, including "Two and A Half Men" where Studio City Mom columnist Susan McMartin works as one of the sitcom's writers.)

By Steve Herbert 

City News Service

"Unforgettable" had a winning return to television, finishing first in its time slot and helping CBS be the most-watched network for the fifth consecutive week, according to live-plus-same-day figures released today by Nielsen.

The crime drama that was not renewed in May 2012 following its initial season, but ordered a month later as a summer series, averaged 7.15 million viewers for the first episode of its second season, finishing seventh among prime-time broadcast and cable programs airing between July 22 and Sunday.

The audience was the most for a regularly scheduled program on CBS in the Sunday 10-11 p.m. time slot since April 28.

The CBS serialized drama "Under the Dome" was the most-watched program for the fourth time in the five weeks it has aired, averaging 11.60 million viewers. '

The 9 p.m. Wednesday and Tuesday editions of NBC's "America's Got Talent" were the week's other programs to average more than 9 million viewers, averaging 10.64 million and 10.34 million.

CBS had eight of the week's 10 most-watched programs and averaged 5.63 million viewers for the week. NBC was second, averaging 4.46 million.

It what is believed to be a first, two of the major English-language networks trailed the Spanish-language network Univision, which averaged 3.83 million viewers. ABC averaged 3.76 million viewers and Fox 3.22 million.

For the fifth consecutive week, Univision finished first among viewers ages 18-49, the group targeted by ABC, Fox and NBC and coveted by advertisers because it watches less television than average and is harder to reach. It also led among viewers ages 18-34 for the fifth consecutive week and was also first among viewers ages 12-17.

The Tuesday edition of "America's Got Talent" was the week's most- watched program among viewers ages 18-49, topping "Under The Dome" by 24,000 viewers. The Tuesday episode of the Univision telenovela "Amores Verdaderos" ("True Love") was third, 4,000 viewers ahead of the Thursday edition of "Big Brother."

The TNT crime drama "Rizzoli & Isles" was the week's most-watched cable program, averaging 5.49 million viewers, 22nd among the week's prime-time broadcast and cable programs.

Disney Channel was the week's most-watched cable network for the second consecutive week, averaging 2.59 million viewers.

The week's most-watched Spanish-language program was the Tuesday episode of "Amores Verdaderos," which averaged 5.82 million viewers, finishing 17th among all prime-time broadcast and cable programs.

As usual, Univision was the most-watched Spanish-language network, averaging 3.83 million viewers for its prime-time programming.

Telemundo was second, averaging 1.66 million viewers, followed by UniMas, which averaged 700,000, Estrella TV, which averaged 170,000, Azteca America, which averaged 100,000 and MundoFox, which averaged 40,000.

The "NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams" was the most-watched network nightly newscast for the 202nd consecutive week, but by its smallest margin since the week of Sept. 24, averaging 7.54 million viewers to 7.29 million for ABC's "World News with Diane Sawyer."

The "CBS Evening News" averaged 5.95 million viewers, finishing third for the 356th consecutive week and 111th since Scott Pelley became anchor.

The week's 10 most-watched prime-time programs were the CBS' "Under the Dome"; the 9 p.m. Wednesday and Tuesday episodes of NBC's "America's Got Talent"; CBS' "60 Minutes," "The Big Bang Theory," "NCIS," "Unforgettable," the Thursday and Sunday episodes of "Big Brother"; and "Two and a Half Men."