The season premiere of CBS’s “Criminal Minds” was the top-ranked primetime telecast on broadcast TV for Wednesday, September 24, 2008.  The show drew an average of just over 17 million viewers.
ABC’s special presentation of “Dancing with the Stars” claimed second place, with almost 15.9 million average viewers, while the season premiere of CBS’s “CSI:NY” rounded out the top three, with almost 14.6 million average viewers.
Several other Wednesday night premieres also made the top ten: NBC’s “Knight Rider” and “Lipstick Jungle,” as well as CBS’s “Gary Unmarried” and ”New Adventures of Old Christine.”

RANK
NAME
NETWORK
VIEWERS (P2+)

1
CRIMINAL …

Night two of ABC’s three-night “Dancing with the Stars” season premiere was the top-ranked primetime telecast on broadcast TV for Tuesday, September 23, 2008.  The show drew an average of just over 18.3 million viewers — down from 21.3 million viewers the previous night.
Two of CBS’s season premieres, “NCIS” and “The Mentalist,” claimed the next two spots in Tuesday night’s rankings, with average audiences of approximately 18 million and 15.6 million viewers, respectively.
The second episode of the new season of FOX’s “House” (12.4 million average viewers) and the season premiere …

The season premiere of ABC’s “Dancing With The Stars” was the top-ranked primetime telecast on broadcast TV for Monday, September 22, 2008, drawing an average of just over 21.3 million viewers.
Three of CBS’s Monday night premieres, “CSI: Miami,” “Two and a Half Men,” and “Worst Week,” claimed the next three slots in the rankings, with average audiences of approximately 17.2 million, 14.9 million, and 10.9 million viewers, respectively.
The season premiere of NBC’s “Heroes” rounded out the top five, with just over 10 million average viewers.

RANK
NAME
NETWORK
VIEWERS (P2+)

1
DANCING WITH THE STARS
ABC
21,338,000

2
CSI: …

Univision’s “Al Diablo Con Guapos” was the top-ranked primetime telecast on broadcast TV for Friday, September 19, 2008, drawing an average of almost 6.8 million viewers.
CBS’s “Numbers” claimed second place, with an average audience of almost 6.4 million, and FOX’s “Are You Smarter than a Fifth Grader?” rounded out the top three, drawing an average of almost 6.1 million viewers.

RANK
NAME
NETWORK
VIEWERS (P2+)

1
AL DIABLO CON GUAPOS FRI
UNI
6,780,000

2
NUMB3RS
CBS
6,352,000

3
SMARTER THAN 5TH GRADER
FOX
6,064,000

4
NUMB3RS 9PM
CBS
6,050,000

5
20/20-FRI
ABC
5,754,000

6
AMER FUNN HOME VIDEOS-FRI
ABC
5,395,000

7
GHOST WHISPERER
CBS
5,306,000

8
DATELINE FRI
NBC
5,298,000

9
DON’T FORGET THE LYRICS
FOX
5,263,000

10
FRIDAY NIGHT SMACKDOWN
CW
4,083,000

Source: The Nielsen Company (September 19, 2008)

Overall, CBS won the night with …

CBS’s “CSI” and “Flashpoint” were the number one- and number three-ranked primetime telecasts on broadcast TV for Thursday, September 18, 2008.
NBC’s “America’s Got Talent” was sandwiched between the two, in second place.

RANK
NAME
NETWORK
VIEWERS (P2+)

1
CSI
CBS
10,190,000

2
AMERICA’S GOT TALENT 9/18(S)-09/18/2008
NBC
10,032,000

3
FLASHPOINT
CBS
9,673,000

4
CSI – 8PM SPECIAL(S)-09/18/2008
CBS
7,958,000

5
KITCHEN NIGHTMARES
FOX
6,154,000

6
AL DIABLO CON GUAPOS THU
UNI
6,104,000

7
GREY’S ANATOMY-THU 9PM
ABC
5,924,000

8
HOLE IN WALL THU-8:30P
FOX
5,331,000

9
MY NAME IS EARL
NBC
5,048,000

10
OFFICE
NBC
4,477,000

Source: The Nielsen Company (September 18, 2008 )

Overall, CBS won the night with an average audience of almost 9.3 million viewers, while FOX took second place with approximately 5.4 million average viewers.  ABC and NBC claimed third and fourth …

NBC’s “America’s Got Talent” was the top-ranked primetime telecast on broadcast TV for Wednesday, September 17, 2008, drawing an average of just over 12.2 million viewers.
FOX’s “Bones” claimed second place, with an average audience of just over 9.8 million, and CBS’s “Criminal Minds” rounded out the top three, drawing an average of almost 8.7 million viewers.

RANK
NAME
NETWORK
VIEWERS (P2+)

1
AMERICA’S GOT TALENT-WED
NBC
12,235,000

2
BONES
FOX
9,844,000

3
CRIMINAL MINDS
CBS
8,722,000

4
CSI: NY
CBS
8,101,000

5
LAW AND ORDR:CRIM INT9/17(S)-09/17/2008
NBC
7,025,000

6
AL DIABLO CON GUAPOS WED
UNI
5,875,000

7
FUEGO EN LA SANGRE WED
UNI
5,097,000

8
TIL DEATH
FOX
4,891,000

9
OLD CHRISTINE 8:30PM SP(S)-09/17/2008
CBS
4,591,000

10
OLD CHRISTINE – 8PM SP(S)-09/17/2008
CBS
4,384,000

Source: The Nielsen Company (September 17, 2008)

Overall, NBC won the night …

The season premiere of FOX’s “House” was the top-ranked primetime telecast on broadcast TV for Tuesday, September 16, 2008, drawing an average of almost 14.8 million viewers.
The second episode of FOX’s new series, “Fringe” claimed second place, with an average audience of almost 13.3 million, and CBS’s “NCIS” rounded out the top three, drawing an average of almost 9.7 million viewers.

RANK
NAME
NETWORK
VIEWERS (P2+)

1
HOUSE
FOX
14,773,000

2
FRINGE
FOX
13,272,000

3
NCIS
CBS
9,698,000

4
BIGGEST LOSER 6
NBC
7,941,000

5
BIG BROTHER 10-TUE
CBS
7,564,000

6
WITHOUT A TRACE
CBS
6,440,000

7
AL DIABLO CON GUAPOS TUE
UNI
6,282,000

8
WIPEOUT
ABC
5,964,000

9
LAW AND ORDER:SVU
NBC
5,696,000

10
PRIMETIME: UFO’S(S)-09/16/2008
ABC
5,687,000

Source: The Nielsen Company (September 16, 2008)

Overall, FOX won the night with an average audience of …

CBS’s “Two and a Half Men” and “CSI: Miami” were the number one- and number three-ranked primetime telecasts on broadcast TV for Monday, September 15, 2008.
NBC’s “Deal Or No Deal” was sandwiched between the two, in second place.

RANK
NAME
NETWORK
VIEWERS (P2+)

1
TWO AND A HALF MEN
CBS
9,975,000

2
DEAL OR NO DEAL-MON
NBC
8,874,000

3
CSI: MIAMI
CBS
7,714,000

4
OLD CHRISTINE
CBS
7,416,000

5
BIG BANG THEORY, THE
CBS
5,942,000

6
PRISON BREAK
FOX
5,786,000

7
AL DIABLO CON GUAPOS MON
UNI
5,654,000

8
TERMINATOR: SRH CNR CHRON
FOX
5,564,000

9
HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER
CBS
5,402,000

10
FUEGO EN LA SANGRE MON
UNI
5,394,000

Source: The Nielsen Company (September 15, 2008)

Overall, CBS won the night with an average audience of almost 7.4 million viewers, while NBC took second …

ABC’s “20/20” claimed the top spot in Nielsen’s ranking of primetime broadcast TV programs for Friday, September 12.
FOX’s “Smarter Than A Fifth Grader” and CBS’s “Numbers” rounded out the top three.
Back-to-back special episodes of CBS’s “Ghost Whisperer” also made the top 10.

RANK
NAME
NETWORK
VIEWERS (P2+)

1
20/20-FRI
ABC
8,068,000

2
SMARTER THAN 5TH GRADER
FOX
7,114,000

3
NUMB3RS
CBS
6,167,000

4
GHOST WHISPERER 9PM-SP(S)-09/12/2008
CBS
6,011,000

5
DON’T FORGET THE LYRICS
FOX
5,665,000

6
DATELINE FRI
NBC
5,441,000

7
AL DIABLO CON GUAPOS FRI
UNI
5,185,000

8
GHOST WHISPERER
CBS
5,048,000

9
FUEGO EN LA SANGRE FRI
UNI
4,717,000

10
FRIDAY NIGHT SMACKDOWN
CW
4,258,000

Source: The Nielsen Company (September 12, 2008)

Overall, FOX won the night with an average audience of almost 6.4 million viewers, while CBS took second place with just over …

For the third night in a row, NBC’s “America’s Got Talent” grabbed the top ratings spot as longtime CBS drama “CSI” grabbed second, bringing along “Flashpoint” to finish third with its strong lead in.

RANK
NAME
NETWORK
VIEWERS (P2+)

1
AMERICA’S GOT TALENT
NBC
9,833,000

2
CSI
CBS
9,044,000

3
FLASHPOINT
CBS
8,680,000

4
BIG BROTHER
CBS
7,818,000

5
HOLE IN WALL
FOX
6,237,000

6
KITCHEN NIGHTMARES
FOX
6,179,000

7
GREY’S ANATOMY
ABC
5,439,000

8
AL DIABLO CON GUAPOS
UNI
5,386,000

9
MY NAME IS EARL
NBC
5,186,000

10
FUEGO EN LA SANGRE
UNI
5,017,000

Source: The Nielsen Company (September 11, 2008)