Nielsen today (Friday) released its annual list of top-rated TV series, with Fox's American Idol once again taking the top-two positions. Two new shows also made the list, CBS's NCIS Los Angeles at No. 6, and CBS's the Good Wife at No. 10. A cable-TV series also made the list -- ESPN's Monday Night Football, which tied for eighth place. Among single telecasts, all four Super Bowl programs topped the list. In fact, the only non-football telecast among the top ten was the Academy Awards telecast, which came in at No. 8. Somewhat surprisingly, the low-rated Jay Leno Show managed to top another one of the Nielsen year-end lists "Top 10 programs with Product Placement Activity." Nielsen counted 1,015 occurrences of product-placement ads on the NBC talk show. No. 2 on the list was USA Network's WWE Monday Night Raw with 787, followed by NBC's The Biggest Loser with 704.

The top ten TV programs of 2009 1. American Idol (Wednesday), Fox; 2. American Idol (Tuesday), Fox; 3. Dancing With The Stars (Monday), ABC; 4. Sunday Night Football, NBC; 5. Dancing with the Stars (Tuesday); 6. NCIS Los Angeles , CBS; 7. NCIS, CBS; 8. Monday Night Football, ESPN; 8. Sunday Night Football Pre-kickoff, NBC; 10. The Good Wife, CBS.

11/12/2009