Needless to say, Fox TV, which drew the largest U.S. audience in TV history with this year's Super Bowl telecast (111 million viewers) and cashed in afterwards with the post-game show and a special edition of Glee , was the top-rated TV network last week. As usual, it also clobbered the competition with two episodes of American Idol. It was also a very good week for all three nightly newscasts, which focused on the events in Egypt and drew audiences that were in many instances larger than those for most primetime programs. NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams averaged more than 11.2 million viewers -- the newscast's strongest showing in six years. ABC World News with Diane Sawyer also saw a big surge in viewers, with 9.82 million viewers. Even the last-place CBS Evening News with Katie Couric saw a significant lift to 7.74 million viewers, the newscast's best number in more than a year. For the week, Fox led with an average 14.4 rating and a 23 share. It was lengths ahead of second-place CBS with an average 5.7/9. NBC placed third with a 3.7/6, squeaking ahead of ABC with a 3.6/6.

The top ten shows of the week according to Nielsen Research 1. Super Bowl XLV, Fox, 46.0/69; 2. Super Bowl Post Game, Fox, 28.4/46; 3. Glee (Super Bowl Special), Fox, 13.6/25; 4. American Idol (Wednesday), Fox, 13.4/21; 5. NCIS , CBS, 13.2/20; 6. American Idol (Thursday), Fox, 11.9/19; 7. NCIS Los Angeles , CBS, 10.4/16; 8. The Mentalist , CBS, 9.2/16.

09/02/2011