ABC's hit summer reality series The Bachelorette rose to the top of the Nielsen ratings heap last week as it drew 7.55 million viewers. The number amounted to not a lot by ordinary standards and reflected the fact not only that CBS gave it powerful competition with its Monday-night rerun slate, but also that viewers were also checking out first-run fare on cable. NBC's America's Got Talent slipped a bit in the ratings, with Tuesday night's performance show drawing 7.11 million viewers and Wednesday's results show, 6.73 million. They landed in third and fourth place, edged out by a rerun of the CBS drama NCIS , which captured 7.50 million viewers. The two leading nightly newscasts on NBC and ABC finished nearly neck-and-neck, with NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams attracting 7.37 million viewers and ABC World News with Diane Sawyer behind just 4.8 percent with 7.01 million. The CBS Evening News with Katie Couric remained in third place with 5.01 million viewers. Overall, CBS won the week among total viewers with an average 3.8 rating and a 7 share. ABC and NBC tied with a 3.2/6 while Fox trailed with a 2.9/5. Among syndicated programming, The Oprah Winfrey Show , which airs mostly on ABC television stations but is distributed by CBS Television Distribution, sank to an all-time low in the ratings, dropping 13 percent from the previous week. The show was in repeats.

The top ten shows of the week according to Nielsen Research 1. The Bachelorette , ABC, 6.6/11; 2. NCIS, CBS, 6.5/12; 3. America's Got Talent (Tuesday), NBC, 6.2/11; 4. America's Got Talent (Wednesday), NBC, 5.9/10; 5. The Big Bang Theory , CBS, 5.2/8; 6. Two and a Half Men , CBS, 5.1/8; 7. 60 Minutes , CBS, 5.0/10; 8. The Mentalist , CBS, 4.9/9; 9. NCIS Los Angeles, CBS, 4.6/8; 10. Wipeout (Tuesday), ABC, 4.5/8.

28/07/2010