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Fox's 'House' Taking Off in Ratings

Posted on: Tuesday, 11 April 2006, 18:00 CDT

By DAVID BAUDER

NEW YORK - With a little help from Simon Cowell and the gang, "House" last week drew the highest ratings among young viewers of any Fox scripted series since "Ally McBeal" six years ago.

Hugh Laurie's Dr. Gregory House and his co-stars on the medical drama have been catching fire, showing improved ratings four weeks in a row, according to Nielsen Media Research.

Like last season, "House" is being helped immensely by airing directly after television's most popular show, "American Idol." Still, last week's episode had strong retention rates: "American Idol" was seen by 28.8 million viewers, with 22.7 million staying on to watch "House."

Fox won its seventh straight week in the ratings among viewers aged 18 to 49, the demographic that advertisers pay a premium to reach.

Overall, CBS won the week, averaging 12.4 million viewers in prime time (8.1 rating, 13 share). Fox had 9.9 million viewers and NBC 9.3 million (both 6.1, 10). ABC, without first-run episodes of "Grey's Anatomy" or "Desperate Housewives," sunk to 8.1 million viewers (5.2, 9). The WB (2.0, 3) and UPN (1.9, 3) had identical averages of 2.9 million viewers. Pax TV had 450,000 (0.3, 1).

Among the Spanish-language networks, Univision averaged 3.5 million viewers (1.9, 3), Telemundo had 790,000 (0.5, 1) and TeleFutura had 560,000 (0.3, 1).

NBC's "Nightly News" won the evening news ratings race, averaging 8.4 million viewers (5.9, 12). ABC's "World News Tonight" had 7.8 million viewers (5.5, 11) and the "CBS Evening News" had 6.9 million (4.9, 10).

A ratings point represents 1,102,000 households, or 1 percent of the nation's estimated 110.2 million TV homes. The share is the percentage of in-use televisions tuned to a given show.

For the week of April 3-9, the top 10 shows, their networks and viewerships: "American Idol" (Tuesday), Fox, 28.83 million; "American Idol" (Wednesday), Fox, 26.23 million; "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," CBS, 23.34 million; "House," Fox, 22.71 million; "Deal or No Deal" (Monday), NBC, 17.75 million; "NCAA Men's Basketball Championship: UCLA vs. Florida," CBS, 17.54 million; "Lost," ABC, 16.38 million; "Survivor: Panama-Exile Island," CBS, 16.36 million; "NCIS," CBS, 15.52 million; "The Unit," CBS, 15.44 million.

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On the Net:

http://www.nielsenmedia.com

Source: Associated Press/AP Online

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