‘Talent’ wins out again

The ABC competition program “Wipeout” was the second most-watched prime-time show for the second consecutive week behind NBC’s “America’s Got Talent,” despite a 5% drop in viewership from its premiere.

“America’s Got Talent” was the most-watched program for the second consecutive week with 12.04 million viewers, according to figures released Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research.

With four of the seven most-watched programs between June 30 and Sunday, CBS was the most-watched network for the fifth time in the 6-week-old television summer season, averaging 6.25 million viewers for its prime-time programming.

Fox, third overall, finished first among viewers 18 to 49 for the third consecutive week.

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Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (June 30-July 6) as compiled by Nielsen Media Research. They are based on the average number of people who watched a program from start to finish. Nielsen estimates there are 286 million potential viewers in the U.S. ages 2 and older. Viewership is listed in millions.

*--* -- Program Net- work View- ers *--*

*--* 1 America’s Got Talent NBC 12.04 2 Wipeout ABC 9.46 3 Criminal Minds CBS 9.13 4 So You Think You Can Dance? (Wed.) FOX 8.76 5 CSI: NY CBS 8.49 *--*

*--* 6 Two and a Half Men CBS 8.48 7 60 Minutes CBS 8.21 8 House FOX 8.06 9 CSI: Miami CBS 8.03 -- Hell’s Kitchen FOX 8.03 *--*

*--* 11 NCIS CBS 8.00 12 CSI CBS 7.61 13 48 Hours Mystery (Tue.) CBS 7.59 14 The Bachelorette (9 p.m.) ABC 7.48 15 Million Dollar Password (Sun.) CBS 7.45 *--*

*--* 16 Dateline: NBC (Sun.) NBC 7.44 17 The Bachelorette (8 p.m.) ABC 7.29 -- Price Is Right Primetime CBS 7.29 19 Celebrity Family Feud NBC 6.89 20 Rules of Engagement CBS 6.88 *--*

*--* 21 Cold Case CBS 6.85 22 Baby Borrowers (9 p.m.) NBC 6.83 23 So You Think You Can Dance? (Thu.) FOX 6.77 24 Bones FOX 6.71 25 Without a Trace CBS 6.66 *--*

*--* 26 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition ABC 6.50 27 “Olympic Trials” (Sun., 8 p.m.) NBC 6.49 28 I Survived a Japanese Game Show ABC 6.31 29 “Boston Pops Fireworks” CBS 5.94 30 Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? FOX 5.83 *--*

*--* 31 Primetime: Crime ABC 5.72 32 Numb3rs (Sun.) CBS 5.71 33 Primetime: The Outsiders ABC 5.68 34 Million Dollar Password (Thu.) CBS 5.57 -- Nashville Star NBC 5.57 *--*

*--* 36 The Big Bang Theory CBS 5.47 37 “Macy’s 4th of July Fireworks” NBC 5.45 38 How I Met Your Mother CBS 5.42 39 America’s Funniest Home Videos ABC 5.29 40 Olympic Trials (Sun., 7 p.m.) NBC 5.19 *--*

*--* 41 Celebrity Circus NBC 4.96 42 Al Diablo con los Guapos (Wed.) UNI 4.88 43 American Gladiators NBC 4.84 44 Last Comic Standing 6 NBC 4.77 -- America’s Most Wanted FOX 4.77 *--*

*--* 46 Hopkins ABC 4.75 47 Al Diablo con los Guapos (Tue.) UNI 4.72 -- Fuego en la Sangre (Wed.) UNI 4.72 49 Law & Order: Criminal Intent NBC 4.70 50 48 Hours Mystery (Sat., 10 p.m.) CBS 4.66 *--*

*--* 51 Moment of Truth FOX 4.61 52 Al Diablo con los Guapos (Mon.) UNI 4.60 53 Swingtown CBS 4.51 54 Cops (8:30 p.m.) FOX 4.50 55 Fear Itself NBC 4.48 *--*

*--* 56 Fuego en la Sangre (Tue.) UNI 4.48 57 Fuego en la Sangre (Mon.) UNI 4.45 *--*

Network averages

Here is the number of viewers (in millions) that each network averaged per hour of prime time, for last week and for the season.

*--* Network Last week Season to date CBS 6.25 9.54 NBC 5.85 7.47 FOX 5.44 10.11 ABC 4.55 8.36 UNI 3.29 3.51 CW 1.38 2.34 *--*