Summer TV doldrums continued for the audience last week, with only preseason football and a certain talent contest creating any stir among viewers.
NBC scored with its preseason faceoff between San Diego and Dallas. Drawing 10.7 million viewers, it was the week's most-watched broadcast, and ranked as the third highest-rated NFL preseason game in the past five years.
Right behind football were NBC's Tuesday and Wednesday airings of "America's Got Talent."
But CBS was on top overall in prime time for the week, according to figures released Tuesday by the Nielsen Co. Among CBS' high performers, three editions of "Big Brother" landed in the Top 10.
For the week, CBS averaged 6.0 million viewers (3.8 household rating, 7 share). In second place, NBC had 5.5 million (3.4 rating, 6 share), while Fox had 4.7 million (2.8 rating, 5 share) and ABC averaged 4.4 million viewers (2.7 rating, 5 share). ION Television averaged 1.1 million (0.7 rating, 1 share), and the CW had 800,000 (0.5 rating, 1 share).
Among the Spanish-language networks, Univision led with 3.5 million viewers (1.8 rating, 3 share), Telemundo had 1.0 million (0.5 rating, 1 share), TeleFutura had 390,000 (0.2 rating, 0 share), Azteca had 220,000 and Estrella 190,000 (both 0.1 rating, 0 share).
NBC's "Nightly News" topped the evening newscasts with an average of 7.6 million viewers (5.0 rating, 10 share). ABC's "World News" was second with 7.3 million (4.8 rating, 10 share) and the "CBS Evening News" had 5.6 million viewers (3.8 rating, 8 share).
A ratings point represents 1,147,000 households, or 1 percent of the nation's estimated 114.7 million TV homes. The share is the percentage of in-use televisions tuned to a given show.
For the week of Aug. 15-21, the top 10 shows, their networks and viewerships: NFL Preseason: San Diego at Dallas, NBC, 10.68 million; "America's Got Talent" (Tuesday), NBC, 10.40 million; "America's Got Talent" (Wednesday), NBC, 9.74 million; "NCIS," CBS, 8.70 million; NFL Preseason: Philadelphia at Pittsburgh, Fox, 8.59 million; "Big Brother 13" (Sunday), CBS, 8.37 million; "Big Brother 13" (Wednesday), CBS, 8.14 million; "NCIS: Los Angeles," CBS, 7.90 million; "60 Minutes," CBS, 7.80 million; "Big Brother 13" (Thursday), CBS, 7.74 million.