CBS Shows Top New Season’s Rankings

NEW YORK: CBS topped the first week of the new fall season in the U.S., with NCIS as the highest-rated show for the week from September 21 to 27 and spin-off NCIS: Los Angeles in second place.

The premiere of NCIS delivered 20.16 million viewers, while NCIS: Los Angeles came in with 18.73 million. ABC’s Dancing with the Stars premiere on Monday netted 17.7 million. NBC’s only entry in the top ten for the week was Sunday Night Football with 17.47 million viewers. Other shows in the top ten were FOX’s House (17.16 million), ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy (17.03 million), CBS’s CSI (16.01 million) and Criminal Minds (15.84 million) and the Tuesday and Wednesday editions of Dancing with the Stars (15.4 million). CBS’s returning The Mentalist, CSI: New York, 60 Minutes, CSI: Miami and Two and a Half Men all came out of the gate strong, as did new series The Good Wife (13.7 million). Desperate Housewives returned to ABC with 13.64 million. ABC’s Wednesday night comedies Modern Family and Cougar Town fared well, ranking 20th and 23rd, respectively, while FlashForward came in at 21st place.

For the week as a whole, CBS averaged 11.77 million viewers, ABC 11.04 million, NBC with 7.56 million, FOX with 7.35 million and The CW with 2.17 million.