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TV’s most watched shows of the 2011-2012 season As the season ended on May 23, here’s how the most popular shows fared.
1. “NBC Sunday Night Football”
NBC’s Sunday franchise snapped “American Idol’s” eight-season streak as the country’s most watched program. Sunday football on NBC averaged 20.7 million people during the season; “Idol’s” performance night averaged 19.7 million.
Chris Schneider
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AP
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2. “American Idol” Wednesday (performance night)
After eight seasons in the top spot, Fox’s singing competition series got bumped down one notch, finishing its 11th edition in second place — about 1 million viewers shy of NBC’s Sunday football. Industry pundits point to the proliferation of singing competition shows this season, including NBC’s “The Voice” and Fox’s “The X Factor.”
Michael Becker
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AP
3. "NCIS"
CBS’s long-running crime drama is the country’s most watched scripted series for the third consecutive season, virtually matching last season’s audience with about 19.5 million viewers. There’s an age-old Hollywood truism -- though usually only told to young starlets being talked into doing nude scenes -- that there is no such thing as overexposure. And, its sixth season, when USA network began to telecast an orgy of “NCIS” reruns across its schedule, the original’s audience on CBS actually grew by more than 3 million viewers, though it was the show’s sixth season on the air. The following season, CBS cloned the show, following it with yet another hour of “NCIS” -- this one set in Los Angeles -- and the original’s audience grew again, by nearly another million viewers.
Cliff Lipson
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CBS
4. “American Idol” Thursday (results night)
In its 11th edition, the results night of Fox’s singing competition series still attracted more than 18 million viewers each week, behind only its own performance night, CBS’s “NCIS” and NBC’s Sunday football. Like it’s Wednesday performance night, “Idol” took a ratings fall this season and pundits place some blame on singing show fatigue, what with NBC adding “The Voice” and Fox “The X Factor” to the prime-time landscape this season.
Danny Moloshok
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AP
5. “Dancing With the Stars” (performance night)
The 13th and 14th editions of ABC’s dance competition, airing in the fall of ’11 and spring of ’12, collectively averaged more than 18 million viewers on its performance night broadcasts. This was the first season “Dancing” encountered NBC’s singing competition series “The Voice” in its time slot.
Adam Taylor
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ABC
6. “NCIS: Los Angeles”
In its third season, CBS’s “NCIS” spinoff was the country’s second most popular scripted series, behind only “NCIS,” and averaged about 16 million viewers.
Cliff Lipson
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CBS
7. “Dancing With the Stars” (results night)
Results night of ABC’s popular dance competition series was the country’s seventh most watched program, averaging 16 million viewers; this season it battled NBC’s singing competition “The Voice” on Tuesday nights.
Adam Taylor
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ABC
8. “The Big Bang Theory”
America’s most popular scripted comedy series. Airing on CBS on Thursday nights, it became the first scripted show to beat “American Idol” on a night in head-to-head competition. In its fifth season, “Big Bang” is one of the country’s fastest-growing broadcast TV series, averaging 18 percent more viewers this season than last. CBS will pair it with another of its sitcoms, “Two and a Half Men,” on Thursdays next season.
Adam Taylor
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Warner Bros.
9. “The Voice”
NBC’s singing competition is the only “new” show in this season’s Top 10, though the show’s first edition debuted four weeks before the end of last season, running the bulk of its episodes over the summer. It was the country’s ninth most watched show, with an average of 15.8 million people tuned in weekly.
Matt Sayles
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AP
10. “Two and a Half Men”
Replacing star Charlie Sheen with Ashton Kutcher was a Hail Mary by CBS and production house Warner Bros. in hopes they could keep the sitcom going for one last season, its ninth. Instead, the show enjoyed 16 percent more viewers this season than last — and a whopping 30 percent increase among 18-to-49-year-olds, which is the age bracket that is the currency of TV ad sales on prime-time entertainment programs. Some of these season-to-season spikes are due to the 33 million people who watched the show’s return back in September to see Sheen’s character get killed off and Kutcher introduced. Part of the ratings spike, however, is the result of CBS airing so many “Men” repeat episodes last season while Sheen was in rehab.
Michael Ansell
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CBS Entertainment
The Grammy Awards
The country’s most watched entertainment special of the season, the Grammy Awards averaged a whopping 40 million viewers in February, beating the Academy Awards (39.34 million) for the first time ever. This year’s Grammycast aired the night after Whitney Houston died at the Beverly Hilton hotel while preparing to attend a pre-Grammy party at the hotel the previous night. It was the Grammy Awards’ second-biggest audience ever.
Mario Anzuoni
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Reuters
The Super Bowl
For the third time in as many years, the Super Bowl (this season’s was XLV) became the most watched television broadcast ever. An estimated 111.3 million people watched the New York Giants defeat the New England Patriots, 21-17. However, the series finale of long-running CBS series “M*A*S*H” still holds the record when it comes to percentage of the country’s homes that tuned in. Back in 1983, 106 million of the country’s 200 million homes watched the iconic war dramedy’s swan song. In contrast, when Super Bowl XLV snared 111.3 million people this February, the country had more than 300 million homes.
Jim Young
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Reuters
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Section:/lifestyle/style
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