A strong Sunday night football game between the New York Giants and Dallas Cowboys helped NBC top the prime-time ratings, but CBS dominated otherwise.
The football game and its pregame shows finished among Nielsen's top 20 most popular programs the week of Dec. 8-14, along with Fox's "House," NBC's "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" and ABC's annual airing of "A Charlie Brown Christmas."
ABC's two-hour "Boston Legal" finale, with the heterosexual marriage story line between James Spader and William Shatner's characters, was seen by just under 10 million viewers, its best result of the season.
For the week, network averages were: CBS, 11.9 million viewers (7.4 rating, 12 share); NBC, 8.8 million (5.4, 9); ABC, 6.3 million (4.0, 7); Fox, 6 million (3.7, 6); My Network, 2.4 million (1.4, 2); CW, 1.5 million (1.0, 2); ION, 620,000 (0.4, 1).
In the evening news race: NBC "Nightly News," 10 million (6.6, 12); ABC "World News," 8.6 million (5.8, 11); "CBS Evening News," 7.1 million (4.7, 9).
ASSOCIATED PRESS
1 Sunday Night Football: New York Giants vs. Dallas (NBC)
2 CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (CBS)
