Osmond helps 'Dancing With the Stars' top ratings

Posted December 01, 2009 10:00 pm

Associated Press

NEW YORK -- For one week at least, Donny Osmond was a big-time television star again.

Osmond's victorious turn on ABC's "Dancing With the Stars" was Thanksgiving week's most popular prime-time TV program, narrowly beating CBS' "NCIS." The "Dancing" results show came in third, the Nielsen Co. said.

Osmond is familiar with the prime-time television world, having hosted a variety show with his sister Marie three decades ago.

Thanksgiving week represented the first drops of what is likely to be a flood of holiday-related shows on the broadcast networks. A Peanuts Thanksgiving special brought 6.5 million people to ABC last Thursday, while the Hallmark Hall of Fame movie, "A Dog Named Christmas," drew 12.4 million viewers to CBS.

The ABC special "Find My Family" drew notice; its 12.8 million viewers ranked within Nielsen's top 15.

CBS won the week, averaging 10.4 million viewers (6.4 rating, 11 share). ABC was second with 9.1 million viewers (5.6, 10), Fox had 7.1 million and NBC had 6.9 million (both 4.1, 7), the CW and ION Television both had 1.1 million viewers (both 0,8, 1).

NBC's "Nightly News" topped the evening newscasts with an average 9.7 million viewers (2.2 rating, 12 share). ABC's "World News" was second with 8.3 million (5.5, 11) and the "CBS Evening News" had 6.2 million viewers (4.2, 8).

A ratings point represents 1,149,000 households, or 1 percent of the nation's estimated 114.9 million TV homes. The share is the percentage of in-use televisions tuned to a given show.

For the week of Nov. 24-30, the top 10 shows, their networks and viewerships: "Dancing With the Stars," ABC, 20.41 million viewers; "NCIS," CBS, 20.35 million; "Dancing With the Stars Results," ABC, 19.29 million; NFL Football: Pittsburgh at Baltimore, NBC, 19.21 million; "NCIS: Los Angeles," CBS, 17.22 million; "60 Minutes," CBS, 14.38 million; "The Big Bang Theory," CBS, 14.13 million; "Sunday Night NFL Pre-Kick," NBC, 13.93 million; "Two and a Half Men," CBS, 13.88 million; "Criminal Minds," CBS, 13.61 million.

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