'NCIS' leads the way on quiet television week

NEW YORK (AP) - Two long-running television competitions, 'œAmerican Idol" and 'œSurvivor,'ť debuted new seasons this past week but it was another old reliable that beat them both.

'œNCIS,'ť where star Mark Harmon has been solving crimes since the series began on CBS in September 2003, was easily the most-watched series of the week and the only to exceed 10 million viewers in live viewing, the Nielsen company said.

'œAmerican Idol'ť was ABC's most popular show last week, and exceeded 8 million viewers for a round of auditions. 'œSurvivor," which is bringing back 20 former winners to compete in its 20th season in 2020, was seen by 6.7 million people

With football and awards show seasons ending in a mid-winter week, the television schedule reverted to some semblance of normal. CBS dominated its rivals with an average of 4.6 million viewers in prime time.

ABC was second with an average of 3.2 million, NBC had 3.1 million, Fox had 2 million, ION Television had 1.04 million, Univision had 1.02 million, Telemundo had 680,000 and the CW had 570,000.

Fox News channel was the most popular cable network, averaging 3.15 million viewers in prime time. TNT had 2.37 million, MSNBC had 1.64 million, HGTV had 1.26 million and History had 1.24 million.

ABC's 'œWorld News Tonight'ť won the evening news ratings race with an average of 9 million viewers. NBC's 'œNightly News'ť had 7.9 million viewers and the "CBS Evening News had 5.9 million.

For the week of Feb. 10-16, the 20 most popular shows, networks and viewers were:

1. 'œNCIS,'ť CBS, 11.76 million.

2. 'œFBI,'ť CBS, 8.94 million.

3. 'œYoung Sheldon,'ť CBS, 8.9 million.

4. 'œChicago Fire,'ť NBC, 8.29 million.

5. 'œChicago Med,'ť NBC, 8.18 million.

6. 'œAmerican Idol,'ť ABC, 8.07 million.

7. 'œ60 Minutes,'ť CBS, 8.03 million.

8. 'œBlue Bloods,'ť CBS, 7.46 million.

9. 'œAmerica's Got Talent Champions,'ť NBC, 7.17 million.

10. 'œChicago PD,'ť NBC, 7 million.

11. 'œHawaii Five-0,'ť CBS, 6.95 million.

12. 'œSurvivor,'ť CBS, 6.7 million.

13. 'œThe Masked Singer,'ť Fox, 6.64 million.

14. 'œThe Bachelor,'ť ABC, 6.43 million.

15. 'œThis is Us,'ť NBC, 6.42 million.

16. 'œThe Neighborhood,'ť CBS, 6.41 million.

17. 'œBull,'ť CBS, 6.32 million.

18. 'œMom,'ť CBS, 6.27 million.

19. 'œThe Conners,'ť ABC, 6.21 million.

20. 'œFBI: Most Wanted,'ť CBS, 6.12 million.