CBS tops ratings; convention viewing lackluster

In a week disrupted by nine hours of prime-time coverage of the Democratic National Convention, CBS emerged as the clear television ratings winner last week. But the conventions didn’t make much of a showing.

CBS’ Thursday night coverage from Boston did best. Boosted in Eastern and Midwest time zones, at least, by its top-rated lead-in, “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation,” it finished in a tie for 35th place in household ratings. Other network convention coverage ranked 54th and lower.

“Amish in the City,” the week’s most talked-about premiere, vaulted UPN into the unaccustomed heights of 46th place. But the week belonged to CBS, with an overall average of 7.8 million viewers (5.3 rating, 10 share) and eight of the top 10 shows.

Runner-up NBC averaged 5.5 million viewers (3.8 rating, 7 share), while ABC had 5.1 million (3.4 rating, 6 share), Fox 5 million (3.3 rating, 6 share), UPN 3.4 million (2.3 rating, 4 share) and the WB 2.5 million (1.7 rating, 3 share).

A ratings point represents 1,084,000 households, or 1 percent of the nation’s estimated 108.4 million TV homes. The share is the percentage of in-use televisions tuned to a given show.