Series repeats on tap for HBO until March

Don’t bother setting your TiVo. For the first time in six years, HBO will go months without new episodes of an original prime-time series.

Instead, it has opted to air repeats of “The Sopranos” and “Deadwood” from December to March, ahead of both shows’ new seasons.

The cable network had slotted “Big Love” – a new comedic drama starring Bill Paxton as a polygamist with three wives – in January, but it reversed course and probably will hold back that series until summer.

The Winter Olympics, Oscars, Golden Globes and Grammys will crowd Sunday nights in January and February, making it tougher for HBO to find viewers.

Without a hit like “The Sopranos,” which is set to return March 12, HBO’s ratings have fallen 25 percent this year, averaging 852,000 viewers in prime time.

CBS stays on top

CBS kept its unbeaten streak alive as the November ratings “sweeps” period began last week, becoming the first broadcast network to win the first seven weeks of a TV season since 1988.

Both the third-year drama “NCIS” and rookie supernatural series “Ghost Whisperer” had their largest audiences ever last week, according to Nielsen Media Research. The network’s rookie potboiler “Criminal Minds” also cracked Nielsen’s top 10.

ABC remains the toughest competition. But CBS even won last week among the 18- to 49-year-old audience that advertisers crave; the two networks are virtually tied for first this season in that category.

For the week, CBS averaged 13.4 million viewers (8.7 rating, 14 share), ABC 10.6 million (6.9, 11), NBC 9.5 million (6.5, 10), Fox 7.2 million (4.5, 7), the WB 3.3 million (2.2, 3) and UPN 3.2 million (2.1, 3).

A ratings point represents 1,102,000 households, or 1 percent of the nation’s estimated 110.2 million TV homes. The share is the percentage of in-use televisions tuned to a given show.