College football pushes ABC to top of weekly ratings

Powered by a classic Rose Bowl battle that was the most-watched college football game in at least 15 years, ABC finally broke CBS’ ratings dominance this TV season.

Texas’ last-minute, 41-38 win over Southern Cal in college football’s national championship was seen by 35.6 million people last week, according to Nielsen Media Research.

No college football game has drawn that much interest since at least 1991, as far back as Nielsen has electronic records.

Strong ratings performances in the Fiesta and Orange bowls likely had Fox smiling as much as ABC. The rights to telecast many of the big-time bowls move to Fox next season.

ABC also was buoyed by the return of “Dancing With the Stars,” which was seen by 17.5 million people for the debut of its second season last Thursday.

“The Book of Daniel,” NBC’s controversial series about a pill-popping Episcopal priest with a gay son, had a disappointing bow with 9 million viewers on Friday.

Until last week, CBS had won every week of the television season in the ratings.

ABC averaged 19.1 million viewers in prime time last week (12.0 rating, 19 share). CBS had 13.1 million (8.6, 13), NBC 9.2 million (6.1, 9), Fox 6.1 million (3.8, 6), UPN 2.9 million (2.0, 3) and the WB 2.4 million (1.7, 3).