NEW YORK — In the battle of rich guys turned TV stars, Donald Trump has it all over Mark Cuban.
Trump drew just under 16 million viewers to NBC last week for the second installment of "The Apprentice 2," according to Nielsen Media Research.
While the series is starting slowly this time around, it's not nearly as slow as Cuban's "The Benefactor." The colorful Dallas Mavericks owner is giving away money on a new ABC reality show, and its debut reached 5.5 million people, Nielsen said. A rerun the following night had fewer than 3 million viewers.
During the week before the official opening of the fall season, the most popular program was — appropriately enough — a rerun. "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" had 22.3 million viewers.
Two of television's signature events — the Emmy Awards and the Miss America pageant — both fell out of Nielsen's top 10. The Emmys were seen by only 13.8 million people on ABC Sunday, the second smallest audience ever for TV's award night. Miss America was seen by 9.8 million people, its smallest audience ever.
CBS won the week with an average of 10.9 million viewers (7.2 rating, 12 share). NBC had 9.9 million (6.6, 11), and won among the 18-to-49-year-old demographic advertisers love. "Monday Night Football" pushed ABC's average to 8.8 million (6.1, 10), slumping Fox had 4.8 million (3.1, 5), the WB 3.7 million (2.4, 4), UPN 2.8 million (1.9, 3) and Pax TV 680,000 (0.5, 1).
NBC's "Nightly News" won the evening news ratings race, averaging 9.8 million viewers (7.0, 15). ABC's "World News Tonight" had 8.6 million viewers (6.1, 13) and the "CBS Evening News" had 7.4 million (5.3, 11).
A ratings point represents 1,096,000 households, or 1 percent of the nation's estimated 109.6 million TV homes. The share is the percentage of in-use televisions tuned to a given show.
For the week of Sept. 13-19, the top 10 shows, their networks and viewerships: (1) "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," CBS, 22.3 million; (2) "Survivor: Vanuatu," CBS, 20.1 million; (3) NFL Monday Night Football: Green Bay at Carolina, ABC, 18.8 million; (4) "Will & Grace," NBC, 16.5 million; (5) "Without a Trace," CBS, 16.1 million; (6) "60 Minutes," CBS, 16 million; (7) "The Apprentice 2," NBC, 15.9 million; (8) "Joey," NBC, 15.4 million; (9) "NFL Monday Showcase," ABC, 15.3 million; (10) "Siegfried & Roy: Miracle," NBC, 14.5 million.