NEW YORK — There was the rare sighting of an endangered species — a movie made specifically for a broadcast network — among last week's most popular prime-time programs.
"Jesse Stone: Thin Ice," starring Tom Selleck as a police chief and the fifth in a movie series based on Robert Parker's books, was seen by 15.2 million people on CBS Sunday night. The audience was bigger than any of the series' other movies since the first one, shown in 2003, according to Nielsen Media Research.
Budget-cutting broadcast networks have pretty much left the moviemaking business. Two Hallmark movies are on CBS' schedule this season, and NBC showed two miniseries earlier in the year.
Otherwise, Nielsen's ratings list looked familiar with Fox's "American Idol" on top. ABC's highly touted drama "Life on Mars" was seen by fewer than 5 million people last week, contributing to the network's decision to wrap up the series next month.
"Idol" gave Fox the narrow edge last week, with the network averaging 11.2 million viewers (6.5 rating, 10 share) and winning handily among youthful viewers. CBS averaged 11 million viewers, but its rating (6.9, 11 share) topped Fox, an indication that more people were watching the CBS shows while alone.
ABC averaged 7.4 million viewers (4.7, 8), NBC had 6.2 million (3.9, 6), My Network TV 1.43 million and the CW 1.37 million (both 0.9, 1), and ION Television 650,000 (0.5, 1)
Among the Spanish-language networks, Univision averaged 3.8 million viewers (1.9 rating, 3 share), Telemundo had 1.2 million (0.6, 1), TeleFutura 730,000 (0.4, 1) and Azteca 170,000 (0.1, 0).
NBC's "Nightly News" topped the evening newscasts with an average of 9.3 million viewers (6.1, 12). ABC's "World News" was second with 8.4 million (5.7, 11) and the "CBS Evening News" had 6.4 million viewers (4.4, 9).
A ratings point represents 1,145,000 households, or 1 percent of the nation's estimated 114.5 million TV homes. The share is the percentage of in-use televisions tuned to a given show.
For the week of Feb. 23-March 1, the top 10 shows, their networks and viewerships: "American Idol" (Wednesday), Fox, 24.54 million; "American Idol" (Thursday), Fox, 20.89 million; "NCIS," CBS, 18.27 million; "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," CBS, 17.72 million; Movie: "Jesse Stone: Thin Ice," CBS, 15.24 million; "House," Fox, 14.86 million; "60 Minutes," CBS, 14.23 million; "Criminal Minds," CBS, 13.93 million; "CSI: NY," CBS, 12.56 million; "Two and a Half Men," CBS, 12.07 million.
ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Co. CBS is owned by CBS Corp. CW is a joint venture of Warner Bros. Entertainment and CBS Corp. Fox and My Network TV are units of News Corp. NBC and Telemundo are owned by General Electric Co. ION Television is owned by ION Media Networks. TeleFutura is a division of Univision. Azteca America is a wholly owned subsidiary of TV Azteca S.A. de C.V.