NEW YORK — One last time for old time's sake: NBC's "ER" landed among Nielsen Media Research's 10 most popular shows with last week's two-hour series finale, which was watched by 16.4 million people.
"ER" owned Nielsen's top 10 list in its peak a decade ago, when it routinely had audiences twice the size.
"ER" knocked CBS' "CSI" nearly 5 million below its season average and left ABC with an audience below 5 million people for "Grey's Anatomy."
Despite the "ER" win, CBS dominated the prime-time landscape even more than usual last week.
The Academy of Country Music Awards, with Carrie Underwood named entertainer of the year, had its biggest audience in a decade. CBS also did well with the April Fools' Day special "I Get That a Lot."
Meanwhile, "NCIS" continued its unusual resurgence in its sixth season. It was the most-watched scripted show of the week, and is up 29 percent over last season, Nielsen said.
In the cable world, CNBC's Jim Cramer did not appear damaged by his public fight with Jon Stewart on Comedy Central. Cramer, who is airing his 1,000th episode of "Mad Money" on Wednesday, saw his ratings go up 11 percent in March over February, and 11 percent over March 2008.
CBS averaged 12.5 million prime-time viewers last week (7.6 rating, 13 share). Fox was a distant second with 9.7 million (5.7, 9), but beat CBS among the youthful demographic. ABC had 7.2 million (4.6, 6) and NBC had 6.9 million (4.5. 7). The CW had 2.1 million, its best showing since November (1.4, 2), My Network TV 1.6 million (1.0, 2) and ION Television 550,000 (0.4, 1).
Among the Spanish-language networks, Univision led with 4.2 million viewers (2.1 rating, 3 share), Telemundo had 1.3 million (0.6, 1), TeleFutura 740,000 (0.4, 1) and Azteca had 170,000 (0.1, 0).
NBC's "Nightly News" topped the evening newscasts with an average of 8.7 million viewers (5.8, 12). ABC's "World News" was second with 8 million (5.4, 11) and the "CBS Evening News" had 6.2 million viewers (4, 8).
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 March 30-April 5, the top 20 shows, their networks and viewerships:
1. "American Idol" (Tuesday), Fox, 24.41 million viewers.
2. "American Idol" (Wednesday), Fox, 24.34 million
3. "Dancing With the Stars," ABC, 20.48 million viewers.
4. "NCIS," CBS, 17.23 million viewers.
5. "The Mentalist," CBS, 16.96 million viewers.
6. "ER," NBC, 16.38 million viewers.
7. "Academy of Country Music Awards," CBS, 14.78 million viewers.
8. "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," CBS, 14.63 million viewers.
9. "Two and a Half Men," CBS, 14.56 million viewers.
10. NCAA Men's Basketball Semifinals: Villanova vs. North Carolina, 14.45 million viewers.
11. "Dancing With the Stars Results," ABC, 13.51 million viewers.
12. "CSI: Miami," CBS, 13.46 million viewers.
13. CBS NCAA Basketball Between Games Show, CBS, 12.95 million viewers.
14. "Without a Trace," CBS, 12.53 million viewers.
15. "House," Fox, 12.51 million viewers.
16. "60 Minutes," CBS, 12.27 million viewers.
17. "Survivor: Tocantins," CBS, 11.27 million viewers.
18. "24," Fox, 11.26 million viewers.
19. "Rules of Engagement," CBS, 11.02 million viewers.
20. "ER Retrospective," NBC, 10.63 million viewers.