‘Bloods’ May Have Boosted Selleck’s ‘Stone’

NEW YORK (AP) – From a television standpoint, Tom Selleck the police chief of New York may be a very good friend to Tom Selleck the police chief of Paradise, Mass.

The seventh installment of Selleck’s “Jesse Stone” series of TV movies was a strong performer for CBS on Sunday. The movie, starring Selleck as police chief of the fictional town of Paradise, was seen by nearly 14 million people, among the 10 most popular shows measured by the Nielsen Co. last week. The audience was 21 percent bigger than the last “Jesse Stone” movie last year.

Only three scripted programs — “NCIS,” its spinoff and “The Mentalist” — had larger television audiences last week.

The difference maker for Selleck may be “Blue Bloods,” the freshman series where Selleck plays the patriarch of a New York City law enforcement family. Viewers may be accustomed and eager to see Selleck play a police chief.

CBS has announced that “Blue Bloods” will return for a second season. The show did not air last week, replaced by a “48 Hours Mystery” special.

Meanwhile, Katie Couric exited the “CBS Evening News” last week with less than half the audience she drew for her debut in September 2006. An estimated 5.94 million people watched Couric’s final telecast last Thursday, which featured her interview with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Couric had more than 6 million viewers on Monday and Tuesday, sinking to 5.71 million on Wednesday before bouncing back slightly on Thursday, Nielsen said. For her first night five years ago, Couric’s telecast had nearly 13.6 million viewers.

Scott Pelley will replace Couric on June 6. Couric hasn’t announced her future plans but has been talking to ABC about a syndicated talk show and role at the network’s news division.

NBC’s “Nightly News” topped the evening newscasts with an average of 8.6 million viewers (5.7, 11) for the full week. ABC’s “World News” was second with 7.8 million (5.2, 12) and the “CBS Evening News” had 5.9 million viewers (3.9, 8).

In primetime, CBS won the week with an average of 10 million viewers (6.3 rating, 10 share). Fox had 8.9 million (5.1, 9), ABC had 8.7 million (5.4, 9), NBC had 5.4 million (3.4, 6), the CW had 1.5 million (1.0, 2) and Ion Television had 970,000 (0.6, 1).

Among the Spanish-language networks, Univision led with a primetime average of 3.9 million viewers (2.1 rating, 3 share). Telemundo had 1.3 million (0.7, 1), TeleFutura had 560,000 (0.3, 0), Azteca had 270,000 and Estrella had 220,000 (both 0.1, 0).

A ratings point represents 1,147,000 households, or 1 percent of the nation’s estimated 114.7 million TV homes. The share is the percentage of in-use televisions tuned to a given show.

The Top 20

Primetime viewership numbers compiled by the Nielsen Co. for May 16-22. Listings include the week’s ranking and viewership.

1. “American Idol” (Wednesday), Fox, 23.56 million.

2. “Dancing With the Stars,” ABC, 21.96 million.

3. “American Idol” (Thursday), Fox, 21.76 million.

4. “NCIS,” CBS, 18.62 million.

5. “Dancing With the Stars Results,” ABC, 18.11 million.

6. “NCIS: Los Angeles,” CBS, 15.61 million.

7. “The Mentalist,” CBS, 14.11 million.

8. Movie: “Jesse Stone: Innocents Lost,” CBS, 13.93 million.

9. “Dancing With the Stars” (Tuesday, 8 p.m.), ABC, 13.8 million.

10. “Castle,” ABC, 12.93 million.

11. “Criminal Minds,” CBS, 12.84 million.

12. “The Good Wife,” CBS, 12.58 million.

13. “The Big Bang Theory,” CBS, 11.3 million.

14. “60 Minutes” (Sunday, 8 p.m.), CBS, 10.79 million.

15. “Hawaii Five-0,” CBS, 10.41 million.

16. “60 Minutes,” CBS, 10.39 million.

17. “Body of Proof,” ABC, 10.33 million.

18. “Modern Family,” ABC, 10.3 million.

19. “The Voice,” NBC, 10.01 million.

20. “Grey’s Anatomy,” ABC, 9.89 million.