Dancing Tops Singing As ABC Wins Week

NEW YORK AP) — A healthy number of HBO subscribers were curious about Michael Douglas’ performance as Liberace in the TV movie “Behind the Candelabra.” The Nielsen company said the 2.4 million people who tuned in to the movie’s premiere over the Memorial Day weekend represented the network’s biggest audience for one of its original movies since “Something the Lord Made” in 2004. Another 1.1 million people saw a repeat of the Liberace movie that began right after the first airing.

Dancing ruled over singing last week on the broadcast networks, depending on which audience you followed. ABC’s two “Dancing With the Stars” airings last week had around 15 million viewers, the most-watched program on television. Among the younger demographic that are attractive to advertisers, however, NBC’s “The Voice” was more popular.

Monday’s version of the Univision telenovela “Amores Verdaderos” landed in the Top 10 among younger viewers last week. In an indication of how young the Spanish-language show’s audience is, it ranked No. 39 among all viewers.

ABC won the week in primetime, averaging 6.5 million viewers, benefitting from “Dancing” and the finales of “Modern Family” and “The Middle.” CBS was second with a 6.3 million viewer average, NBC had 5 million, Fox had 4.3 million, Univision had 3.5 million, Telemundo had 1.6 million, Ion Television had 1.2 million and the CW had 760,000.

TNT was the week’s most popular cable network, averaging 3.4 million viewers in prime time. USA had 2.7 million, the Disney Channel had 2.2 million, Fox News Channel had 1.9 million and TBS had 1.6 million.

NBC’s “Nightly News” topped the evening newscasts with an average of 8 million viewers. ABC’s “World News” was second with 7.4 million and the “CBS Evening News” had 6 million viewers.

The Top 20

Primetime viewership numbers compiled by Nielsen for May 20-26. Listings include the week’s ranking and viewership.

1. “Dancing With the Stars Results,” ABC, 15.2 million.

2. “Dancing With the Stars,” ABC, 14.97 million.

3. “Criminal Minds,” CBS, 11.01 million.

4. “The Voice” (Monday), NBC, 10.81 million.

5. “The Voice” (Tuesday), NBC, 10.18 million.

6. “Modern Family,” ABC, 10.01 million.

7. “The Big Bang Theory,” CBS, 9.06 million.

8. “Hawaii Five-0,” CBS, 9 million.

9. NBA Playoffs: Indiana vs. Miami (Wednesday), TNT, 8.31 million.

10. NBC News: Oklahoma Tornado Coverage (Tuesday, 8 p.m.), NBC, 8.16 million.

11. “Mike & Molly,” CBS, 7.92 million.

12. “NCIS: Los Angeles” (Tuesday, 8 p.m.), CBS, 7.86 million.

13. “NCIS” (Tuesday, 9 p.m.), CBS, 7.81 million.

14. “Two and a Half Men,” CBS, 7.71 million.

15. “The Middle,” ABC, 7.7 million.

16. “The Big Bang Theory” (Monday, 9 p.m.), CBS, 7.46 million.

17. NBA Playoffs: Miami vs. Indiana (Sunday), TNT, 7.28 million.

18. “NCIS” (Tuesday, 10 p.m.), CBS, 7.23 million.

19. NASCAR Sprint Cup: Coca-Cola 600, Fox, 7.13 million.

20. NBA Playoffs: Indiana vs. Miami (Friday), TNT, 6.98 million.