‘Dancing With the Stars’ and ‘The Voice’ led ratings as viewers got musical last week

NEW YORK, N.Y. – Music and dancing ruled on the airwaves last week, as “Dancing With the Stars” and “The Voice” tuned up to score five out of the 10 most-watched shows.

ABC’s “Dancing” took the top two slots, followed by a pair of regular broadcasts of NBC’s “The Voice.” A third, special edition of “The Voice” ranked ninth.

Adding to the chorus of unscripted fare, CBS’ “Survivor” took fifth place, according to the Nielsen ratings company.

Cable crept into the rankings courtesy of TNT’s telecast of Sunday’s NBA playoff game between Atlanta and Cleveland. That game, with 7.8 million viewers, rounded out the week’s Top 10.

Perhaps the week’s most unusual special, “Red Nose Day,” seemed to blow it with viewers. The first outing of what is hoped to be an annual entertainment-charity fundraising event averaged only 3.2 million viewers during its three star-studded hours.

For the week overall, CBS averaged 6.2 million viewers in prime time, ahead of NBC’s 5.6 million, ABC’s 5.4 million and Fox’s 3.8 million. Univision had 2.2 million, Telemundo had 1.4 million, the CW had 1.2 million and ION Television had 1.0 million.

As the NBA playoffs continued, TNT remained the most popular cable network, averaging 3.00 million viewers in prime time. ESPN had 2.45 million, USA had 1.74 million and TBS had 1.51 million.

The see-saw ratings race for evening news viewers continues. After the previous week’s loss, NBC’s “Nightly News” reclaimed the lead with 7.59 million viewers. ABC’s “World News Tonight” had 7.54 million and CBS had 6.90 million.

For the week of May 18-24, the top 10 shows, their networks and viewerships: “Dancing With the Stars” (Monday), ABC, 14.35 million; “Dancing With the Stars” (Tuesday), ABC, 13.49 million; “The Voice” (Tuesday), NBC, 11.56 million; “The Voice,” NBC, 11.32 million; “Survivor,” CBS, 9.74 million; “NCIS: Los Angeles,” CBS, 9.33 million; “NCIS,” CBS, 9.15 million; “The Big Bang Theory,” CBS, 8.11 million; “The Voice” (special), NBC, 7.83 million; NBA Playoffs: Atlanta/Cleveland (Sunday), TNT, 7.76 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 is owned by 21st Century Fox. NBC and Telemundo are owned by Comcast Corp. ION Television is owned by ION Media Networks. TNT is owned by Time Warner.

___

Online:

http://www.nielsen.com