PRIME-TIME TV RANKINGS

The premieres of the ABC comedies “Hank” and “The Middle” both won their time slots last week, while CBS’ “Three Rivers” and NBC’s “Trauma” received lackluster responses from viewers in their debuts.

“Hank,” which stars Kelsey Grammer as an ousted chief executive who moves his family to a small Virginia town, won its 8-8:30 p.m. Wednesday slot with 8.34 million viewers. “Hank” was 39th among prime-time programs on the five major broadcast networks between Sept. 28 and Sunday, according to figures released Tuesday by the Nielsen Co.

“The Middle,” which stars Patricia Heaton as a wife, mother and automobile saleswoman, won its 8:30-9 p.m. Wednesday time slot with 8.71 million viewers, finishing 38th for the week.

The CBS medical drama “Three Rivers” was third in its Sunday 9-10 p.m. slot and 35th for the week with 8.97 million viewers. The NBC paramedics drama “Trauma” was fourth in its 9-10 p.m. slot Sept. 28 and 57th for the week, averaging 6.68 million viewers.

With 11 of the week’s 17 most-watched prime-time programs, CBS was the most-watched network for the second time in the two weeks of the 2009-10 television season.

Compared with the second week of last season, viewership was up 18% for Fox, 4% for ABC and 2% for CBS. It was down 1% for NBC and 8% for the CW.

Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (Sept. 28-Oct. 4) as compiled by the Nielsen Company. They are based on the average number of people who watched a program from start to finish. Nielsen estimates there are 286 million potential viewers in the U.S. ages 2 and older. Viewership is listed in millions.

*--* -- Program Network Viewers *--*

*--* 1 NCIS CBS 21.37 2 NFL Football: San Diego at Pittsburgh NBC 18.42 3 NCIS: Los Angeles CBS 17.40 4 Dancing With the Stars ABC 17.03 5 CSI CBS 15.94 *--*

*--* 6 The Mentalist CBS 15.75 7 Grey’s Anatomy (Thu., 9 p.m.) ABC 15.69 8 NFL Pregame (Sun.) NBC 14.83 9 House FOX 14.71 10 Desperate Housewives ABC 14.64 *--*

*--* 11 Criminal Minds CBS 14.24 12 CSI: Miami CBS 13.96 13 Two and a Half Men CBS 13.85 14 The Good Wife CBS 13.69 15 60 Minutes CBS 13.41 *--*

*--* 16 The Big Bang Theory CBS 13.27 17 CSI: NY CBS 13.16 18 Dancing With the Stars (Results) ABC 13.02 19 The OT FOX 12.00 20 Extreme Makeover: Home ABC 11.63 -- Edition (8 p.m.) *--*

*--* 21 Private Practice ABC 11.58 22 Survivor: Samoa CBS 11.54 23 Flashforward ABC 10.73 24 Football Night America (Part 3) NBC 10.70 25 Cold Case CBS 10.05 *--*

*--* 26 Modern Family ABC 9.99 27 Family Guy FOX 9.86 28 The Amazing Race CBS 9.79 29 Brothers & Sisters ABC 9.65 30 Bones FOX 9.43 *--*

*--* 31 The Simpsons FOX 9.37 32 Cougar Town ABC 9.25 33 The Biggest Loser NBC 9.18 34 Castle ABC 9.15 35 Three Rivers CBS 8.97 *--*

*--* 36 Cleveland FOX 8.86 37 How I Met Your Mother CBS 8.71 -- The Middle ABC 8.71 39 Hank ABC 8.34 40 Law & Order: SVU NBC 8.08 *--*

*--* 41 America’s Funniest Home Videos ABC 8.03 Accidentally on Purpose CBS 8.03 43 Numb3rs CBS 7.85 44 Medium CBS 7.84 45 Football: USC at Cal ABC 7.83 *--*

*--* 46 Lie to Me FOX 7.73 47 Dateline (Fri.) NBC 7.71 48 Ghost Whisperer CBS 7.62 49 The Forgotten ABC 7.44 50 The Office NBC 7.41 *--*

*--* 51 Glee FOX 7.40 52 Mercy NBC 7.39 53 American Dad FOX 7.14 54 So You Think You Can Dance (Wed.) FOX 6.81 55 Law & Order NBC 6.79 *--*

*--* 56 48 Hours Mystery CBS 6.76 57 Trauma NBC 6.67 58 The New Adventures of Old Christine CBS 6.65 -- Gary Unmarried CBS 6.65 60 Hell’s Kitchen FOX 6.64 *--*

*--* 61 Jay Leno Show (Tue.) NBC 6.58 62 Eastwick ABC 6.57 63 20/20 (Fri.) ABC 6.53 64 Crimetime Saturday CBS 6.43 65 Manana Es Para Siempre (Tue.) UNI 6.34 *--*

*--* 66 Manana Es Para Siempre UNI 6.23 (Wed.) Manana Es Para Siempre UNI 6.23 (Mon.) 68 Manana Es Para Siempre UNI 6.19 (Thu.) 69 Jay Leno Show (Wed.) NBC 6.11 70 Fringe FOX 6.03 *--*

*--* 71 Community NBC 5.86 72 Heroes NBC 5.72 73 Manana Es Para Siempre (Fri.) UNI 5.57 74 Jay Leno Show (Mon.) NBC 5.52 75 Law & Order: SVU (Sat.) NBC 5.44 *--*

*--* 76 Jay Leno Show (Fri.) NBC 5.34 77 Cops 2 FOX 5.25 78 So You Think You Can Dance (Tue.) FOX 5.18 79 Jay Leno Show (Thu.) NBC 5.03 80 SNL: Weekend Update (Thu.) NBC 5.02 *--*

*--* 81 Football Night America (Part 2) NBC 4.84 82 America’s Most Wanted: FOX 4.80 -- America Fights Back 83 Shark Tank ABC 4.75 84 Crimetime (Sat., 8 p.m.) CBS 4.71 85 Parks and Recreation NBC 4.67 *--*

*--* 86 Football Pregame (Sat.) ABC 4.57 87 Cops FOX 4.41 88 En Nombre del Amor (Tue.) UNI 4.31 89 En Nombre del Amor (Mon.) UNI 4.27 90 En Nombre del Amor (Thu.) UNI 3.99 *--*

*--* 91 En Nombre del Amor (Wed.) UNI 3.88 92 The Forgotten (Fri.) ABC 3.86 93 Trauma (Sat.) NBC 3.58 94 Vampire Diaries CW 3.53 *--*

Network Averages

Here is the number of viewers (in millions) that each network averaged per hour of prime time, for last week.

*--* Network Last week CBS 11.32 ABC 9.64 NBC 7.79 Fox 7.61 UNI 3.81 *--*