ABC leads ratings first week of new TV season

By Steve Gorman

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - ABC, seeking to reignite a ratings turnaround that faltered last year, finished the first week of the new broadcast season as the No. 1 U.S. network in prime time, Nielsen Media Research said on Tuesday.

Buoyed by such hits as "Grey's Anatomy" and "Dancing with the Stars," ABC ranked as the most watched network overall for the week ended September 30 and tied with NBC for first place among viewers aged 18 to 49, the group most prized by advertisers.

The 18-49 ranking for NBC, which has struggled to shake off its own three-year long ratings slump, comes with an asterisk, though. NBC benefited from a Nielsen rule change that allowed it to add viewers to last Monday's season premiere of "Heroes" from a Saturday replay of the show.

Starting this season, Nielsen agreed that viewers watching a repeat in the same week as the original broadcast could be counted in the ratings tally as long as the replay carries the same advertising content.

NBC enjoyed the added benefit of being able to factor out what otherwise would have been a low-rated hour of TV from its weekly ratings average.

The return of "Grey's Anatomy" ended up as the week's highest-rated single show in the 18-49 demographic. Going head to head with ABC's hit medical drama, the CBS powerhouse cop series "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" scored the week's biggest total audience with its season premiere.

FEW NEW SHOWS BREAK THROUGH

ABC had the most watched new series so far this season with the debut of its "Grey's Anatomy" spin-off, "Private Practice," but NBC's sci-fi action remake, "Bionic Woman," was No. 1 in the 18-49 race among new shows.