13.9m tune in for 'Talent' finale

Published Wednesday, Aug 29 2007, 15:11 BST | By James Welsh

13.9m viewers tuned in for the season finale of America's Got Talent, making the NBC programme the most-watched show on broadcast TV last week.

Nielsen Top 10
August 20-26

America's Got Talent, NBC
13.9m
CSI, CBS
10.4m
Without a Trace, CBS
9.3m
Two and a Half Men, CBS
9.25m
NFL Philly at Pittsburgh, NBC
9.2m
60 Minutes, CBS
9.05m
Singing Bee, NBC
8.9m
Power of Ten, CBS
8.7m
Cold Case, CBS
8.45m
Criminal Minds, CBS
8.3m

The show, which featured ventriloquist Terry Fator winning this season's competition, also performed well in adults 18-49, helping NBC to a rare weekly win in the demographic. The 13.9m figure was the series' best ever total-viewer numbers, an around a fifth up on its freshman season closer.

Second in the demo was CBS, with reuns of its crime procedurals delivering the goods and easily topping Fox, newly bereft of its summer reality staples. New game show Power of 10 also continued to perform well with 8.7m.

Fox and ABC both failed to make the top ten, with Fox mercy-ruling Anchorwoman after one disastrous outing and ABC struggling with the now-finished Masters of Science Fiction.

Over on cable, the most-watched programme by a long way was TNT's The Closer, with 7.7m viewers and a strong showing in 18-49. A rerun of the first High School Musical pulled in an impressive 6.4m viewers for Disney Channel, and wrestling and original dramas - in particular the still-strong Monk - pushed USA's position up both in terms of total viewers and the demo.