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ABC had last week's three most-watched programs -- led by Game 7 of the NBA Finals -- but viewers continued to flock to CBS' reruns, making it the most-watched network, according to figures released Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research.
The San Antonio Spurs' 81-74 Game 7 victory over the Detroit Pistons on Thursday was seen by more than 19 million people, Nielsen reported. It was the second-most-watched NBA Finals' concluding game over the last five years, trailing only last year's finale of the Lakers-Pistons series.
Detroit's 95-86 Game 6 victory was the third-most-watched program between June 20 and Sunday, with nearly 13.5 million viewers.
Although the average viewership for the series -- more than 12.5 million -- was the second-lowest since such figures began being kept in 1987 and the 8.2 household rating was the second-lowest since 1982, an ABC spokesman expressed satisfaction with the NBA performance.
"We're thrilled," Mark Mandel said. "The NBA did great numbers for us. It let us win every night it was on. In sports and in television, the objective is to beat your competition, and that's what the NBA did for ABC."
Comparable ratings for most forms of programming have dropped over the years because of increased competition from cable television, the Internet, video games and DVDs.
Despite ABC's success with basketball and its hit summer series "Dancing With the Stars," CBS had six of the top 10 programs and eight of the top 16 to finish first for the fourth consecutive week.
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Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television...