Anakin Skywalker kicked some Hobbit heinie.
In a cable battle of the trilogies, the Star Wars prequels dominated the Lord of the Rings movies, averaging on the whole nearly 1 million more viewers, the latest Nielsen Media Research stats show.
The showdown marked the first time Spike TV's Episode I-III films matched up against TNT's LOTR films in a chapter-for-chapter, night-for-night competition for bragging rights.
Star Wars: Episode III—Revenge of the Sith, which aired Sunday night, led the way, averaging 4.2 million viewers, tops for a movie in all of cable. TNT's Sunday-night offering of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King was nearly as big, averaging 4 million.
Elsewhere, it wasn't even close.
On Saturday, it was Star Wars: Episode II—Attack of the Clones (3.4 million) killing The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2 million). And on Friday, it was Star Wars: Episode I—The Phantom Menace (2.8 million) topping The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (1.9 million).
Both franchises seemed to hit a speed bump on Friday in the form of the fourth season premiere of Battlestar Galactica. The Sci Fi Channel series averaged 2.1 million viewers, up nearly 20 percent from its third season opener, the network said.
If it makes LOTR fans feel better, meanwhile, their beloved trilogy won 17 Oscars to the Star Wars prequels' zero.
Also, The Return of the King had way more endings than all six Star Wars movies, combined.
Here are other ratings highlights from the TV week ended Sunday:
- Tuesday American Idol was up (first place, 26.1 million). Wednesday American Idol (second place, 24.8 million) was down.
- CBS got back CSI (third place, 20.6 million), Without a Trace (seventh place, 15.2 million), CSI: NY (12th place, 12.9 million), Criminal Minds (13th place, 12.8 million) and the undying love of people who make body bags, chalk and fake blood.
- NBC's My Name Is Earl (38th place, 7.5 million) was back, too, and, um, no match for Fox's Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? (24th place, 9.9 million).
- Fox's Hell's Kitchen (16th place, 11.8 million), heretofore a summer series, enjoyed its first spring fling, hitting a series high in viewers and topping Tuesday's Dancing with the Stars (fifth place, 17.3 million) among youngish adults who enjoy a good yell to a fond Steve Guttenberg farewell.
- The season finale of Fox's The Moment of Truth (19th place, 10.2 million) wasn't as big as its premiere, but it was big enough to win its weak reality-show time slot.
- It was a good week for NBC's My Dad Is Better Than Your Dad (86th place, 4.3 million) in that ABC came up with a game even less appealing to the mass audience: Duel (94th place, 3.8 million).
- A nude shoot on America's Next Top Model sparked an indecency complaint from the Parents Television Council. In other news, the CW show hit a season high in viewers (92nd place, 3.9 million).
- Monk (55th place, 5.7 million) and Psych (90th place, 4 million) pulled in audiences that would have been huge on cable but didn't much help NBC's cause on Sunday night.
- CBS scored—twice—with a two-part CSI: Miami (sixth place, 15.7 million for the first episode; 10th place, 14.2 million for the second).
- In cable, with the Jedi knights and Hobbits doing battle with each other, Disney Channel's own otherworldly offering The Wizards of Waverly Place (4.6 million) was able to sneak in as the most-watched nonwrestling show.
- The Hills (3.8 million for the first episode; 4.1 million for the second) was big, as John McCain could no doubt attest.
- Bravo's Make Me a Supermodel ended its season with a season-best 1.3 million viewers; Lifetime perhaps noted and filed away for future reference.
- Step It Up and Dance, Bravo's latest new competition series, made the best of a weird premiere time—11 p.m.—averaging 800,000 viewers.
- Barack Obama's stop on The View helped the ABC daytime talk show post its best numbers in a month—averaging 3.8 million viewers for the week of March 24.
- In late night, the 1000th episode of ABC's Jimmy Kimmel Live was up 20 percent over its season average, the network said.
Overall, CBS got back its mojo along with its scripted series and won the week in total viewers, averaging 11.5 million to Fox's 9.6 million.
Fox stayed No. 1 in the 18-to-49 demographic, although CBS even made that close.
ABC (7.6 million) ran third in both races.
NBC (6.3 million) said it remained locked in an "extraordinarily tight race for No. 2" in the season-long battle for young adult viewers, which means that while the race is indeed close, NBC is currently running last in it.
In cable, USA (2.9 million) was the top prime-time network, followed by Disney (2.3 million) and the LOTR-laden TNT (2.18 million), narrowly holding off the Star Wars-powered Spike (2.16 million).
Here's a look at the 10 most watched broadcast network prime-time shows for the week ended Sunday, according to Nielsen Media Research:
1. American Idol (Tuesday), Fox, 26.1 million viewers
2. American Idol (Wednesday), Fox, 24.8 million viewers
3. CSI, CBS, 20.577 million viewers
4. Dancing with the Stars (Monday), ABC, 20.557 million viewers
5. Dancing with the Stars (Tuesday), ABC, 17.3 million viewers
6. CSI: Miami (Monday), CBS, 15.7 million viewers
7. Without a Trace, CBS, 15.2 million viewers
8. Two and a Half Men, CBS, 14.5 million viewers
9. NCAA Men's Basketball (Saturday, Kansas vs. University of North Carolina), CBS, 14.4 million viewers
10. CSI: Miami (Tuesday), CBS, 14.2 million viewers