Miss Universe Lords over America

As TV draws go, it's no longer a contest--Miss Universe has Miss America beat by several cup sizes.

Sunday's Miss Universe 2006 beautiful-humanitarian-people pageant was watched by 9.65 million, according to Nielsen Media Research--more than triple the audience for Miss America's most recent crowning.

Zuleyka Rivera, 18, of Puerto Rico, was crowned Miss Universe in the NBC telecast, which ranked third for the week ended Sunday. While Rivera fainted shortly after the show ended--a tight dress, not the psychic weight of assuming responsibility for all matter and energy, was blamed--it's Miss America who's out cold.

The once-surefire Hollywood launching pad--the American Idol of the 1970s and 1980s--was bypassed by Miss Universe in the ratings in 2003. In 2004, it lost its deal with ABC. In 2005, it sat out the year. In January, it returned, albeit to Las Vegas, not Atlantic City, and to cable, not broadcast TV.

In the end, the show was watched by 3.1 million viewers: a record high for CMT, Miss America's new prime-time partner; a record low for the pageant.

Both Miss America and Miss Universe are shadows of their former Nielsen selves. In 1988, 31.4 million watched the Miss America coronation--more people than gathered for Idol's Taylor Hicks-Katharine McPhee sing-off in May. The pageant was even more dominant in the 1970s, but Nielsen doesn't have actual viewership numbers for the show prior to 1984.

Nielsen does, however, have such stats for Miss Universe--and they're big. In 1980, 37.8 million watched the parade of bikini nations--more people than watched Idol's Hicks-crowning finale. (Not without hard times itself, Miss Universe crashed in the early 1990s, allowing Donald Trump to step in and play white knight--he's owned the show and its two sister pageants, Miss USA and Miss Teen USA, for the last decade.)

Like its plucky contestants, Miss America is determined to stay upright on its heels. While a proposed reality series has been scrapped, a two-hour contestant special was announced earlier this month. The program is apparently designed to introduce Miss America to the MTV nation. As such, the show will air on CMT, VH1, Logo--and MTV.

In the meantime, Miss Universe looks to have the run of the place. Er, universe.

Elsewhere in the ratings:

• Fox has renewed So You Think You Can Dance (fifth place, 9.4 million viewers--Wednesday episode; 11th place, 8.6 million--Thursday episode) and Hell's Kitchen (22nd place, 7.2 million) for third seasons.
• NBC has renewed America's Got Talent (second place, 9.9 million) and Last Comic Standing (16th place, 7.8 million) for a second and fifth season, respectively.
• ABC has not said boo about The One: Making of a Music Star (85th place, 3.1 million).
• CBS would like to point out that the Tuesday edition of Rock Star: Supernova (38th place, 5.9 million) was "up 10 percent in adults 18-34." It would not necessarily like to point out that it was down 6 percent among men, women, children and possibly pets of all ages. The same goes for the competition show's Wednesday edition (57th place, 4.9 million).
• TNT's The Closer (5.7 million) was the most watched cable series; Sci-Fi's Eureka (4.1 million) was the most watched debuting cable series.
• USA is getting good vibes from its new cop show, Psych (5 million); TNT is getting diminishing returns from its new paramedic show, Saved (2.7 million).
• Some 2 million attended Sunday night's My Fair Brady wedding of VH1 costars Christopher Knight and Adrianne Curry.
• The premiere of the Disney Channel made-for-TV movie Read It and Weep was viewed by 5.4 million; an umpteenth rerun of the Disney Channel phenomenon High School Musical was reviewed by 5 million.
• A Friday morning episode of Nickelodeon's Wonder Pets was watched by 2.3 million; a Friday night episode of Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor was watched by 1.7 million.

Overall, CBS was the week's most watched network, with its shows averaging 7.1 million viewers. NBC (6.3 million) finished second, followed by Fox (5.8 million) and ABC (4.7 million).

Here's a look at the 10 most watched prime-time shows for the week ended Sunday, according to Nielsen Media Research:

1. CSI: Miami, CBS, 11.2 million viewers
2. America's Got Talent, NBC, 9.9 million viewers
3. Miss Universe 2006, NBC, 9.65 million viewers
4. CSI, CBS, 9.64 million viewers
5. So You Think You Can Dance (Wednesday), Fox, 9.4 million viewers
6. Two and a Half Men, CBS, 9.3 million viewers
7. Without a Trace, CBS, 9.28 million viewers
8. House, Fox, 9.2 million viewers
9. CSI: NY, CBS, 9 million viewers
10. 60 Minutes, CBS, 8.7 million viewers