You Might Want to Start Watching TV About Now...

New Cavemen episodes don't grow on trees, people.

This public-service reminder brought to you after viewers spurned what could be the waning days of the TV season as we know it.

Ratings for all the major broadcast networks, save for Fox, were down last week, while several new shows, from Cavemen to Cane to Bionic Woman, lost more ground.

The latest Nielsen Media Research rankings come as the writers' strike entered its ninth day, and the networks' supply of fresh episodes dwindled. Several series, including NBC's The Office and ABC's Desperate Housewives, have already shut down production. Fox's 24 has been benched until further notice.

While squirrels might take the strike as a cue to stock up on memories of what new episodes are like, Nielsen families didn't.

On the first day of the strike, NBC's Heroes looked plainly mortal, averaging a series-low 9.9 million viewers (33rd place).

On the second day of the strike, ABC's Cavemen (88th place, 4.9 million), ABC's Carpoolers (83rd place, 5.5 million) and CBS' Cane all crashed.

On the third day of the strike, NBC's Bionic Woman sputtered to its worst performance: 6.5 million viewers (65th place).

On the fourth day of the strike, the team from CSI (first place, 21.9 million) crossed over to Without a Trace (second place, 21.7 million), and everybody was happy, except for the silenced singers from Viva Laughlin, who are probably wondering why CBS didn't dispatch Gil Grissom's crew to its locale.

Despite the timing, it seems clear the strike isn't the reason audiences are or aren't tuning in.

The networks have been hemorrhaging viewers all fall (and for many falls before this). Heroes has been having troubles all season—from the picket line last week, creator Tim Kring apologized for the show's storylines. And Cavemen has been going the way of the dodo since its surprisingly not disastrous debut in September.

Still, you'd think the threat of no more new episodes of, say, Journeyman (85th place, 5.1 million) might make viewers' hearts grow fonder. You'd think.

Here are other ratings highlights for the TV week ended Sunday, per Nielsen Media Research stats:

• ABC's Dancing with the Stars made more headlines following the death of Marie Osmond's father but generated smaller numbers. Monday's dance-off settled for third place (20.5 million), off from last week's win; Tuesday's Jane Seymour eviction captured ninth place (17.1 million), down from a fifth-place finish for the previous results episode.
  
  
• NCIS (seventh place, 18.1 million) is on fire, which should give the veteran CBS drama pause: Blazes are a leading cause of accidental death among the elderly. 
  
  
• The would-be wedding of Wilhelmina dressed things up for ABC's Ugly Betty (25th place, 10.8 million).
  
  
• The Office (44th place, 8.3 million) may run out of new episodes soon. Unfortunately, for the NBC comedy, it got run out of the 18-49 top 25 sooner.
  
  
• NBC's Chuck (52nd place, 7.6 million) got some love, 7 percent more than last week.
  
  
• Fox's Prison Break picked up the pace, hitting season highs with back-to-back episodes (50th place, 7.7 million for the first; 45th place, 8 million for the second).
  
  
• Tyra Banks is sitting pretty: America's Next Top Model (86th place, 5.1 million) won't be sidelined by the strike. The CW show hit its best numbers in a month.
  
  
• The music awards shows kept the beat: The Country Music Awards on ABC (10th place, 16 million) was about even with last year's performance, while the Latin Grammys on Univision (76th place, 6.2 million) was up.
  
  
• In cable, ESPN's Monday Night Football (9.9 million viewers) ruled, per usual. Disney Channel's Hannah Montana (5.5 million) was the most watched prime-time comedy series; VH1's I Love New York 2 (3.5 million) the top reality series and FX's Nip/Tuck (3.3 million) the top drama.
  
  
• The original Santa Clause can still bring it—5.1 million viewers for a Sunday-night repeat on the Disney Channel.
  
  
• ABC Family's Lincoln Heights closed out its second season with a series-high 1.7 million viewers; Bravo's Real Housewives of Orange County began its third season with a premiere-best 1.2 million viewers.
  
  
• Keeping Up with the Kardashians (1.3 million) gave E! its most watched show and got renewed for a second season. (E! Online is a division of E! Networks.)  

In a November sweeps not worth remembering, ABC scored double wins as the most watched network among total viewers (11.9 million), and the most watched network among 18-to-49-year-olds.

CBS placed second in viewers (11.89 million) and third in the demo. Fox finished third in viewers (8.8 million) and second among the most desirable folks.

NBC couldn't manage a single show, outside of Sunday Night Football (eighth place, 17.3 million) in the top 20 and settled for a pair of fourth-place finishes, averaging 8.2 million viewers.

The CW averaged 2.9 million. It was down 20 percent from the same week last year, which was bad but not the worst—NBC was down 22 percent.

ESPN was cable's most watched prime-time network (3 million), followed by the Disney Channel (2.8 million) and USA (2.5 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. CSI, CBS, 21.9 million viewers
2. Without a Trace, CBS, 21.7 million viewers
3. Dancing with the Stars (Monday), ABC, 20.5 million viewers
4. Grey's Anatomy, ABC, 19.5 million viewers
5. Desperate Housewives, ABC, 18.6 million viewers
6. House, Fox, 18.2 million viewers
7. NCIS, CBS, 18.1 million viewers
8. Sunday Night Football, NBC, 17.3 million viewers
9. Dancing with the Stars (Tuesday), ABC, 17.1 million viewers
10. 41st Annual Country Music Awards, ABC, 16 million viewers