nielsen ratings
(fast national numbers for saturday, march 5, 2011)

Here are the highlights of the eight ad-sustained programs that aired in primetime on the broadcast networks last night:

FOX (5.50 million viewers, #2; adults 18-49: 1.8, #1) led the demo race on Saturday with its usual mix of "Cops" (5.36 million viewers, #4; adults 18-49: 1.8, #2) and "America's Most Wanted" (5.64 million viewers, #3; adults 18-49: 1.9, #1).

CBS (4.54 million viewers, #3; adults 18-49: 1.2, #2) then took home the silver with its "NCAA Men's College Basketball" (4.57 million viewers, #6; adults 18-49: 1.4, #3) coverage followed by a new "48 Hours Mystery" (4.48 million viewers, #7; adults 18-49: 1.0, #T5).

Next up was NBC (5.67 million viewers, #1; adults 18-49: 1.0, #3) with encores of "Harry's Law" (5.08 million viewers, #5; adults 18-49: 0.8, #8), "Law & Order: Los Angeles" (5.70 million viewers, #2; adults 18-49: 1.0, #T5) and "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" (6.22 million viewers, #1; adults 18-49: 1.3, #4).

And finally, the feature "King Kong" (3.31 million viewers, #8; adults 18-49: 0.9, #7) on ABC (3.31 million viewers, #4; adults 18-49: 0.9, #4) closed out the evening.

In late-night metered market ratings (via NBC's press release):

"Saturday Night Live" (5.4/13 in metered-market households), hosted by Miley Cyrus with musical guest The Strokes, dominated its time period. "SNL" was the #1 telecast of the night in metered-market households ahead of all primetime programs on ABC, CBS, NBC or Fox. Versus the same night last year, "SNL" is up 8 percent in metered-market households (5.4 vs. 5.0).

In the 25 markets with Local People Meters, "Saturday Night Live" averaged a 3.3 rating, 14 share in adults 18-49, making it the #1 program of the night, more than doubling each primetime telecast on ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox.

In the 25 Local People Meter markets, "Saturday Night Live's" 3.3 matched the show's second-highest 18-49 rating of the season (also earned on February 5 with host Dana Carvey and musical guest Linkin Park), behind only the January 8 telecast, which benefited from a high-rated primetime NFL game on NBC that night.

Here are the highlights of the 11 ad-sustained programs that aired in primetime on the broadcast networks one year ago (3/6/10):

A full hour of "Cops" (6.07 million viewers, #3; adults 18-49: 2.0, #1) and an anniversay installment of "America's Most Wanted" (5.80 million viewers, #4; adults 18-49: 1.8, #2) lifted FOX (5.93 million viewers, #2; adults 18-49: 1.9, #1) to the top spot on Saturday.

The silver then went to CBS (6.33 million viewers, #1; adults 18-49: 1.2, #2) with its mix of "NCIS" (6.17 million viewers, #2; adults 18-49: 1.0, #T6), "CSI: Miami" (5.72 million viewers, #5; adults 18-49: 1.1, #5) and "48 Hours Mystery" (7.09 million viewers, #1; adults 18-49: 1.4, #T3).

Next up was NBC (4.44 million viewers, #3; adults 18-49: 1.1, #3) with its all-repeat lineup of "Parenthood" (3.27 million viewers, #11; adults 18-49: 0.8, #8),"Law & Order" (4.77 million viewers, #7; adults 18-49: 1.0, #T6) and "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" (5.28 million viewers, #6; adults 18-49: 1.4, #T3).

And finally, ABC (3.81 million viewers, #4; adults 18-49: 0.7, #4) offered up its own second-run mix of "20/20: Before They Were Stars" (4.17 million viewers, #8; adults 18-49: 0.7, #T9), "Oprah Winfrey Oscar Special" (3.41 million viewers, #10; adults 18-49: 0.7, #T9) and "Castle" (3.85 million viewers, #9; adults 18-49: 0.7, #T9).

Source: Nielsen Media Research