nielsen ratings
(fast national numbers for saturday, august 6, 2011)

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

ABC (2.57 million viewers, #3; adults 18-49: 0.8, #T1) and FOX (2.39 million viewers, #4; adults 18-49: 0.8, #T1) split the demo honors on Saturday as the former offered up a rebroadcast of "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" (2.57 million viewers, #7; adults 18-49: 0.8, #T3).

The latter then served up repeats of "Cops" (3.00 million viewers, #5; adults 18-49: 0.9, #T1), "Family Guy" (1.97 million viewers, #8; adults 18-49: 0.7, #5) and "The Cleveland Show" (1.62 million viewers, #9; adults 18-49: 0.6, #6).

Next up was CBS (3.82 million viewers, #1; adults 18-49: 0.6, #T3) with repeats of "CSI: Miami" (2.80 million viewers, #6; adults 18-49: 0.4, #9), "Hawaii Five-0" (3.81 million viewers, #3; adults 18-49: 0.5, #T7) and "48 Hours Mystery" (4.84 million viewers, #1; adults 18-49: 0.9, #T1).

And finally, NBC (3.59 million viewers, #2; adults 18-49: 0.6, #T3) closed out the evening with the original movie "Who Is Simon Miller?" (3.31 million viewers, #4; adults 18-49: 0.5, #T7) followed by a repeat of "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" (4.14 million viewers, #2; adults 18-49: 0.8, #T3).

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

An encore telecast of "Saturday Night Live" (2.9/8 in metered-market households), hosted by Ed Helms with musical guest Paul Simon, dominated its time period. Versus the same night last year, "SNL" is up 7 percent (2.9 vs. 2.7).

In the 25 markets with Local People Meters, "Saturday Night Live" averaged a 1.4 rating, 7 share in adults 18-49, making it the #1 telecast of the night ahead of all primetime programs on ABC, CBS, NBC or Fox.

Here are the highlights of the 10 ad-sustained programs that aired in primetime on the broadcast networks one year ago (8/7/10):

FOX (4.03 million viewers, #2; adults 18-49: 1.2, #1) was the network to beat on Saturday with a full hour of "Cops" (3.78 million viewers, #4; adults 18-49: 1.1, #3) repeats followed by a new "America's Most Wanted" (4.29 million viewers, #3; adults 18-49: 1.2, #T1).

CBS (4.41 million viewers, #1; adults 18-49: 0.8, #2) then claimed the silver with its all-repeat lineup of "Cold Case" (3.14 million viewers, #5; adults 18-49: 0.6, #9), "48 Hours Mystery" (4.48 million viewers, #2; adults 18-49: 0.8, #4) and another "48 Hours Mystery" (5.62 million viewers, #1; adults 18-49: 1.2, #T1).

Next up was ABC (2.83 million viewers, #3; adults 18-49: 0.7, #3) with second runs of "Red Eye" (2.91 million viewers, #6; adults 18-49: 0.7, #T5) and "Rookie Blue" (2.68 million viewers, #8; adults 18-49: 0.7, #T5).

And finally, a new "Persons Unknown" (1.27 million viewers, #10; adults 18-49: 0.4, #10) lead into the network's "Wrestlemania XXVI" (1.78 million viewers, #9; adults 18-49: 0.7, #T5) special and a repeat of "Law & Order: Criminal Intent" (2.81 million viewers, #7; adults 18-49: 0.7, #T5) on NBC (1.95 million viewers, #4; adults 18-49: 0.5, #4).

Source: Nielsen Media Research