NEW YORK (AP) – NBC stood by its man on “For Love or Money,” and last week that decision paid off.

The finale of the limited-run dating series was last week’s most popular TV program, watched by 12.9 million people, according to Nielsen Media Research.

NBC stuck with the show even after reports came out that its bachelor star, Rob Campos, had been expelled from a military program in 1999 for drunkenly groping a female officer. Network executives reasoned that viewers wouldn’t care.

CBS also hopes viewers will overlook misdeeds for the fourth edition of its reality series, “Big Brother.” A contestant on the show, which premiered last week, was thrown off for a fit that saw him throwing chairs.

The premiere of the series – which put several contestants in stressful situations by shacking them up with exes – narrowly missed Nielsen’s top 10 last week.

CBS narrowly won the week, averaging 7.9 million viewers (5.3 rating, 10 share). NBC averaged 7.87 million viewers but its ratings were slightly higher (5.4, 10), indicating more people were watching NBC alone.

ABC, which has won some new viewers for its comedies by rerunning them relentlessly this summer, averaged 6 million viewers (4.1, 8), Fox had 5.1 million (3.3, 6), UPN 3.2 million (2.1, 4), the WB 1.8 million (1.7, 3) and Pax TV 830,000 (0.6, 1).

NBC’s “Nightly News” won the evening news ratings race, averaging 9.1 million viewers (6.6 rating, 14 share). ABC’s “World News Tonight” had 8.3 million (6.1, 13) and the “CBS Evening News” had 6.9 million (5, 11).

A ratings point represents 1,067,000 households, or 1 percent of the nation’s estimated 106.7 million TV homes. The share is the percentage of in-use televisions tuned to a given show.

For the week of July 7-13, the top 10 shows, their networks and viewerships: “For Love or Money,” NBC, 12.9 million; “Law & Order,” NBC, 12.4 million; “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation,” CBS, 12.3 million; “Without a Trace,” CBS, 11.2 million; “Everybody Loves Raymond,” CBS, 11 million; “CSI: Miami,” CBS, 10.3 million; “Law & Order-Wednesday, 9 p.m.,” NBC, 10.3 million; “Law & Order: Criminal Intent,” NBC, 10.2 million; “60 Minutes,” CBS, 10.1 million; “Law & Order: SVU,” NBC, 10 million.