NEW YORK (AP) – Broadcasting the Academy Awards wasn’t enough to make ABC the most popular prime-time network last week – not when “American Idol” is around.

Fox rode its juggernaut, broadcast three times last week, to a ratings win. Fox’s margin was even larger among the 18-to-49-year-old viewers that advertisers are most eager to see, according to Nielsen Media Research.

The Oscar audience of just under 39 million was the second smallest in 20 years, although it still ranks as the second most popular TV event of the season after the Super Bowl. ABC moved its traditional Barbara Walters interview special, which has often preceded the awards, to a separate night, and it drew fewer than 10 million viewers as a result.

CBS bragged that Thursday’s “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” was the first series in two years to get a bigger audience than “American Idol” on an individual night.

Of course, the two series were not competing head to head. “Idol” has been having a real impact on series that it did go against: both ABC’s “Lost” and CBS’ “Survivor” lost a couple million viewers from their typical audience as a result.

For the week, Fox averaged 13.5 million viewers (7.9 rating, 12 share), ABC had 12.6 million (8.0, 13), CBS 12.3 million (7.9, 12), NBC 9.6 million (6.2, 10), Univision 3.7 million (1.9, 3), the WB 3.2 million (2.2, 3), UPN 2.7 million (1.8, 3), Telemundo 1 million (0.6, 1) and Pax TV 400,000 (0.3, 0).

NBC’s “Nightly News” won the evening news ratings race, averaging 9.4 million viewers (6.5, 13). ABC’s “World News Tonight” had 8.4 million viewers (6.0, 12) and the “CBS Evening News” had 7.9 million (5.5, 11).

A ratings point represents 1,102,000 households, or 1 percent of the nation’s estimated 110.2 million TV homes. The share is the percentage of in-use televisions tuned to a given show.

For the week of Feb. 27-March 5, the top 10 shows, their networks and viewerships: “Academy Awards,” ABC, 38.93 million; “American Idol” (Tuesday), Fox, 30.08 million; “American Idol” (Wednesday), Fox, 29.64 million; “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation,” CBS, 27.81 million; “American Idol” (Thursday), Fox, 26.32 million; “Without a Trace,” CBS, 19.78 million; “CSI: Miami,” CBS, 18.43 million; “Two and a Half Men,” CBS, 17.04 million; “Oscar Countdown 2006,” ABC, 16.97 million; “Lost,” ABC, 16.43 million.

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