Americans Watch More TV As CBS Wins 2010 Ratings Race

CBS once again won the ratings race in 2010, while Fox again won the 18-49 demo as Americans watched more TV than ever last year, the New York Times reported Monday, citing Nielsen data.

Total viewing of broadcast networks and basic cable channels rose about 1 percent to an average of 34 hours per person per week, Nielsen found. And while a viewership shift from broadcast to cable continued, NBC as the fourth-rated broadcast network retained more than twice as many viewers as largest basic cable channel USA, the paper highlighted.

In a year-end recap, Nielsen also highlighted that eight of the 10 highest-rated telecasts of 2010 were football games. The two others were the Academy Awards and the premiere of Undercover Boss on CBS, which followed the Super Bowl.

Speaking of CBS: It won ratings among total viewers for 51 out of 52 weeks last year, with three of its new shows, Hawaii Five-0, Blue Bloods and Mike & Molly, landing in the top 20 for the year -- the only new shows to do so.

The biggest gainer on the broadcast side was Spanish-language network Univision, the Times highlighted. For 2010, it averaged a 1.5 rating among 18- to 49-year-olds and 3.7 million total viewers.