NEW YORK (AP) — A big challenge of being a fourth-place network is getting the attention of viewers even when you have something new or intriguing, as NBC learned last week.

Two shows that premiered on the network barely moved the Nielsen Media Research needle, most notably "Kings." The ambitious two-hour opener of the modern-day tale of David & Goliath, starring Ian McShane, was seen by only 6.1 million viewers last week.

That's less than half the audience ABC's "Desperate Housewives" got at the same time. It was even slightly less than the collection of old "Saturday Night Live" skits that ran in the same time slot the week before - giving network executives less incentive to spend money on expensive scripted shows.

NBC's reality show "Chopping Block" had only 3.8 million viewers in its first run, well short of the 7.7 million people who watched the series it was obviously modeled upon, Fox's "Hell's Kitchen."

Fewer than 11 million people watched the return of original stars George Clooney, Noah Wyle, Eriq La Salle and Julianna Margulies to "ER" last Thursday. That's the biggest audience for the show in two years, but still about a third of what those actors routinely drew during their first runs. NBC noted that Clooney's appearance was largely kept under wraps and not promoted.

And in this era of economic woe, Olympian Michael Phelps was clobbered by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke in a TV duel. "60 Minutes," with a Bernanke interview, was seen by 12.9 million viewers while a "Dateline NBC" interview at the same time with Phelps discussing his drug use was seen by 4.3 million people, Nielsen said.

For the week, CBS averaged 11.1 million viewers (6.9 rating, 11 share), Fox had 10.9 million (6.4, 10), ABC 8.3 million (5.3, 9), NBC 6.1 million (3.9, 6), the CW 1.8 million (1.2, 2), My Network TV 1.6 million (1.0, 2) and ION Television 580,000 (0.4, 1).

Among the Spanish-language networks, Univision led with a 3.8 million viewer average (2.0 rating, 3 share), Telemundo had 1.2 million (0.6, 1), TeleFutura 680,000 (0.3, 1) and Azteca 230,000 (0.1, 0).

NBC's "Nightly News" topped the evening newscasts with an average of 8.9 million viewers (5.9, 12). ABC's "World News" was second with 7.8 million (5.3, 11) and the "CBS Evening News" had 6.4 million viewers (4.3, 9).

A ratings point represents 1,145,000 households, or 1 percent of the nation's estimated 114.5 million TV homes. The share is the percentage of in-use televisions tuned to a given show.

The Top 20
Prime-time viewership numbers compiled by Nielsen Media Research for March 9-15. Listings include the week's ranking, with viewership for the week and season-to-date rankings in parentheses. An "X" in parentheses denotes a one-time-only presentation.

1. (1) "American Idol" (Tuesday), Fox, 25.77 million viewers.

2. (1) "American Idol" (Wednesday), Fox, 25.55 million viewers.

3. (3) "Dancing With the Stars," ABC, 22.83 million viewers.

4. (4) "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," CBS, 17.13 million viewers.

5. (9) "Desperate Housewives," ABC, 14.6 million viewers.

6. (11) "Criminal Minds," CBS, 14.34 million viewers.

7. (8) "The Mentalist," CBS, 14.32 million viewers.

8. (14) "CSI: Miami," CBS, 14.22 million viewers.

9. (13) "Grey's Anatomy," ABC, 13.64 million viewers.

10. (16) "CSI: NY," CBS, 13.63 million viewers.

11. (6) "NCIS," CBS, 13.52 million viewers.

12. (11) "Two and a Half Men," CBS, 13.44 million viewers.

13. (21) "Cold Case," CBS, 13.02 million viewers.

14. (10) "60 Minutes," CBS, 12.87 million viewers.

15. (16) "Survivor: Tocantins," CBS, 12.82 million viewers.

16. (18) "House," Fox, 12.38 million viewers.

17. (23) "Eleventh Hour," CBS, 11.61 million viewers.

18. (18) "24," Fox, 11.37 million viewers.

19. (21) "Lie to Me," Fox, 11.25 million viewers.

20. (39) "Law And Order: Special Victim's Unit," NBC, 11.07 million viewers.