NEW YORK - NBC was ready to start the fall television season last week, but viewers weren't quite ready.
The network averaged 7.5-million viewers last week, when it sprinkled some new programming among repeats and three hours of Republican convention coverage. To put that in perspective, NBC had 12.6-million viewers for the traditional first week last year.
After a summer's worth of promotions, 12.4-million viewers saw the premiere of Father of the Pride, enough to make the animated series the week's most-watched show.
NBC's new drama, Hawaii, ranked fourth. Those would be pretty modest numbers, however, if stacked up against real competition.
More worrisome for NBC was the 8.5-million viewers for the season premiere of Scrubs, a disappointing showing for a series the network is banking on.
CBS's telecast of the Latin Grammys was seen by 3.3-million people, one of the least-watched programs for the week.
Nielsen Media Research's weekly ratings were delayed for two days because of the Labor Day holiday and power problems near its Florida office that were caused by Hurricane Frances.
CBS was second to NBC with 7.2-million viewers. ABC had 6.1-million, Fox 5.1-million, UPN 2.4-million, the WB 2.1-million and Pax TV 750,000.
NBC's Nightly News won the evening news ratings race, averaging 8.7-million viewers. ABC's World News Tonight had 7.5-million and the CBS Evening News 6.5-million.
