The rescue of nine Pennsylvania miners was good news for everybody, including cable news networks. This week's Nielsen ratings reports that both CNN and Fox News Channel experienced leaps in viewership to levels six times what they normally would be during a weekend night. CNN averaged 2.3 million viewers between 11 p.m. Saturday and 3 a.m. ET on Sunday, when the miners were retrieved by rejoicing rescue workers. Normally, CNN's viewership is 319,000 during the same period, according to Nielsen Media Research. (CNN, like PEOPLE, is part of AOL Time Warner.) On Fox, which normally has 306,000 viewers at that time, the viewership averaged 2.1 million people -- a 580 percent jump, notes the Associated Press, which went on to report that, astonishingly, CNN, Fox News Channel and MSNBC collectively were watched by roughly 5.2 million people between 1:30 and 2 a.m. ET., which represented a 100 percent leap in viewership for MSNBC. In the prime-time ratings race for the week, CBS averaged 8 million viewers; NBC, 7.8 million; ABC, 6 million; Fox, 5.6 million; the WB, 2.7 million; UPN, 2.6 million; and Pax TV, 1.2 million. The Top 10 programs for the week of July 22-28 were as follows:
1. "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," CBS, 10 million homes
2. "Everybody Loves Raymond," CBS, 9.1 million homes
3. (tie) "48 Hours," Monday, CBS, 8.1 million homes
3. (tie) "Law & Order," NBC, 8.1 million homes
5. "Becker," CBS, 8.1 million homes
6. "Law & Order: Criminal Intent," NBC, 7.3 million homes
7. (tie) "Meet My Folks," NBC, 7.1 million homes
7. (tie) "Primetime Thursday," ABC, 7.2 million homes
9. (tie) "Dateline NBC -- Sunday," NBC, 7.1 million homes
9. (tie) "Dog Eat Dog," NBC, 7.1 million homes
11. (tie) "American Idol," Tuesday, Fox, 7 million homes
11. (tie) "Big Brother 3," Wednesday, CBS, 7 million homes