Nielsen Concedes Error, Reprocessing News Ratings

News ratings are typically down in the summer, but not by that much, ABC said. Given the relatively small number of homes losing signals, ABC claimed that a loss of more than 3 million off its season average was illogical. CBS, for example, had 5.1 million viewers Friday compared to its season average of 5.8 million that night, Nielsen said.

"The numbers don't make any sense," said Jon Banner, executive producer of "World News."

Nielsen indicated that some of the ABC affiliates that had made the digital switch early were inadvertently left out of the news ratings. The company plans to issue new ratings on Wednesday, said Gary Holmes, a Nielsen spokesman. It's not immediately clear how much the error will affect ABC's ratings.

NBC's "Nightly News" averaged 8.3 million viewers last week (5.5 rating, 12 share), while the CBS "Evening News" had 5.4 million (3.7, 8).

In prime time, the last three games of the Los Angeles Lakers championship series victory over the Orlando Magic were the most-watched programs of the week.

HBO also reported that the second season premiere of "True Blood" on Sunday was seen by 3.7 million people, the most-watched original series telecast on the network since the June 2007 finale of "The Sopranos."