• by Wayne Friedman , October 1, 2013

After one week of the new season, TV viewers are skewing slightly older for the broadcast networks versus a year ago. The median age for the five English-language broadcast networks is now 53.4 years -- up from 53 years.

Two networks were in the 50+ territory a year ago -- CBS (57.9) and ABC (54.7). Now -- a year later -- three networks fall into that range: CBS at 57.8, ABC at 53.3, and NBC at 50.8. A year ago, NBC was at a median age of 48.4.

Fox has also moved up. Last year, it was just about tied with CW for the lowest median age -- with Fox at 43.8 and CW at 43.6. Now Fox has added on 2.3 years to reach 46.1 years. So far, CW has declined by a full year -- now at 42.6.

For the second straight year, NBC is leading in the first week among 18-49 viewers with a Nielsen 3.13 average rating -- slightly up from a 3.08.

ABC is also higher -- at 2.30, up from a 2.22, while CBS has dropped to a 2.23 from a 2.35. Fox, at a 1.83, is also down versus its 2.18 score of a year ago. CW is even at a 0.27. The five-network 18-49 rating average is a 2.18 -- down 3% from a year ago, when it was at a 2.24.

CBS was the most-watched network in the first week, with 10.31 million viewers; it was at 10.63 million last year. NBC is next at 9.8 million, from 8.65 million a year ago. ABC was at 7.97 million for the first week; it was at 8.22 million in 2012. Fox earned 5.05 million in 2013 and 5.74 million a year ago, while CW earned 779,000 this year in the first week. It was at 688,000 in 2012.

Overall, the five-network total viewer prime-time average was 7.69 million. In 2012, it was 7.67 million. Brad Adgate, senior vice president-director of research at Horizon Media says four of the networks so far appear to have some strong new shows in the first week of the season.

There are five new shows in the top 20 among 18-49 viewers: ABC’s “Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D”; CBS’ “The Crazy Ones”; NBC’s “The Blacklist”; Fox’s “Sleepy Hollow”; and ABC's “The Goldbergs.” Last year there were two -- NBC’s “Revolution” and ABC’s “The Neighbors.&rdquo ;