• by Wayne Friedman , December 21, 2007

In this holiday period, it has been the network reality shows that are ringing up Internet interest from viewers via their respective show sites.

According to Internet research company Hitwise, NBC's "Deal or No Deal" garnered the largest share of viewer visits, easily outpacing virtually all other shows' sites combined. NBC has been running a fair share of "Deal" episodes since the November sweeps--grabbing good TV ratings. The show garnered a 48% market share of Internet visits for the week ending Dec. 15.

The next-biggest show was Fox's venerable "America's Most Wanted," taking in a far-distant 3.8% market share. NBC's "Heroes" was next (2.6%), then CW's "America's Next Top Model"(2.4%), and NBC's "The Biggest Loser" (2.3%).

Overall, network Web site market share versus all Internet activity was at a 0.08% market share for the week--down 12% from the same period a year ago, at 0.10%. In the first week of the 2007 season, the network had a 0.11% share--but since then, it has hovered around the 0.08% to 0.09% share.

Six of the top 10 shows were reality shows, and two of the shows--"American Idol" and "Lost"--have not debuted their respective new seasons.

Three rookie shows made the top 20: CW's "Gossip Girl" at 11th place with a 1.36% market share; NBC's "Chuck" in 16th place with a 1.04% share; and CBS' "Moonlight," in 17th place at a 1.03% share.

NBC was the number one network of the week, with "Deal," "Heroes" and "The Biggest Loser." The net nabbed a 46.5% market share. ABC was next at 18.6%; CBS came in at 17.4%; Fox had 9.9%; CW had 7.4%; and MyNetworkTV earned a 0.09% number.

Hitwise derives its data from a sample of 10 million U.S. Internet users.