• by Wayne Friedman , April 11, 2014

With just about a month and a half left of the 2013-2014 TV season, NBC still sits in first place among key 18-49 prime-time viewers.

This is largely the result of NBC's push with sports programming -- specifically the Sochi Winter Olympics this past February. Through April 6 -- 28 weeks of the season -- NBC is 21% higher versus last season to an average Nielsen 2.9 rating for 18-49 viewers, when looking at live programming plus seven days of time-shifted viewing (L7).

Fox has made a late charge -- now at a 2.6 rating, up 4% over a year ago. Fox aired the Super Bowl this past February, helping its results. That said, its big show “American Idol” continues to lose its power of years past in bringing in viewers.

Lower down the list is CBS, which is off 20% versus last year’s results to a 2.4 average L7 rating among 18-49 viewers. CBS has some unfavorable comparisons due to its airing of the Super Bowl in the 2012-2013 broadcast season.

Behind CBS, ABC is at a 2.1 rating, off 9% from a year ago. Univision comes in with about half the number of ABC -- a 1.2 rating among 18-49 viewers, down 20% from a year ago.

On the bottom rung but climbing is CW, which continues to make improvements due to its shift toward slightly older and more male-centric programming -- with a 14% improvement to a season-to-date 18-49 rating average of 0.8.

CBS remains ahead when it comes to all prime-time viewers -- averaging 10.8 million -- followed by NBC at 9.8 million; Fox with 7.7 million; ABC at 7.5 million; Univision with 3.0 million; and CW at 1.9 million.