'House,' 'Boston' finales score

Ratings Flash - Rick Kissell

By RICK KISSELL

The season finales of Fox's "House" and ABC's "Boston Legal" -- pushed back a week by reality programs on their respective nets -- won their timeslots on the first Tuesday of television's summer season.

According to preliminary nationals from Nielsen, "House" was easily the night's top-rated program (6.5 rating/17 share in adults 18-49, 16.9 million viewers overall), though it came in well below its recent averages with "American Idol" as its lead-in. On this night, the show preceding it was unscripted contest "On the Lot" (1.8/6 in 18-49, 4.0 million viewers overall), which was up vs. its numbers on the previous night.

At ABC, "Boston Legal" (2.8/8 in 18-49, 9.8 million viewers overall) capped its season with a timeslot victory in most categories at 10 o'clock. Earlier in the evening, an hour of "George Lopez" repeats (1.9/6 in 18-49, 4.9 million viewers overall) were followed by an hour of "According to Jim" repeats (2.2/6 in 18-49, 5.3 million viewers overall).

NBC was competitive with its lineup of "Law & Order" (2.0/6 in 18-49, 6.4 million viewers overall), "Law & Order: Criminal Intent" (2.2/6 in 18-49, 7.4 million viewers overall) and "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" (2.7/7 in 18-49, 8.4 million viewers overall), while CBS struggled after winning the opening hour with a rebroadcast of "NCIS" (2.2/7 in 18-49, 9.8 million viewers overall).

Preliminary 18-49 averages for the night: Fox, 4.2/12; NBC, 2.3/7; ABC, 2.3/6; Univision, 1.9/5; CBS, 1.7/5; CW, 0.5/1.

In total viewers: Fox, 10.4 million; NBC, 7.4 million; CBS, 6.9 million; ABC, 6.7 million; Univision, 4.1 million; CW, 1.4 million.