NBC is limping to the close of the prime-time TV season. Only one of the network’s shows, “Law & Order: SVU,” finished among the 25 most-watched shows last week, ranking No. 16, according to Nielsen Media Research. “Shark,” a drama that CBS is canceling, was seen by more people last week than any other NBC show but “SVU.”

The network’s prime-time average of 5.5 million viewers last week, was just more than half of first-place CBS’ average.

The showing during a ratings “sweeps” month points to the challenge NBC has in the next few months. One advantage is the network’s coverage of the Summer Olympics in China, which should give promoters the chance to remind people of upcoming shows.

The prime-time performance makes it all the more impressive that NBC has managed to stay in first place for its evening news, late-night lineup and early morning.

For the week, CBS averaged 10.3 million viewers (6.7 rating, 11 share), ABC had 9.6 million (6.2, 11), Fox 9.2 million (5.6, 9), NBC 5.5 million (3.6, 6), the CW 2.7 million (1.7, 3), My Network TV 1.2 million (0.8, 1) and ION Television 320,000 (0.2, 0).

Among the Spanish-language networks, Univision averaged 3.6 million (1.8, 3), Telemundo had 990,000 (0.6, 1), TeleFutura 820,000 (0.4, 1) and Azteca 160,000 (0.1, 0).

NBC’s “Nightly News” topped the evening newscasts with an average of 8.2 million viewers (5.6, 12). ABC’s “World News” was second with 7.9 million (5.5, 12) and the “CBS Evening News” had 5.7 million viewers (4, 8).

A ratings point represents 1,128,000 households, or 1 percent of the nation’s estimated 112.8 million TV homes. The share is the percentage of in-use televisions tuned to a given show.

For the week of May 12-18, the top 10 shows, their networks and viewerships: “American Idol” (Wednesday), Fox, 24.86 million; “American Idol” (Tuesday), Fox, 24.77 million; “Dancing With the Stars” (Monday), ABC, 18.47 million; “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation,” CBS, 18.06 million; “Dancing With the Stars” (Tuesday), ABC, 16.99 million; “Desperate Housewives,” ABC, 16.84 million; “Grey’s Anatomy,” ABC, 15.55 million; “House,” Fox, 15.02 million; “NCIS,” CBS, 14.88 million, “Without a Trace,” CBS, 14.54 million.

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ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Co. CBS is a division of CBS Corp. Fox is a unit of News Corp. NBC is owned by General Electric Co. Telemundo is owned by General Electric. TeleFutura is a division of Univision. ION Television is owned by ION Media Networks.

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