Unlike in past seasons, ABC’s Dancing With The Stars has found a way to edge rival American Idol in the New York-based weekly prime time ratings.

Last week’s Dancing results show had the best result of them all–number one. The show generated an estimated 1.35 million WABC viewers with a 6.9 rating, according to Nielsen.

The previous night’s competition had a second-place finish with 1.3 million viewers and 6.6 rating. Dancing also notched an eighth-place finish (857,000/4.4).

Fox’s Idol suffered a “disappointing” number three showing for the one-hour elimination (1.25 million/6.4) and the other episode ranked fourth (1.2 million/6.1).

As for NBC’s singing show, The Voice, it dropped to a 12th-place tie (721,000/3.7).

More from the Top 10 after the jump

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The February sweeps came and went, but the results are the same for WABC/Channel 7. The station was tops among total viewers for the sweeps period that concluded Wednesday.

Starting before dawn, WABC maintained its success with Eyewitness News This Morning. Led by anchors Lori Stokes and Ken Rosato, and meteorologist Bill Evans, the broadcast was the city’s number one at 4:30 in Households rating and among Adults 25 to 54. In the 5 a.m. hour, the trio was tops once again in the Households.

WABC crushed the competition (WNBC and WCBS) at noon with a 52 percent lead over its closest rival in Households. Additionally, the Stokes, Rosato, and Evans newscast kept its strong advantage in the Adults 25 to 54 and Women 25 to 54 demographics.

At 4 p.m., WABC tied for the top spot in the pivotal Adults 25 to 54 race. The newscast, which debuted last summer, was second in the Households to Judge Judy on WCBS.

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Phil Boyce, who enjoyed a long run as 77 WABC program director, has been named VP of Salem Communications Spoken Word Format.

One of those stations under his jurisdiction is New York’s The Apple/970 WNYM. The talk station’s morning and afternoon host, the only local weekday presence, is Curtis Sliwa.

That means Boyce will once again be connected to Sliwa. It was Boyce, who teamed Sliwa and Ron Kuby for morning drive at WABC in 1996.

Boyce, who also ran the ABC Radio and Citadel News/Talk division, according to All Access, starts in the new position today.

Perhaps you missed it last week–Magee Hickey, the longtime WCBS/Channel 2 reporter did not have her contract renewed. Hickey, a New York mainstay for three decades, was in her second stint at WCBS.

Hickey, who refused FishbowlNY an interview, told the Daily News last week, “I wanted to stay there, but it was a choice others made about me.”

Hickey had stops at WNEW/Channel 5 (pre-WNYW days), WNBC, and WABC.

She also worked at WCBS from 1994 to 1996, when she was fired along with six other on-air colleagues. The “massacre” as it became known, was orchestrated by then-news director (now WPIX news director) Bill Carey.

Hickey, though, returned to Channel 2 in 2003.

Hickey tells the Daily News that she’s exploring other oppportunities.

From the “Here We Go Again Department,” several more than 10 inches of snow fell in Central Park through the overnight.

As familiar as the snow falling has been this season, so are the reporters gathered throughout the tri-state to assess the situation.

Another mainstay of the winter weather has been Mayor Bloomberg. Once again, New York’s TV stations were ready to take the mayor’s storm update live at 10 a.m. 

As our sister site TVSpy reports, WABC, WCBS, and WNYW stayed with expanded snow coverage following Bloomberg’s status report.

As the New York Jets held on Sunday night for a riveting victory against their long-standing rival Patriots, fans flocked to WCBS in tremendous numbers.

As expected, the game was number one for the week, according to the Nielsen Company, with an estimated 3.7 million and 18.5 rating.

Viewers stuck around for the 15-minute post-show. It pulled in 3 million with a 15.2 rating and good enough for second place.

Following the Jets coverage, 60 Minutes aired at 8 p.m., an hour later than usual. No matter, the newsmagazine was 4th with 1.6 million and an 8.3 rating.

Back to football, though.

Fox (WNYW) got into the act with their Saturday prime time matchup between the Packers and Falcons. The game took 5th place (1.5 million/7.5), while the 30-minute wrap-up was number 6 (1.3 million/6.8).

Sunday night’s Golden Globes on NBC scored high in New York with a third-place showing (1.7 million/8.7).

A look at the rest of the Top 10 after the jump. Read more

Legendary TV host Regis Philbin, 79, announced his retirement this morning on ‘Live! with Regis and Kelly.’ He is expected to stay with the show until the summer.

The broadcast started locally with The Morning Show on WABC in 1983. By 1988, Disney syndicated the one-hour daily program with then co-host Kathie Lee Gifford.

“WABC is proud to be the home of ‘LIVE! with Regis and Kelly,’ and it will be difficult to say goodbye to Regis after 28 years as a member of our family,” commented Dave Davis, president and general manager, WABC. “We will miss him as a colleague and friend.  We’re fortunate, however, to have two real pros who can lead ‘LIVE’ into the future – Kelly Ripa, who has spent the last ten years developing her own amazing voice in daytime talk, and Michael Gelman, who has been with the show since its inception and is one of the best executive producers in daytime television.”

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As the latest snowstorm began to churn its way into New York Tuesday night, WNYW and WABC were winning their respective newscasts with Adults 25-54.

First at 10 pm., the anchor team of Ernie Anastos, Dari Alexander, and meteorologist Nick Gregory gave WNYW a 3.4 rating and 297,000 viewers among the key demographic, according to Nielsen Media Research (and obtained by WNYW).  

By contrast, WPIX, with Jodi Applegate and weatherman Mr. G, only mustered a scant .8 and 73,000 viewers.

At 11 p.m., WABC (3.1/271,000) won the night among Adults 25-54 with accurate forecasting from Lee Goldberg (pressed into duty during his vacation), while Bill Ritter and Liz Cho manned the anchor desk.

WNBC (Chuck Scarborough, Sue Simmons, and meteorologist Janice Huff) was second with a 3.0 and 264,000.

WCBS took third (2.4/209,000) as Maurice DuBois, Kristine Johnson, and Lonnie Quinn worked the storm.

With the snowstorm barreling down on New York Wednesday, WCBS-TV was besting the other early morning news programs. 

From 4 to 7 a.m. Channel 2, with Rob Morrison, Mary Calvi, and John Elliott, had an average of 210,000 (according to figures obtained by WCBS), 58 percent higher than the station’s typical January audience of 133,000.

Part of the WCBS storm coverage included their “exclusive, state-of the art” Mobile2, which is winning praise for its ability to give viewers an immediate look at driving conditions.

WABC was second during Wednesday’s storm, with an average of 189,000 viewers from 4 to 7 a.m. WNBC had an estimated 155,000, while WNYW had 93,000 tuned in and WPIX notched just 87,000.

Normally, a Mayor Bloomberg press briefing 12 hours before a potential snowstorm might not make for necessary live coverage. However, this impending storm comes two weeks after the infamous blizzard. The mayor and other city officials were widely criticized for the snow removal, or lack of.

Therefore, the majority of city stations (WCBS, WNBC, WNYW, and WABC) were ready to hear Bloomberg’s comments late this morning.

Following the press conference, WABC and WCBS went directly into the noon newscast. Channel 7 stayed on the air for an extra 8 minutes.

WNYW, with Rosanna Scotto anchoring, informed viewers for additional 10 minutes after Bloomberg left the City Hall podium.

WNBC, like Channel 4, doesn’t offer a noon newscast. However, with morning anchors Darlene Rodriguez and Michael Gargiulo at the helm, they preempted The Rundown (there should be more snowstorms then) with snow coverage until 12:30 p.m.