CSI retains ‘most-watched’ status

MONTE CARLO: CBS crime series CSI: Crime Scene Investigation has retained its title as the most-watched TV drama in the world at the 52nd Monte Carlo Television Festival.

The US procedural came top in the International TV Audience Award for drama, after pulling in more than 63 million viewers worldwide, making it the highest-rated show of 2011.

ABC’s Desperate Housewives won the International TV Audience Award for a comedy series while long-running US daytime drama The Bold & the Beautiful was the most-watched soap/telenovela.

The prizes are based on ratings collected by Eurodata TV Worldwide from 68 countries during 2011.

During a star-studded ceremony last night, Golden Nymph Awards were also presented to the producers of the best international and European comedies, dramas, miniseries, documentaries and telemovies.

Christopher Lloyd and Steve Levitan, the duo behind ABC’s Modern Family, won the prize for outstanding international producers for a comedy series, while Joey Fare, producer of France’s Kaboul Kitchen, picked up the outstanding European producer prize.

In drama, HBO won the outstanding international producer award for medieval saga Game of Thrones, with DAP Italy taking the outstanding European producer title for Titanic: Blood & Steel.

The Last Fine Day, produced by Germany’s Hager Moss Film, was named best television film, while Japanese pubcaster NHK won the prize for best miniseries for Yasu: A Single Father’s Story (2x73′), which is about a father’s struggle to raise his son in 1960s Hiroshima.

TV2 Norway’s Terror Island shared the best news documentary prize with Al Jazeera English’s Bahrain: Shouting In The Dark.

During the ceremony, Prince Albert II of Monaco presented Anne Sweeney, chairman of Disney Media Networks and president of Disney/ABC Television Group, an honorary Golden Nymph prize for her achievements in the television industry.