The Monte-Carlo TV Festival and Eurodata TV Worldwide have joined forces in order to reward programs who delivered the highest ratings worldwide.

David Tomatis, Chief Executive Officer of the Festival and Jacques Braun, Médiamétrie Executive Director and Eurodata TV Worldwide Vice President, revealed the winners of the 5^th International TV Audience Awards yesterday night at the 50^th Monte-Carlo Television Festival Awards Ceremony at the Grimaldi Forum in Monaco.

Are rewarded the programs delivering the highest ratings worldwide in 2009 across five continents in three categories: "Drama TV Series", "Comedy TV Series", and "Telenovelas / Soap Operas".

Revealed on the occasion of the Monte Carlo TV Festival Press Conference in Paris, the nominees were pre-selected among the fifteen best imported fiction programs in 68 countries, i.e. almost 1.7 billion potential viewers.

For the most-watched television shows, the winners are:

• CSI  : Crime Scene Investigation (USA) for "Drama TV Series"  in competition with CSI Miami (USA) and House (USA)                        
  CSI : Crime Scene Investigation gathered more than 73.8 million viewers worldwide in 2009*.
• Desperate Housewives (USA) for "Comedy TV Series"   in competition with How I met your mother (USA) and Monk (USA).
  Desperate Housewives gathered 51.6 million viewers worldwide in 2009*.
• The Bold and The Beautiful (USA) for "Telenovelas / Soap Operas"  in competition with The Young and the Restless (USA).
  The Bold and The Beautiful gathered more than 23.1 million viewers worldwide in 2009*

* Total of TV ratings of the best performing episode in the broadcast countries among the 68 countries included in the survey.

Scope of Survey : Argentina, Armenia, Australia (Regional TAM), Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, China, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Egypt, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, South Korea,  Latvia, Lebanon, Lithuania, Macedonia, Malaysia, Mexico, Moldova, Morocco, Netherlands, Norway, New Zealand, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom,  USA, Venezuela, Vietnam.