TV Viewers Value ‘Friends’
Baseball reached third, but “Friends” and “Seinfeld” reruns really scored with TV viewers last week, ranking first and second respectively.
As summer schedules droned on, virtually everything in prime time for the week of July 10-16 was a repeat, with the exception of the Major League Baseball All-Star Game, which finished third, and several magazine shows.
With total viewership off about one-fourth from the season average, ABC edged out NBC for the lead, with an 8.6 rating and 17 share to NBC’s 8.5 rating and 16 share, according to Nielsen Media Research figures released Tuesday.
CBS was right behind with an 8.2 rating and 16 share. Fox, which programs 15 of the 22 prime-time hours, had a 4.7 rating and 9 share.
Among the “emerging networks,” Warner’s The WB (programming two hours weekly) had a 2.1 rating and 4 share, while Paramount’s UPN (programming four hours) had a 2.0 rating and 4 share, quite a comedown from its season average of a 3.5 rating and 6 share.
In the evening news derby, “ABC World News Tonight” retained first place with a 7.9 rating and 18 share - its 149th victory in the past 150 weeks.
“NBC Nightly News” had a 6.8 rating and 15 share, while “The CBS Evening News” had a 6.5 rating and 15 share.
Nielsen ratings
Here are prime-time Nielsen ratings for July 10-16. Top 20 listings include the week’s ranking, with rating for the week, season- to-date rankings in parentheses, and total homes.
An “X” in parentheses denotes one-time-only presentation. A rating measures the percentage of the nation’s 95.4 million TV homes. Each ratings point represents 954,000 households.
1. (6) “Friends,” NBC, 15.8, 15.1 million homes
2. (1) “Seinfeld,” NBC, 14.3, 13.6 million homes
3. (X) “Major League Baseball All-Star Game,” ABC, 13.9, 13.3 million homes
4. (2) “ER,” NBC, 13.7, 13.1 million homes
5. (19) “PrimeTime Live,” ABC, 12.6, 12.0 million homes
6. (X) “Home Improvement,” ABC, 12.0, 11.5 million homes
7. (5) “Grace Under Fire,” ABC, 11.9, 11.4 million homes
7. (17) “NBC Monday Night Movies: Regarding Henry,” NBC, 11.9, 11.4 million homes
9. (17) “CBS Sunday Movie: War of The Roses,” CBS, 11.6, 11.1 million homes
10. (9) “Roseanne,” ABC, 11.5, 11.0 million homes
10. (7) “60 Minutes,” CBS, 11.5, 11.0 million homes
12. (14) “Ellen,” ABC, 11.4, 10.9 million homes
13. “Dateline NBC,” (Tuesday) NBC, 10.9, 10.4 million homes
14. (15) “Frasier,” NBC, 10.4, 9.9 million homes
15. “America’s Funniest Home Videos,” ABC, 10.1, 9.6 million homes
16. “John Larroquette,” NBC, 10.0, 9.5 million homes
16. (9) “Murder, She Wrote,” CBS, 10.0, 9.5 million homes
16. (12) “20/20,” ABC, 10.0, 9.5 million homes
19. (X) “Before They Were Stars,” ABC, 9.9, 9.4 million homes
19. “Cybill,” CBS, 9.9, 9.4 million homes
21. “CBS Tuesday Movie: Steel Magnolias,” CBS, 9.7
21. “Major League Baseball All-Star Pre-Game,” ABC, 9.7
23. “Murphy Brown,” CBS, 9.5
24. “Dave’s World,” CBS, 9.2
24. “Hope & Gloria,” NBC, 9.2
26. “Dateline NBC,” (Wednesday) NBC, 9.1
26. “48 Hours,” CBS, 9.1
28. “Mad About You,” (Thursday) NBC, 8.9
29. “Chicago Hope,” CBS, 8.6
29. “Nanny,” CBS, 8.6
31. “America’s Funniest Home Videos,” ABC, 8.4
31. “NBC Sunday Night Movie: A Matter of Justice Part 1,” NBC, 8.4
33. “Step By Step,” ABC, 8.3
33. “Walker, Texas Ranger,” CBS, 8.3
35. “Wings,” NBC, 8.1
36. “Pride & Joy,” NBC, 8.0
37. “ABC Sunday Night Movie: Blaze,” ABC, 7.9
37. “Family Matters,” ABC, 7.9
37. “Hangin’ With Mr. Cooper,” ABC, 7.9
37. “In The House,” NBC, 7.9
41. “Law & Order,” NBC, 7.8
42. “Boy Meets World,” ABC, 7.7
42. (X) “Turning Point,” ABC, 7.7
42. (X) “When Stars Were Kids,” NBC, 7.7
45. “Fresh Prince of Bel Air,” NBC, 7.6
46. (X) “Very Best of Ed Sullivan,” CBS, 7.5
47. “Dateline NBC,” (Friday) NBC, 7.0
47. “Eye To Eye,” CBS, 7.0
47. “Married … With Children,” Fox, 7.0
47. “Rescue: 911,” CBS, 7.0