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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Thursday Night Carries Nbc To Ratings Victory

Lynn Elber Associated Press

NBC’s Thursday night stronghold of “ER,” “Friends” and “Seinfeld” gave the network a weekly ratings victory and a solid May sweeps start.

CBS, in third place for the week of April 24-30, could take some solace: it tied with NBC for the first four sweep days, bolstered by fourth-place ratings for part one of the miniseries “Buffalo Girls.”

The May edition of the quarterly sweeps, which are used by local TV stations to set advertising rates, includes the final four days of April.

For the week, NBC was the most-watched network with an 11.6 average rating and 20 share, according to figures released Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research.

ABC was the second most-watched network with a 10.8 rating and 18 share, followed closely by CBS with a 10.3 rating and matching 18 share.

Fox Broadcasting Co., which programs 15 of the 22 prime-time hours, garnered a 6.0 rating and 10 share.

Among evening newscasts, ABC’s “World News Tonight” led with a 10.1 rating, 21 share, “NBC Nightly News” was second with an 8.3 rating, 18 share, and “CBS Evening News” was third with a 7.6 rating, 16 share.

CBS’ “60 Minutes” was the highest-rated news magazine, No. 6, while ABC’s “20-20” snared the 10th spot with an update on the Oklahoma City bombing and a segment on liposuction surgery.

xxxx TOP 10 ON TV Ratings for April 24-30. Top 10 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. (2) “ER,” NBC, 23.3, 22.2 million homes 2. (8) “Friends,” NBC, 19.2, 18.3 million homes 3. (1) “Seinfeld,” NBC, 19.1, 18.2 million homes 4. (18) “CBS Sunday Movie: Buffalo Girls Pt. I,” CBS, 18.7, 17.8 million homes 5. (3) “Home Improvement,” ABC, 17.4, 16.6 million homes 6. (6) “60 Minutes,” CBS, 16.7, 15.9 million homes 7. (X) “Ellen,” ABC, 15.9, 15.2 million homes 8. (9) “Murder, She Wrote,” CBS, 15.4, 14.7 million homes 9. (19) “NBC Monday Night Movies: Seduced and Betrayed,” NBC, 14.8, 14.1 million homes 10. (16) “20/20,” ABC, 14.6, 13.9 million homes