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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Nbc Makes Way To Top Of Prime-Time Nielsen Ratings

Associated Press

NBC’s powerhouse Thursday night lineup put the network back into first place in an increasingly tight prime-time television ratings battle. With its five Thursday night programs rated in Nielsen Media Research’s top six, NBC was the household-ratings leader for the week of Oct. 7-13 with a 10.9 rating and an 18 share.

CBS continued its comeback with a 10 rating and 17 share for second place, barely beating ABC’s 9.8 rating and 16 share. Fox had a 7.7 rating and a 13 share.

“Seinfeld” was the week’s top-rated show, but second-place “ER” remains the ratings leader for the 4-week-old television season so far. Only ABC’s “Home Improvement” kept NBC’s Thursday night lineup from a sweep of the top ratings spots.

None of CBS’s shows landed in the week’s Top 10, but it had 10 of the nation’s 25 most-watched shows. They included CBS’s Sunday movie, “Everything to Gain.”

The best baseball could manage was 27th place for last Friday night’s American League Championship Series game between the New York Yankees and Baltimore Orioles on NBC.

Prime-time ratings as compiled by Nielsen Media Research for Oct. 7-13. 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 97 million TV homes. Each ratings point represents 970,000 households.

1. (2) “Seinfeld,” NBC, 22.1, 21.4 million homes.

2. (1) “ER,” NBC, 21.6, 20.1 million homes.

3. (3) “Suddenly Susan,” NBC, 18.8, 18.2 million homes.

4. (5) “Home Improvement,” ABC, 18.2, 17.7 million homes.

5. (4) “Friends,” NBC, 18.0, 17.5 million homes.

6. (7) “Single Guy,” NBC, 17.0, 16.5 million homes.

7. (6) “NFL Monday Night Football,” ABC, 16.9, 16.4 million homes.

8. (8) “Spin City,” ABC, 15.9, 15.4 million homes.

9. (16) “20/20,” ABC, 15.2, 14.7 million homes.

10. “PrimeTime Live,” ABC, 15.0, 14.6 million homes.

11. (14) “Touched by an Angel,” CBS, 13.2, 12.8 million homes.

12. (9) “Cosby,” CBS, 12.4, 12.0 million homes.

13. (15) “Cybill,” CBS, 12.3, 11.9 million homes.

14. (10) “Murphy Brown,” CBS, 12.2, 11.8 million homes.

15. “CBS Sunday Movie: Everything To Gain,” CBS, 12.0, 11.6 million homes.

15. (10) “Pearl,” CBS, 12.0, 11.6 million homes.

15. (16) “60 Minutes,” CBS, 12.0, 11.6 million homes.

15. (24) “Walker, Texas Ranger,” CBS, 12.0, 11.6 million homes.

19. (18) “X-Files,” Fox, 11.9, 11.5 million homes.

20. “Early Edition,” CBS, 11.8, 11.4 million homes.

20. (21) “NBC Monday Night Movies: Moment of Truth,” NBC, 11.8, 11.4 million homes.