Fox On Top Of Ratings With Super Bowl Telecast

Fox’s first broadcast of a Super Bowl gave the network its expected ratings victory for the week and a boost for its most popular series, “The X-Files.”

The newly competitive race for evening news supremacy also ended in a dead heat between ABC and NBC for the week ending Sunday, Nielsen Media Research reported.

Compared to past Super Bowls, Fox’s broadcast of the Green Bay-New England contest was a middling success. Its 43.3 rating ranked the telecast 17th among the 31 football championship games to date.

Yet it was a landmark as Fox’s most-watched program ever, and its weekly rating was second only to the network’s performance during the World Series last October. “The X-Files” episode shown after the game was the sixth-rated show of the week, its best outing ever.

Fox finished the week with a 14.5 rating and 23 share. Season leader NBC was second with a 9.9 rating and 16 share, followed by CBS’s 8.5 rating and 14 share. ABC finished fourth with an 8.1 rating and 13 share.

A rating point represents 970,000 households, or 1 percent of the nation’s estimated 97 million TV homes. The share is the percentage of televisions in use and tuned to a show during a specific period.

Prime-time ratings as compiled by Nielsen Media Research for the week ending Jan. 26. Listings include the week’s ranking, (season-to-date rankings in parentheses), with rating for the week and total homes. An “X” in parentheses denotes one-time-only presentation.

1. (X) “Super Bowl XXXI,” Fox, 43.3, 42 million homes.

2. (X) “Fox Super Bowl Post Game,” Fox, 29.8, 28.9 million homes.

3. (1) “ER,” NBC, 24.5, 23.8 million homes.

4. (2) “Seinfeld,” NBC, 20.4, 19.8 million homes.

5. (3) “Naked Truth,” NBC, 18.1, 17.5 million homes.

6. (17) “X-Files,” Fox, 17.2, 16.7 million homes.

7. (5) “Friends,” NBC, 16.4, 15.9 million homes.

8. (7) “Single Guy,” NBC, 15.0, 14.6 million homes.

9. (13) “Frasier,” NBC, 13.6, 13.2 million homes.

9. (11) “NYPD Blue,” ABC, 13.6, 13.2 million homes.

11. (15) “PrimeTime Live,” ABC, 13.5, 13.1 million homes.

12. (15) “Cosby,” CBS, 12.7, 12.3 million homes.

13. (11) “20/20,” ABC, 12.5, 12.1 million homes.

14. (21) “Mad About You,” NBC, 12.2, 11.8 million homes.

15. (17) “Caroline in the City,” NBC, 12.1, 11.7 million homes.

15. (8) “Home Improvement,” ABC, 12.1, 11.7 million homes.

17. (17) “Dateline NBC (Tuesday),” NBC, 11.3, 11.0 million homes.

18. (32) “Something So Right,” NBC, 11.2, 10.9 million homes.

19. (28) “Chicago Hope,” CBS, 11.1, 10.8 million homes.

20. (34) “CBS Tuesday Movie: A Child’s Wish,” CBS, 11.0, 10.7 million homes.

20. (25) “Cybill,” CBS, 11.0, 10.7 million homes.