Bombing Increases News Magazine Ratings
Widespread interest in the Oklahoma City bombing boosted viewership for most prime-time magazines last week, according to figures released Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research.
Six magazines - CBS’ “60 Minutes,” ABC’s “PrimeTime Live” and “20-20,” as well as NBC’s “Dateline” trio - landed within Nielsen’s top 20, and with significantly largely audiences than the week before, when only “60 Minutes,” “PrimeTime” and “20-20” cracked this winner’s circle.
Two other magazines, ABC’s “Day One” and CBS’ “48 Hours,” remained much lower down the list, in 42nd and 47th place respectively. They not only face each other on Thursday nights, they’re also up against NBC’s mega-hit “ER.”
In prime time for the week ending April 23, NBC, with “ER” and 10 other series in the top 20, won with an 11.3 rating and 19 share.
ABC was roughly a half-point behind with a 10.7 rating and 18 share. Way, way behind that, third-place CBS had an 8.9 rating and 15 share.
Fox Broadcasting Co., programming 15 of the 22 prime-time hours, had a 6 rating and 10 share.
In the evening news race, ABC’s “World News Tonight” notched its 137th first-place win of the last 138 weeks with a 10.9 rating and 22 share.
“NBC Nightly News” was second with an 8.5 rating and 17 share. “The CBS Evening News” scored an 8.0 rating and 16 share to rank third.
xxxx THE TOP 20 Here are the top 10 shows. 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. (1) “Seinfeld,” NBC, 19.3, 18.4 million homes 2. (2) “E.R.” NBC, 17.4, 16.6 million homes 2. (X) “Hope & Gloria,” NBC, 17.4, 16.6 million homes 4. (6) “60 Minutes,” CBS, 16.5, 15.7 million homes 5. “Primetime Live,” ABC, 16.2, 15.5 million homes 6. (X) “Friends,” NBC, 16.1, 15.4 million homes 7. (16) “20-20,” ABC, 15.9, 15.2 million homes 8. (3) “Home Improvement,” ABC, 15.8, 15.1 million homes 9. (13) “Hope & Gloria,” NBC, 15.2, 14.5 million homes 10. (15) “Frasier,” NBC, 14.7, 14.0 million homes