Super Bowl Pushes Nbc To Top

By a football field, the ratings winner is NBC. The Super Bowl drew television’s biggest-ever audience for one program, allowing NBC to dominate its competitors with the best network rating in a non-Olympic week since 1991.

NBC also posted its biggest non-Olympic lead over a second-place finisher in 16 years, attracting nearly double ABC’s audience.

With nine of the top 10 programs for Jan. 22-28, NBC scored an 18.2 average rating and 29 share, according to Nielsen Media Research figures Tuesday. NBC’s season-to-date average, by comparison, is 12.0.

The Super Bowl, the kickoff and the post-game show held the top three spots, while a post-Super Bowl “Friends” special was the week’s top-rated entertainment program at No. 4.

Sunday’s Dallas Cowboys 27-17 victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers was watched by an estimated total audience of 138,488,000, the most people ever to watch a single TV program, NBC said.

Only the ABC news magazine “PrimeTime Live” managed to break NBC’s monopoly on the top 10. CBS’ best performer was “Chicago Hope” at No. 14, while Fox’s “The X-Files,” in the 31st spot, was that network’s leader.

For the week, ABC had a 9.5 rating and 15 share, followed by third-place CBS’ 8.7 rating and 14 share.

Fox Broadcasting Co., which programs 15 of the 22 prime-time hours, posted a 6.1 rating and 9 share.