Nbc Tops Weekly Ratings

Television viewers yearned for something new last week, rewarding newsmagazines and the premiere of “Roar,” a Fox series set in 400 A.D., with strong Nielsen Media Research rankings.

Six newsmagazines finished among Nielsen’s top 10 shows, including CBS’s “48 Hours.” Dan Rather’s show made its first top 10 appearance since 1994 despite competing against NBC’s “ER.”

NBC won the week with a 7.2 rating and 14 share, followed by CBS’s 6.8 rating and 13 share, ABC’s 6.4 rating and 12 share and Fox’s 4.7 rating and 9 share.

“Roar” finished tied for 22nd last week, winning its time slot against reruns on ABC, CBS and NBC. New episodes of “Pacific Palisades” and the reality-based show, “Beyond Belief” have improved upon Fox’s performance in their time slots this summer, he said.

Freshness isn’t the only factor for Fox: DeRome conceded the network’s Sunday night schedule, with “The X-Files” and “The Simpsons” in repeats, is much stronger than last summer’s Sundays. And the new “Ruby Wax Show” on Monday nights was a dismal failure.

For the week of July 14-20, the top 10 shows, their networks and ratings, were:

“Seinfeld,” NBC, 11.5; “PrimeTime Live,” ABC, 11.4; “Dateline NBC-Tuesday,” NBC, 11.1; “ER,” NBC, 10.9; “Dateline NBC-Monday,” NBC, 10.3; “Suddenly Susan,” NBC, 10.3; “20/20,” ABC, 10.2; “Touched By an Angel,” CBS, 10.0; “48 Hours,” CBS, 9.7; “60 Minutes,” CBS, 9.6.