Nbc Nabs One More ‘Sweeps’ Win

Behind the miniseries “Asteroid,” the broadcast premiere of “Schindler’s List” and its powerful Thursday night lineup, NBC cruised to its ninth straight “sweeps” win in February.

The network claimed an average 11.2 million television households, followed by CBS (9.7 million), ABC (9.3 million) and Fox (7.7 million).

But Fox placed second in viewers aged 18 to 49 - highly prized by advertisers - in what network president Peter Roth called “a red-letter day for our company.”

Don Ohlmeyer, NBC’s West Coast president, said much of the Fox sweeps schedule consisted of such reality shows as “World’s Scariest Police Chases” - “most of which we would try not to put on the air.”

Conducted by the networks three times a year, sweeps are four-week periods of intensive audience measurement that help local affiliates set advertising rates.

NBC had the seven highest-rated shows for the week ending last Sunday, including the commercial-free airing of “Schindler’s List” (No. 3), the finale of the two-part “Asteroid” (No. 4) and its regular Thursday slate: “ER” (No. 1), “Seinfeld” (No. 2), “Friends” (No. 5), “Naked Truth” (No. 6) and “The Single Guy” (No. 7).

“Schindler’s List,” Steven Spielberg’s Holocaust epic, was the highest-rated big-screen movie on any network since NBC aired Spielberg’s “Jurassic Park” in 1995.

Overall, NBC racked up a hefty 13.1 in household ratings for the week and a 21 share of audience. ABC was 3 million TV homes behind with a 10.0 rating and 16 share, Nielsen said, followed by CBS with a 9.5 rating and 16 share, and Fox with a 7.6 rating and 12 share.

A rating point represents 970,000 households, or 1 percent of the nation’s estimated 97 million TV homes. Share is the percentage of those televisions tuned to a given show during a specified time period.