Nbc Scores Hit With Series Coverage

Fri., Oct. 31, 1997

Associated Press

World Series ratings may have been lackluster compared with past years but were strong enough to propel NBC to its most decisive weekly win of the television season - even without “Seinfeld” and “ER.”

The Cleveland-Florida World Series had a 16.8 average rating, Nielsen Media Research said Tuesday. That’s the second lowest of any World Series measured, behind the 16.4 rating for the Oakland-San Francisco “earthquake” series of 1989.

Baseball finished strong, however. Sunday’s seventh game had a 24.5 rating and 39 share, by far the best performance of the World Series.

The five games broadcast last week were the top five shows in the weekly ratings. NBC is used to occupying those positions with its Thursday night entertainment lineup and had initially been worried about the shows being knocked off the air by baseball.

For the week, NBC had a 14.9 rating and 25 share. CBS was a distant second with a 9.6 rating and 16 share, followed by ABC’s 8.3 rating and 14 share and Fox’s 7.0 rating and 11 share.

“Murphy Brown’s” brush with breast cancer doesn’t seem to have attracted many sympathetic viewers. The CBS show was tied for 52nd last week, beaten decisively in its time slot by ABC’s new fun couple, “Dharma and Greg.”

ABC’s struggling “Nothing Sacred” couldn’t take advantage of the absence of “Friends” last Thursday, finishing 83rd for the week.

Prime time ratings as compiled by Nielsen Media Research for Oct. 20-26. Top 10 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 97 million TV homes. Each ratings point represents 980,000 households.

1. (X) “NBC World Series Game 7: Cleveland at Florida” NBC, 24.5, 23.8 million homes

2. (X) “NBC World Series Game 5: Florida at Cleveland” NBC, 17.2, 16.7 million homes

3. (X) “NBC World Series Game 3: Florida at Cleveland” NBC, 15.6, 15.1 million homes

4. (X) “NBC World Series Game 4: Florida at Cleveland” NBC, 15.5, 15.0 million homes

4. (X) “NBC World Series Game 6: Cleveland at Florida” NBC, 15.5, 15.0 million homes

6. (14) “CBS Sunday Movie: Miracle In The Woods,” CBS, 14.9, 14.5 million homes

7. (9) “Touched By An Angel,” CBS, 14.3, 13.9 million homes

8. (13) “60 Minutes,” CBS, 13.8, 13.4 million homes

9. (X) “NBC World Series Pre-Game 7” NBC, 13.1, 12.7 million homes

10. (7) “NFL Monday Night Football: Buffalo at Indianapolis,” ABC, 12.8, 12.4 million homes

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