NBC Loses Its Grasp on Prime-Time Ratings

A dramatic reversal of fortune has suddenly occurred in the normally arid subject of network TV ratings. NBC, the network that has seemed invincible in prime time since 1984, has fallen to third place for the past three weeks.

For the week ended Jan. 27, NBC attracted 11.6% of households with television, slightly behind the 12.1% for CBS and a full four rating points behind the week’s leader, ABC.

This year is shaping up to be one of the closest prime-time ratings races in network history. And NBC, which looked to be the hands-down winner at the start of the season, now faces the prospect of winning by a fraction of a ratings point, if at all.

Prime-time ratings are important because they set the stage for network profitability in years to come. The difference of one rating point can be worth $100 million in advertising revenues.

“What it comes down to is NBC has lost its leadership position,” said David Poltrack, senior vice president for planning and research at CBS. “The winner each week now is the network which has done better in its movie slots.”

Poltrack said the three networks are neck-and-neck when it comes to their regularly scheduled series programs. Increasingly, the deciding factor has been the movies or specials that all three networks run on Sunday night.

Last Sunday, for example, a Hallmark Hall of Fame special on CBS attracted 25.2% of TV households in preliminary overnight ratings--a high rating for a movie or special. (Complete national ratings for the week ended Sunday will be released today.)

NBC’s dramatic slippage in the past three weeks is partly due to the preemption of high-rated entertainment shows for Persian Gulf War coverage and ABC’s broadcast of the Super Bowl on Jan. 27, which attracted a 41.8% rating, or 79.3 million viewers.

“War has wreaked havoc on our schedule with viewing habits,” said an NBC official who asked not to be named. The official said war coverage has made it difficult for the network to promote some its key mid-season programming moves.

Nonetheless, the longer-term trend this year has been NBC’s gradual decline in viewers, which has been exacerbated by an improved CBS performance on Monday nights.