TV Ratings : Thursday Night Lineup Powers Resurgence by NBC

Behind its surging Thursday night lineup, NBC finished a strong second in the prime-time ratings last week and overtook CBS in the season-to-date standings as well, trailing ABC in both instances. ABC had five of the Top 10 shows.

And Fox, despite finishing fourth, tied its best weekly ratings ever, according to figures released Tuesday by the A.C. Nielsen Co.

NBC’s “ER,” which co-stars Anthony Edwards as an emergency room physician, topped the Nielsen chart, but the network also was aided by ABC, whose three-hour telecast of the American

Music Awards KO’d CBS’ normally strong Monday lineup. The awards ranked ninth among the week’s 98 prime-time network programs, while CBS’ “Murphy Brown” was 49th and “Cybill” was 60th. CBS, the defending prime-time champion, had only one show in the Top 10.

Fox, meanwhile, registered best-ever ratings for “The X-Files,” “New York Undercover” and its Tuesday movie, “The O.J. Simpson Story,” which ranked 36th overall. The network’s ratings are 8% higher this season than last.

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Southland Ratings

Here are A. C. Nielsen’s Top 10 prime-time programs in the Los Angeles area during the same week. Each rating point equals 50,064 households.

Program Network Rating 1. Seinfeld KNBC 26.8 2. ER KNBC 23.1 3. Mad About You KNBC 21.5 4. 60 Minutes KCBS 21.2 5. Home Improvement KABC 20.5 6. “American Music Awards” KABC 19.2 7. Grace Under Fire KABC 18.9 8. Married ... With Children KTTV 18.4 9. Roseanne KABC 17.3 10. Married/With Children (8:30 p.m.) KTTV 16.8

Weekly Averages ABC: 12.8 NBC: 12.4 CBS: 11.0 FOX: 9.1 UPN: 4.4 WB: 1.8

Season to Date ABC: 12.2 NBC: 11.5 CBS: 11.4 FOX: 7.8 UPN: 6.0 WB: 2.0 Source: A.C. Neilsen