TV Ratings : NBC Grabs 10 of the Top 15 Spots

The official prime-time season is over, and perhaps none too soon for ratings champion ABC, which finished second last week as hard-charging NBC placed 10 shows among the Top 15, with “Seinfeld” at No. 1.

Included among those 10, as reported in figures released Tuesday by the A.C. Nielsen Co., were the Tuesday and Wednesday installments of “Dateline NBC,” the newsmagazine hosted by Jane Pauley and Stone Phillips. And the Friday edition, which focused on the bombing in Oklahoma City, tied for 19th, winning its 9-10 p.m. slot for the first time.

Even sweeter for NBC was the fact that three of

its top-performing programs--”ER,” “Friends” and “Hope & Gloria”--are in their first season. Two other newcomers--”NewsRadio” and “In the House”--also won their time slots among the coveted audience of 18- to 49-year-olds, the network said.

Other newsmagazines also seemed to benefit from public interest in the fatal explosion in Oklahoma last week. CBS’ “60 Minutes” ranked fourth among the week’s 97 prime-time network programs, while ABC’s “PrimeTime Live” was fifth and ABC’s “20/20” was seventh.

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 Station Rating 1.Seinfeld KNBC 19.0 2.60 Minutes KCBS 18.2 3.Frasier KNBC 17.8 4.Friends KNBC 17.7 5.ER KNBC 16.4 6.Hope & Gloria (9:30 p.m.) KNBC 15.6 7.Hope & Gloria KNBC 15.4 8.Dateline NBC (Tues.) KNBC 14.4 9.Dateline NBC (Wed.) KNBC 13.9 10.Home Improvement KABC 13.9

Weekly Averages

NBC: 11.3

ABC: 10.7

CBS: 8.9

FOX: 6.0

UPN: 3.6

WB: 1.7

Season to Date

ABC: 12.0

NBC: 11.5

CBS: 11.0

FOX: 7.6

UPN: 4.2

WB: 1.9