TV Ratings : ABC Tops the Field in a Slow, Summer Week

Last week was the first official week of summer and the TV ratings reflected it, with all four networks 28% off their season averages. During the time of year when repeats dominate, ABC won the week in household ratings--with six of the Top 10 shows--followed by CBS and NBC, tied for second, and Fox. NBC’s “Friends,” with Courteney Cox, was the No. 1-rated show of the week.

ABC was aided by fresh episodes of its newsmagazines “20/20” and “PrimeTime Live,” which ranked No. 3 and No. 7, respectively.

The week was so slow that Fox was boasting about Game 4 of the Stanley Cup finals, which tied the 1990 All-Star game as the highest-rated National Hockey League broadcast since 1980. That’s not saying much. In households, the telecast ranked No. 85 among a total of 100 prime-time programs on the networks, and that includes shows on the fledgling UPN and WB networks.

Meanwhile, if anybody’s looking for NBC’s summer series “High Sierra Search and Rescue,” it can be found in need of life support on Wednesday nights, where it ranked No. 77 last week. Among other series the networks are testing out this summer, Fox’s “The Wildest Dreams” fared best at No. 55, while CBS’ “Christy,” with Kellie Martin, ranked No. 59.

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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. Friends KNBC 16.8 2. Seinfeld KNBC 15.6 3. Home Improvement KABC 14.9 4. ER KABC 14.0 5. Grace Under Fire KABC 13.2 -- Ellen KABC 13.2 7. Murder, She Wrote KCBS 13.0 -- 20/20 KABC 13.0 9. The Simpsons KTTV 12.9 10. 60 Minutes KCBS 12.7

Weekly Averages ABC: 9.2 NBC: 7.9 CBS: 7.9 FOX: 4.5 UPN: 2.3 WB: 1.9

Season to Date ABC: 11.6 NBC: 11.2 CBS: 10.5 FOX: 7.2 UPN: 3.7 WB: 1.8 Source: A. C. Nielsen