TV Ratings : Help From ‘Friends’ Doesn’t Push NBC Past ABC

NBC once again had the top three shows, but ABC captured the rest of the Top 10 spots and won the network prime-time competition last week, according to figures released Thursday by Nielsen Media Research. CBS and NBC tied for second.

In a week dominated by reruns, the highest-rated first-run broadcast was the ABC news special “Common Sense With John Stossel,” which ranked sixth among the week’s 101 prime-time network programs, just ahead of another ABC news show, “20/20.”

“Friends” was the most-watched program of the week, both locally and nationally. The NBC sitcom was seen in about 15.5 million homes nationwide.

Overall viewing levels continued to be low, as usually happens during the summer, with only 13 programs attracting at least 20% of the available audience. ABC’s lineup averaged only a 17% share, while CBS and NBC were at 15% and Fox at a paltry 9%. Fox’s highest-rated program was “Living Single” at No. 57.

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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 20.0 2. Seinfeld KNBC 17.6 3. ER KNBC 17.1 4. Home Improvement KABC 16.6 5. Coach KABC 13.2 6. 60 Minutes KCBS 12.2 7. Dateline NBC (Wed.) KNBC 12.1 8. “Dead Before Dawn” KABC 12.0 9. Dateline NBC (Tue.) KNBC 11.9 10. 20/20 KABC 11.6

Weekly Averages ABC: 8.5 NBC: 7.8 CBS: 7.8 FOX: 4.4 UPN: 2.3 WB: 1.6

Season to Date ABC: 11.5 NBC: 11.1 CBS: 10.4 FOX: 7.1 UPN: 3.7 WB: 1.8 Source: A.C. Nielsen