TV Ratings : Emmys Slip Compared to ‘94, but Win Big in L.A. Area

R atings for Sunday night’s Emmy Awards tele cast on Fox were 15% lower than the 1994 show on ABC and the lowest for any Emmy show since 1990, according to figures released Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research.

Still, the three-hour ceremony, hosted by Cybill Shepherd and Jason Alexander, outperformed the competition and ranked No. 6 among the week’s 95 prime-time network programs, reaching about 11.9 million homes in the United States. And it was No. 1 locally, attracting 30% of the available Southern California audience.

Nationally, ABC’s “Monday Night Football” game between the Cowboys and Giants was No. 1, with an average tune-in of nearly 17 million homes.

Meanwhile, Fox got good results with two new series. “The Crew,” in its second outing last Thursday night, finished second in its time period. And “The Preston Episodes,” premiering Saturday, also ran second in its time slot.

Of course, competition will pick up this week and next as ABC, CBS and NBC roll out their fall lineups. The season officially begins Monday.

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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.

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Program Network Rating 1. Emmy Awards KTTV 20.2 2. Seinfeld KNBC 18.4 3. 60 Minutes KCBS 15.5 4. Home Improvement KABC 14.9 5. Mad About You KNBC 14.3 6. ER KNBC 14.2 7. Frasier KNBC 13.3 8. Hope & Gloria KNBC 12.7 9. Barbara Walters Special KABC 12.4 10. Friends KNBC 12.3

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Weekly Averages

ABC: 9.6

NBC: 8.5

CBS: 7.6

FOX: 7.2

UPN: 3.6

WB: 2.3

Season to Date

ABC: 10.9

NBC: 10.6

CBS: 9.9

FOX: 6.8

UPN: 3.4

WB: 1.9

Source: A.C. Nielsen