TV Ratings : ‘ER’ Flattens ‘Murder One’; NBC Moves Into First

There was lots of baseball and football on television last week, but the most decisive victory scored on the tube was off the playing fields: NBC’s “ER,” co-starring George Clooney, registered a knockout against ABC’s “Murder One.”

ABC executives had no illusions about their first-year legal drama beating the runaway medical hit; their hope was that “Murder One” would steal away some viewers and defuse “ER’s” momentum.

Instead, in their first matchup last Thursday, “ER” drew three times as many viewers as”Murder One” and wound up in the same No. 1 spot that it had occupied the week before, according to figures released Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research. “Murder One” tied for 51st and didn’t make a dent in “ER’s” ratings. “ER” also was No. 1 locally.

Strong ratings for all of NBC’s Thursday night programs helped propel the network to its second consecutive weekly win and moved it into first place for the 4-week-old prime-time season. It also is first among the 18-to-49-year-old audience most coveted by advertisers.

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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. ER KNBC 24.5 2. Seinfeld KNBC 22.8 3. Friends KNBC 19.1 4. The Single Guy KNBC 17.3 5. Caroline in the City KNBC 17.1 6. The X-Files KTTV 16.8 7. Frasier KNBC 16.5 8. Wings KNBC 16.1 9. Chicago Hope KCBS 14.9 10. 20/20 KABC 14.4

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Weekly Averages

NBC: 13.1

ABC: 11.4

CBS: 9.2

FOX: 7.1

UPN: 3.4

WB: 2.5

Season to Date

NBC: 11.8

ABC: 11.6

CBS: 9.6

FOX: 7.3

UPN: 3.3

WB: 2.2

Source A. C. Nielsen