TV Ratings : ‘Beatles’ Fades; ‘Football,’ With Elvis, Is No. 1

Beatlemania, such as it was, faded quickly on TV last week. While the opening installment of ABC’s three-part “Beatles Anthology” attracted about 27.3 million viewers nationwide, Part 2 dropped to 21.7 million and Part 3 to 18.3 million. The latter, on Thanksgiving, was outdrawn by repeats of “Home Alone” and “ER” on NBC.

Instead, it was ABC’s “Monday Night Football” that topped the ratings released Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research. The Nov. 20 game at Joe Robbie Stadium between San Francisco and Miami, in which reserve 49ers quarterback Elvis Grbac threw for four touchdowns, was seen inabout 17.7 million homes.

“Turning Point,” which featured a revealing interview with Princess Diana that ABC acquired from British television for a reported $1 million, won its time period Friday night and ranked 16th among the week’s 93 prime-time network programs. ABC’s “20/20” was fourth.

NBC won the weekly network competition both in households and among the 18- to 49-year-old viewers prized by advertisers. Its repeat of “Jurassic Park” ranked seventh and Part 2 of its TV movie “Dead by Sunset” was eighth.

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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. “Beatles Anthology” Part 2 KABC 18.0 2. ER KNBC 17.6 - Friends (Tues.) KNBC 17.6 4. Frasier KNBC 17.3 5. NYPD Blue KABC 15.8 - 20/20 KABC 15.8 7. 60 Minutes KCBS 15.4 8. The Simpsons KTTV 14.9 - “Beatles Anthology” Part 3 KABC 14.9 10. Turning Point KABC 14.5

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Weekly Averages

NBC: 12.3

ABC: 11.7

CBS: 9.3

FOX: 6.9

UPN: 2.8

WB: 2.2

Season to Date

NBC: 12.1

ABC: 11.8

CBS: 9.5

FOX: 7.4

UPN: 3.3

WB: 2.3

Source: A. C. Nielsen