TV Ratings : NBC Closes In on Season’s Prime-Time Title

When you’re hot, you’re hot. And NBC is. Four of its Thursday night hits offered reruns last week and they still topped the ratings list released Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research, with “Seinfeld” at No. 1. NBC placed six other shows among the Top 15 and handily won the prime-time competition.

In previous years, NBC also would have been crowned Tuesday as the prime-time champion. Last week was the 30th week of the season, and that used to mark the official end of the campaign. But the four major networks recently decided not to declare a winner until the end of May, noting that they continue to air a lot of original programming through that month’s sweeps.

So NBC’s official celebration will have to wait, though there seems little doubt that it will maintain its lead and capture its first prime-time title since the 1990-91 season.

Especially since the second-place network, ABC, finished third last week in the household ratings (but second among the 18- to 49-year-old viewers that most advertisers prize).

Meanwhile, despite some excellent reviews, Fox’s drama series “Profit” premiered at No. 83 overall, attracting only 9% of the available audience.

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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. Seinfeld KNBC 19.9 2. Friends KNBC 19.5 3. Frasier KNBC 17.5 4. Boston Common KNBC 16.3 5. ER KNBC 16.2 6. Caroline in the City KNBC 15.9 7. 3rd Rock From the Sun KNBC 15.1 - 60 Minutes KCBS 15.1 9. The X-Files KTTV 14.7 10. “Turning Point: Fugitive Son” KABC 14.3

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Weekly Averages

NBC: 10.3

CBS: 9.3

ABC: 8.9

FOX: 6.2

UPN: 2.9

WB: 2.3

Season to Date

NBC: 11.7

ABC: 10.8

CBS: 9.6

FOX: 7.4

UPN: 3.2

WB: 2.5

Source: A. C. Nielsen