TV Ratings

NBC breezed to another easy weekly ratings win and holds a virtually unassailable November ratings sweeps lead, according to results issued Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research.

Meanwhile, a close battle for second place in homes is shaping up between CBS and ABC. The former ran a solid second last week, thanks in part to the reunion movie “Dallas: J.R. Returns,” which shot down the network’s highest Friday rating since February 1995.

With “Roseanne” sinking to a record low for an original episode and disastrous results Saturday, ABC saw its overall results drop nearly 20% compared to the same week a year ago. The few bright spots included “The Drew Carey Show,” which built by an impressive 17% on the show it currently follows, “Grace Under Fire,” and “PrimeTime Live,” which crowned its highest rating since January thanks to an interview with Duchess of York Sarah Ferguson.

ABC won the Sunday movie race, with “For Hope,” starring Dana Delany, toppling CBS’ “Titanic” and helping drop “The X-Files” to its lowest Sunday rating in four tries. The season premiere of Fox’s “Ned and Stacey” also got off to a rocky start, losing more than 20% of viewers who watched its lead-in, “The Simpsons.”

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 49,464 households.

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Program Station Rating 1. ER KNBC 24.8 2. Seinfeld KNBC 22.9 3. Friends KNBC 19.9 4. Suddenly Susan KNBC 17.4 5. Frasier KNBC 16.7 6. The Single Guy KNBC 16.4 7. “Pandora’s Clock” Pt. 2 KNBC 16.0 8. The X-Files KTTV 15.9 9. NYPD Blue KABC 15.1 10. Caroline in the City KNBC 14.6

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Weekly Averages

NBC: 11.8

CBS: 10.7

ABC: 9.6

FOX: 6.9

UPN: 3.7

WB: 2.8

Season to Date

NBC: 11.0

CBS: 10.1

ABC: 9.8

FOX: 8.4

UPN: 3.4

WB: 2.8