NBC’s ‘Truth’ Slips While Fox’s Promos Pay Off

NBC scored a routine prime-time ratings win last week behind the strength of “ER” and “Seinfeld” but watched “The Naked Truth’s” ratings cloak unravel a bit, according to results issued Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research.

“Naked Truth,” the sitcom starring Tea Leoni, ranked in the Top 5 overall but lost nearly a quarter of “Seinfeld’s” viewers--its worst retention of that audience in three tries.

By contrast, all those on-air promos during the Super Bowl appeared to yield dividends for Fox, as its new animated series, “King of the Hill,” actually exceeded “The Simpsons”’ audience--an unprecedented feat for any show scheduled in that slot.

“Millennium” also unearthed its best rating since early November, while the special “World’s Scariest Police Chases” ran down big numbers at 7 p.m. Sunday, doing particularly well in the Los Angeles area.

Among early scheduling stunts for the February ratings sweeps, Andy Griffith’s guest shot as Matlock on CBS’ “Diagnosis Murder,” starring Dick Van Dyke, produced that show’s highest rating in nearly two years. Meanwhile, ABC’s “Family Matters” posted a season-low rating Friday--the same day it was announced that the long-running comedy will move to CBS next fall.

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Network Averages

Here is the number of viewers that each network averaged per hour of prime time, for last week and for the season.

Last Week

NBC: 15.84

ABC: 14.12

CBS: 13.81

FOX: 12.16

UPN: 4.18

WB: 3.74

Season to Date

NBC: 15.44

ABC: 13.94

CBS: 13.91

FOX: 12.28

UPN: 4.51

WB: 3.65

Southland Viewing

Here are Nielsen’s Top 10 prime-time programs in the Los Angeles area during the same week. The rankings are based on the number of households watching.

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Program Station Households 1.Seinfeld KNBC 1,181,243 2.ER KNBC 1,151,589 3.American Music Awards KABC 1,013,200 4.The X-Files KTTV 963,776 5.Friends KNBC 958,833 6.The Naked Truth KNBC 914,351 7.”Scariest Police Chases” KTTV 835,272 8.Home Improvement KABC 820,445 --The Simpsons KTTV 820,445 10. NYPD Blue KABC 790,790

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