A Tiger Gives CBS a Boost but NBC Still Rules

Tiger Woods’ record-setting performance at the Masters golf tournament pitched CBS out of the ratings bunker, as golf’s spill-over into prime time on the East Coast helped lift the network to second place in the weekly scorecard issued Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research.

NBC was still last week’s ratings champ, as “ER” returned from its spring vacation to emerge as the top-rated show, more than doubling combined viewing of ABC and CBS news programs in its time period. The network’s “Fired Up,” starring “NYPD Blue’s” Sharon Lawrence, premiered after “Seinfeld” with results about on par with those for previous occupants of that coveted slot.

In terms of other series premieres, Fox’s latest Aaron Spelling soap, “Pacific Palisades,” won its time period with viewers age 18-34 but attracted fewer people than “Party of Five” recently has in that hour, while ABC’s dramas “Gun” and “Leaving L.A.” got off to slow starts on Saturday. And CBS’ “Orleans” continues to do poorly, losing nearly 30% of the audience that watched “JAG.”

CBS also experimented with some success airing “Chicago Hope” and “Early Edition” in place of its Sunday movie. Programmers are considering a shift to series that night next season, seeking to break up the three-way movie logjam on ABC, CBS and NBC.

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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 13.93 million

CBS 13.04

ABC 10.76

FOX 9.68

UPN 4.40

WB 3.30

Season to Date

NBC 15.26 million

CBS 13.79

ABC 13.59

FOX 11.81

UPN 4.25

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. ER KNBC 1,201,013 2. Seinfeld KNBC 1,171,358 3. Fired Up KNBC 963,776 4. Friends KNBC 929,179 5. The X-Files KTTV 830,330 6. Suddenly Susan KNBC 815,503 7. 60 Minutes KCBS 711,711 8. PrimeTime Live KABC 677,114 9. Home Improvement KABC 657,345 10. Dateline NBC (Tue.) KNBC 637,575

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