CBS Finds ‘Price’ Is Right on Sunday Night

Ratings for NBC, CBS and ABC inched upward last week to their best results since mid-June, buoyed by newsmagazines, prime-time sports and an original movie, according to figures issued Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research.

CBS helped its cause with “The Price of Heaven,” starring Grant Show and Cicely Tyson, which delivered the network’s biggest Sunday movie audience in six weeks. In addition, “60 Minutes” scored its highest rating since April.

Despite vast media exposure, ABC’s replay of the Mike Tyson-Evander Holyfield fight was a knockout, giving the network its highest 10 p.m. Thursday rating since May and nearly equaling number of men watching time-period winner “ER.” ABC’s “Monday Night Football” also attracted nearly 4 million more viewers than Fox’s Friday game.

In terms of preseason scheduling games, ABC ran “Spin City” Wednesday sandwiched between two episodes of “The Drew Carey Show.” The Michael J. Fox sitcom easily beat “Murphy Brown,” which is showing its age based on the show’s performance this summer.

Beyond struggling in prime time, ABC’s ratings woes extended to nightly news last week, with “World News Tonight” finishing third for the first time since 1988.

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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: 10.34 million

CBS: 9.84

ABC: 9.19

FOX: 7.25

UPN: 3.98

WB: 3.14

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Season to Date

NBC: 14.08 million

CBS: 12.71

ABC: 12.22

FOX: 10.42

UPN: 4.23

WB: 3.50

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. 60 Minutes KCBS 682,057 2. Seinfeld KNBC 617,805 3. The X-Files KTTV 588,150 4. “Holyfield vs. Tyson II” KABC 568,381 5. ER KNBC 543,668 6. Dateline NBC (Mon.) KNBC 533,784 -- Frasier KNBC 533,784 -- 3rd Rock From the Sun KNBC 533,784 9. Dateline NBC (Tue.) KNBC 518,956 -- NYPD Blue KABC 518,956 -- 20/20 KABC 518,956 -- Touched by an Angel KCBS 518,956

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Source: Nielsen Media Research