Gibson’s ‘Face’ Gives CBS a Sunday Smile

Mel Gibson brought some ratings muscle to prime time last week, with CBS’ showing of “The Man Without a Face” delivering the biggest Sunday movie audience for any network since May, according to results issued Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research.

NBC still ranked first thanks to its Thursday lineup and to “Dateline NBC,” as news programs remain hot in general. ABC’s John Stossel-hosted special, “Freeloaders,” for example, drew more viewers than the previous week’s Mike Tyson-Evander Holyfield fight replay in the same time slot and proved competitive with NBC’s “ER.”

Another special, the Miss Teen USA Pageant, received its highest Nielsen score in three years, waltzing off with CBS’ best Wednesday night figures in three months.

NBC keeps running “3rd Rock From the Sun” and “Men Behaving Badly” twice weekly, and the two sitcoms not surprisingly fared considerably better Thursday (where they followed “Friends” and “Seinfeld”) than Sunday--getting out-rated that night by both “Touched by an Angel” and Fox’s “The Simpsons” and “King of the Hill.”

In nightly news, ABC’s “World News Tonight” rebounded from its only third-place finish since 1988 with a solid second-place performance behind 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: 11.04 million

CBS: 10.17

ABC: 9.45

FOX: 6.89

UPN: 4.30

WB: 3.23

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Season to Date

NBC: 14.02 million

CBS: 12.65

ABC: 12.16

FOX: 10.35

UPN: 4.24

WB: 3.49

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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 691,942 60 Minutes KCBS 691,942 3. Dateline NBC (Mon.) KNBC 682,057 4. “John Stossel Special” KABC 642,517 5. Dateline NBC (Fri.) KNBC 617,805 6. PrimeTime Live KABC 612,863 7. Friends KNBC 588,150 8. Touched by an Angel KCBS 583,208 “The Man Without a Face” KCBS 583,208 10. Dateline NBC (Tue.) KNBC 573,323 20/20 KABC 573,323

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