Heavy Hitters Help NBC Overcome Specials’ Challenge

Holiday specials provided only marginal cheer in last week’s ratings, while NBC’s “ER” and “Seinfeld” delivered the real goods, based on results issued Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research.

Beyond those NBC mainstays, CBS also continued its string of strong Sunday movies with the Hallmark presentation “Ellen Foster,” starring Jena Malone, though ABC still managed respectable numbers for “Holiday in Your Heart,” its competing movie featuring teen country sensation LeAnn Rimes.

CBS emerged as the most-watched network Friday with “Frosty the Snowman,” “The Story of Santa Claus” and a Kathie Lee Gifford special, which actually beat ABC’s “20/20.” Other Christmas specials didn’t fare nearly as well, however, including the little-seen “Christmas Miracles” and “Santa vs. the Snowman.”

A puny audience by network standards also watched “The Tony Danza Show,” which NBC decided to cancel after last week’s telecast; by contrast, more than twice as many people tuned in ABC’s “Dharma & Greg,” which aired opposite “Danza” and delivered its second-highest rating thus far.

In addition, two second-year dramas--NBC’s “The Pretender” and WB’s “Buffy, the Vampire Slayer”--attracted their biggest audiences last week.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

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: 14.38 million

CBS: 13.39

ABC: 12.82

FOX: 10.86

WB: 4.59

UPN 4.34

Season to Date

NBC: 15.27 million

CBS: 14.15

ABC: 13.18

FOX: 10.97

UPN 4.60

WB: 4.36

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

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.

*--*

Program Station Households 1. Seinfeld KNBC 1,112,049 2. ER KNBC 971,791 3. Friends KNBC 911,680 4. 60 Minutes KCBS 851,569 -- The X-Files KTTV 851,569 6. Veronica’s Closet KNBC 831,532 7. NYPD Blue KABC 726,338 8. Union Square KNBC 701,292 9. “Billboard Music Awards” KTTV 696,283 10. Frasier KNBC 626,154

*--*

Source: Nielsen Media Research