ABC’s Belles of the Ball

“Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella” and a movie starring Oprah Winfrey worked their magic on ABC’s ratings Sunday, while NBC’s heavily promoted miniseries “House of Frankenstein” became a monster mashed.

A lavish musical starring Brandy and Whitney Houston, “Cinderella” exceeded all expectations by conjuring up the week’s fourth-highest rating. Based on preliminary results from Nielsen Media Research, “Cinderella” was seen in more than 18.4 million homes nationwide--by far the highest movie rating this season, helping ABC to its best Sunday night numbers in more than a decade.

That audience carried into Winfrey’s “Before Women Had Wings,” which delivered 18.6 million homes from 9 to 11 p.m. By contrast, “House of Frankenstein” finished a distant fourth, with just 8.5 million households watching, doubtless hurt by the season premiere of Fox’s “The X-Files,” which attracted nearly 16 million homes--a record for that program.

NBC came out the night’s big loser, with CBS ranking second for the evening behind its lineup of “60 Minutes,” “Touched by an Angel” and a “Murder, She Wrote” movie, which drew more than 12.7 million households.

The top-rated entry thus far in the revived “Wonderful World of Disney” franchise, “Cinderella” represents a major boost for ABC, especially since it comes during the first week of the November ratings sweeps, which TV stations use to determine advertising rates.

Producer Craig Zadan--who with partner Neil Meron did CBS’ high-rated 1993 version of “Gypsy,” starring Bette Midler--said the ratings may also have saved the concept of TV musicals after ABC’s “Bye Bye Birdie” revival did poorly two years ago.

In fact, Zadan said Disney has asked the producers to do one major TV musical each season. After “Bye Bye, Birdie,” he said, “people said ‘Gypsy’ was a fluke. Now the door has been flung open.”

Disney spent roughly $12 million to produce “Cinderella”--more than three times the usual budget on a made-for-TV movie--and millions more to promote the telecast.