NBC Holds Reign Over a Weak Kingdom

The story of the new TV season is becoming a sad tale of mediocre ratings, with few new series catching on, based on results issued Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research.

The overall picture shows NBC still on top, but ratings--compared to last year--are down for every network except Fox, which ran three playoff baseball games last week, and WB. CBS took second place behind its Sunday lineup, getting a lift from the airline thriller “Final Descent,” starring Robert Urich.

ABC, which has introduced 10 new series, underscores the difficulty establishing shows: None of its five new dramas (“Timecop,” “Nothing Sacred,” “Cracker,” “C-16” and “Total Security”) has achieved respectable ratings, and the Friday night sitcoms “You Wish” and “Teen Angel” have failed to conjure up much ratings magic either.

Even NBC’s “Union Square” and ABC’s “Hiller and Diller”--which air after “Friends” and “Home Improvement,” respectively--have looked shaky, though the latter did score its highest rating yet last week with baseball preempting NBC’s “Just Shoot Me.”

Bright spots remain NBC’s “Veronica’s Closet” and ABC’s “Dharma & Greg,” which has consistently outrated the established show preceding it, “Spin City.” Fred Savage also got off to a promising start with his prime-time comeback, NBC’s “Working.”

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: 13.47 million

CBS: 12.89

ABC: 12.71

FOX: 11.24

UPN: 4.61

WB: 4.13

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Season to Date

NBC: 14.61 million

CBS: 13.68

ABC: 12.92

FOX: 10.21

UPN: 4.64

WB: 4.15

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 1,201,013 2. ER KNBC 1.097,222 3. Friends KNBC 899,524 4. Veronica’s Closet KNBC 874,812 5. NYPD Blue KNBC 805,618 6. Home Improvement KABC 736,424 7. 60 Minutes KCBS 696,884 8. Union Square KNBC 672,172 9. Home Improvement (8:00) KABC 657,345 10. Law & Order KNBC 642,517

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