ABC Breaks a May-to-September Losing Streak

The Emmy Awards and the Miss America pageant both received solid scores from the judges at Nielsen Media Research, based on ratings issued Tuesday, with the latter helping ABC walk off with its first weekly prime-time crown since May.

Despite ranking third among all programs (and first locally), ratings for CBS’ Emmy telecast, hosted by Bryant Gumbel, were hurt by Fox’s showing of the Arnold Schwarzenegger movie “True Lies” and dropped 6% compared to a year ago. The rating for Miss America also slipped, thanks in part to moving from NBC to ABC, yet still more than tripled ABC’s recent average on Saturday night.

Fox got a jump on the new season that officially begins next week with its season-opening episodes of “Melrose Place” and “Beverly Hills, 90210” as well as premieres of “Ally McBeal,” “413 Hope St.” and “Between Brothers,” which performed moderately well against reruns. Overall, Fox scored its most competitive finish since broadcasting the Super Bowl in January, with the network even edging NBC among adults 18-49, one of the key age groups to advertisers.

ABC also gained a boost from “PrimeTime Live” and the new Thursday edition of “20/20,” though the latter’s Barbara Walters interview with Michael Jackson on Friday didn’t generate an appreciable surge in viewing.

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

ABC: 12.09 million

NBC: 11.29

CBS: 10.66

FOX: 10.42

UPN: 4.84

WB: 3.28

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Season to Date

NBC: 13.89 million

CBS: 12.51

ABC: 12.07

FOX: 10.22

UPN: 4.28

WB: 3.48

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. 49th Emmy Awards KCBS 968,718 2. Seinfeld KNBC 924,236 3. 20/20 KABC 726,540 4. Frasier (Thur.) KNBC 691,942 5. 3rd Rock From the Sun KNBC 686,999 “True Lies” KTTV 686,999 7. PrimeTime Live KABC 677,114 60 Minutes KCBS 677,114 9. Friends KNBC 672,172 10. Home Improvment KABC 632,632

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