White House Scandal, Red-Hot Viewing

President Clinton’s brief address on the Monica S. Lewinsky matter provided both broadcast and cable networks with a bit of a summer ratings windfall, as post-speech analysis ranked among last week’s top-rated programs, based on results issued Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research.

The new Fox sitcom “That ‘70s Show,” meanwhile, inhaled more viewers Sunday than its well-established lead-in, “The Simpsons,” emerging as the week’s most-watched program among adults 18 to 49, the age bracket most avidly sought by advertisers. The news wasn’t as good for Fox’s other early premiere, “Holding the Baby,” and “That ‘70s Show” will have to sink or swim the next three weeks without an original “Simpsons” episode in front of it.

ABC posted its most competitive finish since airing the Academy Awards, helped by “Monday Night Football,” “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” and the highest-rated installment thus far in “Nightline’s” prime-time “Crime and Punishment” series.

HBO’s much-talked-about movie “The Rat Pack,” surprisingly, didn’t rough anyone up ratings-wise, attracting about 4.1 million viewers on Saturday, failing to crack the Top 10 among cable fare.

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Cable Top 10

Here are Nielsen’s top 10 cable programs in prime time last week, also ranked by total viewers (in millions).

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Program Network Viewers 1. Wrestling (Mon. 9 p.m.) TNT 5.62 2. Wrestling (Mon. 10 p.m.) TNT 5.59 3. Larry King Live CNN 5.46 4. Wrestling Mon. 8 p.m.) TNT 5.42 5. South Park COM 5.27 6. Larry King Live CNN 5.20 7. Wrestling (Thurs. 9:09) TBS 4.73 8. Wrestling (Mon. 10 p.m.) USA 4.73 9. Rugrats NCK 4.55 10. Rugrats NCK 4.29

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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.

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Last week Season to date NBC 9.19 million 13.57 CBS 9.51 12.70 ABC 8.86 11.03 FOX 7.05 9.51 WB 3.39 4.14 UPN 2.16 3.58

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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 766,412 2. 60 Minutes KCBS 741,366 3. Just Shoot Me KNBC 676,246 4. ER KNBC 646,191 5. The Simpsons KTTV 641,181 6. The X-Files KTTV 606,117 7. Friends KNBC 601,108 8. “Guinness World Records” KTTV 586,080 20/20 KABC 586,080 10. That ‘70s Show KTTV 581,071

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