NBC, Fox’s ‘McBeal’ Off to Impressive ’98 Starts

“Seinfeld,” “ER,” “Dateline NBC” and the Harrison Ford movie “The Fugitive” started the 1998 ratings chase with a solid win for NBC, while ABC took last week’s silver medal behind the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, according to results issued Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research.

In a case of good news-bad news for CBS, which will air the upcoming Winter Olympics, ABC’s figure skating coverage dominated Saturday but cut into CBS’ “The Magnificent Seven,” which lost about 30% of the audience that viewed its premiere.

One of the week’s more impressive performances, meanwhile, was delivered Jan. 5 by Fox’s”Ally McBeal,” starring Callista Flockhart, which drew 3 million more people than “Melrose Place” preceding it--the show’s highest rating to date.

ABC also did reasonably well with its new Monday lineup of “America’s Funniest Home Videos” and “20/20,” as the veteran newsmagazine roughed up CBS’ “George & Leo” and the premiere of “Style & Substance.” “Dateline NBC” then soared at 10 p.m. to its biggest audience ever, attracting more viewers that hour than “The Practice” and a “Brooklyn South” rerun combined.

Despite all the hoopla surrounding the show’s planned departure in May, “Seinfeld’s” audience didn’t reflect an immediate jump over its average this season.

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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.

Last Week

NBC: 15.53 million

ABC: 14.35

CBS: 13.19

FOX: 12.60

WB: 4.18

UPN: 3.69

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Season to Date

NBC: 14.93 million

CBS: 13.68

ABC: 13.03

FOX: 10.75

UPN: 4.35

WB: 4.30

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 1,132,086 2. ER KNBC 1,071,975 3. Friends KNBC 911,680 4. 60 Minutes KCBS 876,615 5. The X-Files KTTV 831,533 6. Touched by an Angel KCBS 786,449 7. Frasier KNBC 771,421 8. Veronica’s Closet KNBC 741,366 9. NYPD Blue KABC 731,348 10. King of the Kill KTTV 661,218

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