NBC Shows Lead Pack as ‘Creature’ Gives Chase

In a week ruled by NBC and its “Seinfeld” sign-off, the Peter Benchley two-parter “Creature” provided a lone bright spot for ABC, based on results issued Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research.

While unable to match season-ending episodes of “Touched by an Angel” and “The X-Files,” “Creature” still scared up ABC’s biggest Sunday movie audience since February.

NBC easily finished first for the week thanks to “Seinfeld,” the sixth most-watched entertainment program ever. “ER” rode those coattails to its own all-time high, and “Dateline NBC” scored big ratings with a Jerry Seinfeld interview.

Even ABC’s “Dharma & Greg” ran a “Seinfeld”-themed episode, but the wedding of CBS’ “The Nanny” won that time slot, as the Fran Drescher sitcom waltzed off with its highest rating since 1996. After “Dharma,” the final “Ellen” drew less than 10 million viewers--slightly more than a quarter of the audience that watched the program’s coming-out episode in April 1997.

NBC’s Daytime Emmy Awards show didn’t win any Nielsen prizes either; viewership fell 17% compared to last year on ABC.

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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. NBA/Charlotte vs. Bulls TNT 6.19 2. Wrestling (Mon. 10 p.m.) USA 5.02 3. Wrestling (Mon. 9 p.m.) USA 4.75 4. Wrestling (Mon 8 p.m.) TNT 4.62 5. Anaconda HBO 4.39 6. Jeff Foxworthy HBO 4.15 7. Mortal Combat TBS 4.13 8. Wrestling (Mon. 9 p.m.) TNT 3.96 9. NBA/Lakers vs. Seattle TNT 3.89 10. Wrestling (Mon. 10 p.m.) TNT 3.73

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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 18.68 million 14.89 CBS 13.20 14.09 ABC 10.26 12.24 FOX 9.93 10.57 WB 5.23 4.49 UPN 3.38 4.01

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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 2,394,412 2. Seinfeld Clips KNBC 2,163,987 3. ER KNBC 1,512,787 4. The X-Files KTTV 911,680 5. 60 Minutes KCBS 791,458 6. Ally McBeal KTTV 756,394 7. Party of Five KTTV 746,375 8. Frasier KNBC 736,357 9. The Simpsons KTTV 716,320 10. NYPD Blue KABC 701,292

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