‘Temptations,’ ‘Lost World’ Sweep Past Oprah

“The Temptations” hit a high note for NBC on Sunday, as that miniseries, co-starring Terron Brooks, and Fox’s telecast of “The Lost World: Jurassic Park” combined to take a bite out of Oprah Winfrey’s ratings mystique, based on results issued Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research.

All the networks rolled out their big guns Sunday due to the November sweeps, and the odd show out proved to be the ABC movie “David & Lisa.” The latest “Oprah Winfrey Presents” project finished fourth in its time slot--a surprise in light of big ratings successes Winfrey scored last season with “The Wedding” and “Before Women Had Wings.” ABC fared better Sunday with “101 Dalmatians,” the top-rated “Wonderful World of Disney” since January.

It was also a strong week for ABC’s Tuesday lineup and Halloween-themed episodes of “Dharma & Greg” and “Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place” on Wednesday, which, with “Beverly Hills, 90210,” held the WB’s “Dawson’s Creek” to its lowest rating so far for an original episode.

NBC’s “Frasier” faced tough competition from the latest “Magic’s Secrets Revealed” special, which conjured up Fox’s biggest audience ever for a Thursday special.

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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. NFL Football ESPN 7.97 2. Wrestling (Mon., 8 p.m.) TNT 6.20 3. Wrestling (Mon., 9 p.m.) TNT 5.62 4. NFL Primetime ESPN 5.41 5. “CHiPS ‘99” TNT 5.22 6. South Park COMC 4.91 7. “I Know What You Did/Summer” HBO 4.81 8. Wrestling (Mon., 10 p.m.) USA 4.78 9. Wrestling (Mon., 9 p.m.) USA 4.49 10. Wrestling (Mon., 10 p.m.) TNT 4.43

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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 13.22 million 13.04 CBS 13.03 13.02 FOX 12.49 10.82 ABC 12.45 12.17 WB 4.34 4.59 UPN 2.67 2.71

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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. Frasier KNBC 1,041,920 2. Friends KNBC 1,016,874 3. ER KNBC 996,837 4. Jesse KNBC 896,652 5. Veronica’s Closet KNBC 866,597 6. Ally McBeal KTTV 846,560 7. “The Temptations” Part 1 KNBC 806,485 8. “The Lost World” KTTV 651,200 9. “Magic’s Secrets IV” KTTV 641,181 10. 60 Minutes KCBS 626,154

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