World Series Helps Fox, but NBC Wins the Week

The World Series’ ratings box score was just so-so but still helped move Fox higher in the network order, based on results issued Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research.

With viewership hurt by the Yankees’ Game 2 blowout of San Diego, Fox couldn’t catch NBC, which introduced two new series last week: “Trinity,” a drama from “ER” producer John Wells, showed a bit of promise Friday by ranking behind only ABC’s popular comedies in its time slot; and “Wind on Water,” featuring Bo Derek, which looked like about a “3” from a Nielsen standpoint.

The return of NBC’s Saturday shows “The

Pretender” and “Profiler” hurt ABC, dropping “Fantasy Island” and “Cupid” to their lowest ratings, and NBC’s new sitcom “Will & Grace” achieved its best rating yet last week, no doubt contributing to CBS’ decision to cancel time-slot rival “The Brian Benben Show.”

NBC still has room for concern, with Thursday’s “Frasier” falling 30% short of “Seinfeld’s” audience from the corresponding week a year ago, diminished in part by an ESPN football game. Viewing of the WB network, meanwhile, is up 15% compared to last year, thanks to solid ratings for “Dawson’s Creek” and “7th Heaven.”

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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. Pro Football (Thurs.) ESPN 9.55 2. Wrestling (Mon., 8 p.m.) TNT 5.87 3. NASCAR Pepsi 400 TNN 5.86 4. Wrestling (Mon., 10 p.m.) USA 5.19 5. Wrestling (Mon., 9 p.m.) USA 5.08 6. Wrestling (Mon., 10 p.m.) TNT 5.05 7. Wrestling (Mon., 9 p.m.) TNT 4.89 8. Wrestling (Thur., 9:05 p.m.) TBS 4.12 9. Wrestling (Sun., 7 p.m.) USA 4.03 10. “Kiss the Girls” HBO 4.03

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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 13.21 million 13.45 CBS 12.08 13.22 FOX 12.03 9.80 ABC 11.06 12.19 WB 4.84 4.57 UPN 2.51 2.65

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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 996,837 2. Friends KNBC 966,781 3. ER KNBC 961,772 4. Veronica’s Closet KNBC 846,560 5. Jesse KNBC 806,486 6. World Series Postgame Show KTTV 686,265 7. Spin City KABC 661,218 8. 60 Minutes KCBS 631,163 9. Dharma & Greg KABC 581,071 The Drew Carey Show KABC 581,071 Baseball Postgame Show KNBC 581,071

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