‘Delany Sisters’ Has a Say in CBS’ Ratings Win

In a week loaded with reruns as the networks stockpile fresh episodes for the upcoming rating sweeps, CBS rang up another ratings win, getting a boost from its Sunday movie “Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters’ First 100 Years,” in results issued Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research.

Fox’s new animated shows “Futurama” and “Family Guy” both exhibited ratings promise--theformer substantially increasing the network’s performance on Tuesday night, while the latter again improved on the lead-in audience provided by “The Simpsons” Sunday.

On the down side, Fox’s “Melrose Place” began its seven-week finishing run in dubious fashion, as the long-running serial’s April 12 telecast delivered its lowest rating ever for a new episode. Despite its credentials as a stage hit, ABC’s showing of “Love Letters” also mailed in that network’s weakest Monday movie rating in two years.

NBC fared even worse with its Lakers-Jazz telecast, which posted an all-time record low Saturday night rating for that network other than during summer months. By contrast, the Fox Family Channel scored with the new movie “Michael Jordan: An American Hero,” trailing only wrestling among cable programs.

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. WWF Wrestling (Mon., 10 p.m.) USA 6.86 2. WWF Wrestling (Mon., 9 p.m.) USA 6.83 3. WCW Wrestling (Mon., 10 p.m.) TNT 5.04 4. “Michael Jordan: Am. Hero” FAM 4.89 “The Jack Bull” HBO 4.89 6. WCW Wrestling (Mon. 8 p.m.) TNT 4.65 7. WCW Wrestling (Mon. 9 p.m.) TNT 4.54 8. WWF Wrestling (Sun.) USA 4.44 9. “Titanic” (Tue.) HBO 4.12 10. “Titanic” (Sun.) HBO 3.84

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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 CBS 11.89 million 13.09 NBC 10.73 12.62 ABC 9.64 11.97 FOX 8.93 10.85 WB 3.66 4.51 UPN 2.95 2.77

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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. Friends KNBC 739,454 2. Just Shoot Me KNBC 734,319 3. The X-Files KTTV 718,914 4. Frasier KNBC 693,239 5. 60 Minutes KCBS 688,103 6. Ally McBeal KTTV 672,698 Will & Grace KNBC 672,698 8. Family Guy KTTV 611,077 9. Law & Order KNBC 605,942 10. ER KNBC 585,401

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