A Big News Week for Newsmagazines

With the nation’s attention drawn to the shootings at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo., last week, ratings jumped for several newsmagazine shows, including ABC’s “20/20 Wednesday” and midweek editions of “Dateline NBC,” with Stone Phillips, based on results issued Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research.

In addition, CBS’ “48 Hours” for the first time beat a rerun of NBC’s “ER.”

The boost in news viewing siphoned audience away from such shows as ABC’s new Wednesday sitcoms, “It’s like, you know . . . “ and “The Norm Show.” “Law & Order,” meanwhile, posted that show’s highest rating in nearly a year following “Dateline.” CBS scored decently with a few made-for-TV movies, including Sunday night’s “Hallmark Hall of Fame” adventure “Durango” and Tuesday night’s revisit to “The Rockford Files” with James Garner.

Fox’s much-hyped new animated series “Family Guy” slumped a bit from its previous week, though the show does continue to retain audience from its lead-in, “The Simpsons.” Fox’s Friday night drama “Millennium,” on the bubble in terms of renewal for a fourth season, slipped to a record-low rating for an original episode, as did its lead-in, “Guinness World Records: Primetime.”

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. Wrestling (Mon., 10 p.m.) USA 7.00 2. Wrestling (Mon., 9 p.m.) USA 6.24 3. Larry King Live (Tues.) CNN 5.23 4. The World Today (Tues.) CNN 5.05 5. “Wild Things” HBO 4.30 6. Wrestling (Mon., 9 p.m.) TNT 4.25 7. Wrestling (Mon., 10 p.m.) TNT 4.24 8. Wrestling (Mon., 8 p.m.) TNT 4.24 9. Wrestling (Sun., 7 p.m.) USA 4.13 10. “Titanic: Answers From Abyss” DISC 4.04

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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 11.99 million 13.06 NBC 11.10 12.57 ABC 9.60 11.89 FOX 8.96 10.79 WB 3.73 4.49 UPN 2.29 2.75

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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 960,264 2. The X-Files KTTV 831,886 3. Ally McBeal KTTV 770,265 4. 60 Minutes KCBS 759,995 5. Will & Grace KNBC 754,860 Frasier KNBC 754,860 7. The Practice KABC 682,968 8. Law & Order KNBC 626,482 9. Veronica’s Closet KNBC 616,212 Touched by an Angel KCBS 616,212

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