Even in Preseason, ‘Monday Night’ Plays to Win

To quote ABC’s accompanying jingle, television viewers apparently were ready for some football, as the return of a “Monday Night” telecast--even in preseason form--easily topped last week’s standings, based on ratings estimates issued Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research.

Anchored by Al Michaels, the pro football “Hall of Fame” game paced ABC to a second-place finish in prime-time audience--its best relative performance since airing the “Home Improvement” finale 10 weeks ago.

CBS remained the most-watched network and achieved a minor coup when its Thursday editionof “48 Hours” drew more viewers than an “ER” repeat--continuing the summer trend of newsmagazines, which usually contain some original segments, providing a more forceful attraction than reruns of entertainment fare.

TBS also made an impression on last week’s ratings with the original thriller “First Daughter,” trailing only wrestling among cable offerings. Fox’s Teen Choice Awards, meanwhile, performed especially well within that demographic, drawing more teens than any special since the Academy Awards, according to the network.

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 7.70 2. “First Daughter” (8 p.m.) TBS 7.66 3. Wrestling (Mon., 9 p.m.) USA 7.24 4. Wrestling (Sun., 7 p.m.) USA 5.14 5. “First Daughter” (10 p.m.) TBS 4.23 6. Wrestling (Thur., 9 p.m.) TBS 4.12 7. Wrestling (Mon., 8 p.m.) TNT 4.00 8. Pro Football: Giants-Vikings ESPN 3.81 9. “How Stella Got Groove Back” HBO 3.59 10. “Legionnaire” USA 3.50

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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 9.03 million 12.06 ABC 8.59 10.80 NBC 7.94 11.67 FOX 6.21 9.57 WB 2.97 4.14 UPN 2.26 2.56

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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. Will & Grace KNBC 544,321 2. “David Blaine: Street Magic” KABC 487,835 Friends KNBC 487,835 4. Frasier KNBC 472,429 5. Just Shoot Me KNBC 457,024 Everybody Loves Raymond KCBS 457,024 7. “Teen Choice Awards” KTTV 446,754 8. Dharma & Greg KABC 441,619 9. 60 Minutes KCBS 426,213 Dateline: NBC (Fri.) KNBC 426,213 The Drew Carey Show KABC 426,213

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