Viewers Don’t Take Shining to ABC’s ‘Storm’

The opening of Stephen King’s latest miniseries didn’t scare up the sort of crowds the writer’s name has drawn in the past, delivering a blow to ABC’s February sweeps effort, based on results issued Wednesday by Nielsen Media Research.

“Storm of the Century,” which stars Colm Feore and concludes tonight, has thus far attracted the lowest ratings ever for a miniseries based on King’s work, falling just below “The Shining” in 1997. Moreover, the finale faces NBC’s “ER” and the heavily promoted departure of George Clooney. “Storm” has already knocked some wind out of one series hit, as Fox saw tune-in for the conclusion of a two-part “The X-Files” fade 12% from ABC’s woes last week also extended to the network’s Tuesday lineup, as the Feb. 9 showings of the previous week.

“The Hughleys,” “Spin City,” “Sports Night” and “NYPD Blue” all slipped to season lows. By contrast, CBS delivered its highest Tuesday movie rating in more than two years with “Murder at 75 Birch Street,” starring Melissa Gilbert.

The WB’s “7th Heaven” continues to be one of the season’s success stories, attracting that network’s biggest audience ever.

National Nielsen Viewership

Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (Feb. 8-14) as compiled by Nielsen Media Research. They are based on the average number of people who watched a program from start to finish. Nielsen estimates that there are 256.6 million potential U.S. viewers age 2 and older. Viewership is listed here in millions.

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Program Network 1. ER NBC 2. Friends NBC 3. Frasier NBC 4. Jesse NBC 5. Touched by an Angel CBS 6. “The ‘60s,” Pt. 2 NBC 7. Veronica’s Closet NBC 8. 60 Minutes CBS 9. “Storm of Century” ABC 10. “Deep in My Heart” CBS 11. The Drew Carey Show ABC 12. The X-Files FOX 13. Providence NBC 14. “Murder at 75 Birch” CBS 15. JAG CBS 16. Law & Order NBC 17. Dharma & Greg ABC 18. Ally McBeal FOX 19. Everybody Loves Raymond CBS 20. Home Improvement ABC 21. NYPD Blue ABC 22. Walker, Texas Ranger CBS 23. Dateline NBC (Fri.) NBC 24. Whose Line Is It Anyway? ABC 25. 20/20 (Fri.) ABC 26. Two Guys, Girl, Pizza Place ABC 27. Law & Order (9 p.m.) NBC 28. Spin City ABC 29. 20/20 (Wed.) ABC 30. “When Good Times Go Bad 2” FOX 31. Sabrina, the Teenage Witch ABC 32. Dateline NBC (Tue.) NBC 33. Becker CBS 34. King of Queens CBS 35. 7th Heaven WB 36. Just Shoot Me NBC 37. The Simpsons FOX 38. 20/20 (Mon.) ABC 39. Nash Bridges CBS 40. “To Serve and Protect,” Pt. 1 NBC 41. Martial Law CBS 42. Will & Grace NBC 43. Diagnosis Murder CBS 44. Cosby CBS 45. The Hughleys ABC 46. Brother’s Keeper ABC 47. Kids Say Darndest Things CBS 48. Dateline NBC (Wed.) NBC 49. 60 Minutes II CBS 50. Boy Meets World ABC 51. “Cinderella” ABC That ‘70s Show FOX 53. Candid Camera CBS 54. Two of a Kind ABC 55. Early Edition CBS 56. Guinness World Records FOX 57. Homicide: Life on the Street NBC 58. Sports Night ABC 59. L.A. Doctors CBS 60. Dateline: NBC (Sun.) NBC 61. Cops (8:30 p.m.) FOX 62. Mad About You (Mon.) NBC 10.41 63. Turks CBS 64. Party of Five FOX 65. U.S. Figure Skating Champ. ABC 66. “Funniest Flubs” CBS 67. Suddenly Susan NBC 68. World Wildest Police Videos FOX 69. 48 Hours CBS 70. Chicago Hope CBS 71. The Pretender NBC 72. “Courage Under Fire” ABC 73. America’s Most Wanted FOX Beverly Hills, 90210 FOX 75. Magnificent Seven CBS 76. Profiler NBC 77. Cops FOX 78. NewsRadio NBC 79. PJs FOX 80. 3rd Rock From the Sun NBC 81. Melrose Place FOX 82. King of the Hill FOX 83. World’s Funniest! FOX 84. “Dolphins: The Wild Side” NBC 85. Vengeance Unlimited ABC 86. “A Valentine Winnie the Pooh” ABC 87. Dawson’s Creek WB 88. Millennium FOX 89. Buffy, the Vampire Slayer WB 90. Charmed WB 91. Star Trek: Voyager UPN 92. “ABC News: Crime & Justice” ABC 93. Cupid ABC 94. Smart Guy WB 95. Brimstone FOX 96. Sister, Sister WB 97. Felicity WB 98. Zoe, Duncan, Jack & Jane WB 7th Heaven Beginnings WB 100. The Jamie Foxx Show WB 101. The Steve Harvey Show WB 102. The Wayans Bros. WB 103. For Your Love WB 104. 7 Days UPN 105. Dilbert UPN 106. Unhappily Ever After WB 107. Moesha UPN 108. Hyperion Bay WB 109. “Lost in the Bermuda Triangle” UPN 110. Clueless UPN 111. Between Brothers UPN 112. Malcolm & Eddie UPN 113. The Sentinel UPN 114. Diresta UPN 115. Legacy UPN 116. Love Boat: The Next Wave UPN

Viewers 1. 31.92 2. 27.70 3. 25.83 4. 22.32 5. 22.17 6. 21.24 7. 21.00 8. 20.69 9. 19.42 10. 18.74 11. 16.91 12. 16.57 13. 15.82 14. 15.44 15. 15.43 16. 15.29 17. 15.28 18. 14.75 19. 14.53 20. 14.51 21. 14.50 22. 14.26 23. 14.17 24. 14.15 25. 14.00 26. 13.79 27. 13.55 28. 13.17 29. 12.99 30. 12.98 31. 12.79 32. 12.70 33. 12.63 34. 12.58 35. 12.51 36. 12.42 37. 12.35 38. 12.29 39. 12.24 40. 12.18 41. 12.15 42. 12.09 43. 12.00 44. 11.89 45. 11.82 46. 11.56 47. 11.51 48. 11.47 49. 11.42 50. 11.41 51. 11.37 11.37 53. 10.96 54. 10.88 55. 10.85 56. 10.77 57. 10.72 58. 10.62 59. 10.61 60. 10.57 61. 10.55 62. Mad About You (Mon.) 63. 10.31 64. 10.27 65. 10.10 66. 10.09 67. 10.08 68. 9.99 69. 9.97 70. 9.92 71. 9.84 72. 9.61 73. 9.52 9.52 75. 9.29 76. 9.11 77. 8.76 78. 8.75 79. 8.73 80. 8.54 81. 8.42 82. 8.05 83. 7.92 84. 7.88 85. 7.49 86. 6.94 87. 6.84 88. 6.52 89. 6.09 90. 5.66 91. 5.61 92. 5.57 93. 5.49 94. 5.40 95. 5.15 96. 4.88 97. 4.63 98. 4.32 4.32 100. 4.30 101. 4.15 102. 4.12 103. 4.07 104. 3.81 105. 3.69 106. 3.61 107. 3.47 108. 3.28 109. 3.23 110. 2.86 111. 2.43 112. 2.41 113. 2.36 114. 1.86 115. 1.68 116. 1.61

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Cable Top 10

Here are Nielsen’s top 5 cable programs in prime time last week, also ranked by total viewers (in millions).

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Program Network Viewers 1. Wrestling (Mon., 9 p.m.) TNT 6.79 2. Wrestling (Mon., 10 p.m.) TNT 6.54 3. Wrestling (Mon., 8 p.m.) TNT 5.89 4. Wrestling (Sat. 9 p.m.) USA 5.34 5. Wrestling (Sun., 7 p.m.) USA 4.46

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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 14.43 million 12.68 CBS 13.49 13.23 ABC 11.76 12.05 FOX 10.15 11.36 WB 5.52 4.62 UPN 2.99 2.74

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Southland Viewing

Here are Nielsen’s top 5 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 1,160,533 2. Friends KNBC 1,119,452 3. ER KNBC 1,078,371 4. Jesse KNBC 970,534 5. Veronica’s Closet KNBC 837,021

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