In Farewell, ‘Home’ Brings Improvement to ABC

The final “Home Improvement” raised ABC to its highest-rated Tuesday in seven years and first weekly ratings win since the Academy Awards aired in March, based on results issued Wednesday by Nielsen Media Research.

The long-running Tim Allen comedy’s 90-minute finale delivered the second-highest rating for any episodic series broadcast during the just-concluded TV season (which ended May 26), behind only George Clooney checking out from “ER.” Having so many people come back to “Home” boosted the rest of ABC’s Tuesday lineup, as “Spin City” posted its highest rating since 1996--when it regularly followed “Home Improvement”--while “NYPD Blue” drew its biggest audience since Jimmy Smits’ swan song in November.

Other farewells dominated the week, which featured the usual influx of reruns after sweeps. NBC’s “Mad About You” surged to its highest rating in more than two years for the show’s one-hour farewell, though numbers were less lofty as everyone at Fox’s “Melrose Place” got out of the pool.

Benjamin Bratt became the latest cast member to leave “Law & Order,” which heightened tune-in for back-to-back episodes. “Suddenly Susan” also featured a tribute to the late David Strickand.

National Nielsen Viewership

Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (May 24-30) 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 Viewers 1. Home Improvement ABC 35.53 2. Spin City ABC 22.95 3. NYPD Blue ABC 20.23 4. Mad About You NBC 19.79 5. Law & Order NBC 19.29 6. Law & Order (9 p.m.) NBC 16.31 7. Ally McBeal FOX 14.94 8. Dateline NBC (Mon.) NBC 14.88 9. Frasier NBC 14.61 10. “Cleopatra,” Part 2 ABC 14.27 11. Dateline NBC (Tue.) NBC 13.77 12. Everybody Loves Raymond CBS 13.36 13. Dharma & Greg ABC 13.18 14. JAG CBS 12.92 15. Friends NBC 12.82 16. 20/20 (Fri.) ABC 12.81 17. The Drew Carey Show ABC 12.62 18. “A Match Made in Heaven” CBS 12.59 19. 20/20 (Wed.) ABC 12.45 20. Will & Grace ABC 12.37 21. Suddenly Susan (8:30 p.m.) NBC 12.35 22. ER NBC 12.15 23. 48 Hours CBS 11.94 24. Two Guys, Girl, Pizza Place ABC 11.91 25. Just Shoot Me NBC 11.78 26. “Murder on Shadow Mountain” CBS 11.59 27. “American President” CBS 11.52 28. Jesse NBC 11.43 29. Dateline NBC (Fri.) NBC 11.03 30. “Miss Universe Pageant” CBS 10.96 31. Touched by an Angel CBS 10.95 “True Lies” FOX 10.95 33. 20/20 (Mon.) ABC 10.75 “Most Shocking Moments 3” FOX 10.75 35. Dateline NBC (Wed.) NBC 10.62 36. Melrose Place FOX 10.36 37. 60 Minutes CBS 10.20 38. The Norm Show ABC 10.02 39. Diagnosis Murder CBS 9.72 40. 7th Heaven WB 9.60 41. Walker, Texas Ranger CBS 9.50 42. 60 Minutes II CBS 9.31 43. Suddenly Susan NBC 8.63 44. Nash Bridges CBS 8.62 45. Sabrina, the Teenage Witch ABC 8.35 46. 3rd Rock From the Sun ABC 8.11 47. Law & Order (Fri.) NBC 8.09 Candid Camera CBS 8.09 49. Kids Say the Darndest Things CBS 8.03 Cops (8:30 p.m.) FOX 8.03 51. America’s Most Wanted FOX 7.94 52. 20/20 (Sun.) ABC 7.84 53. The Practice ABC 7.63 Unsolved Mysteries CBS 7.63 55. Brother’s Keeper ABC 7.51 56. Wildest Police Videos FOX 7.40 57. Promised Land CBS 7.16 58. Martial Law CBS 7.15 59. Providence NBC 6.90 60. The X-Files FOX 6.80 61. Boy Meets World ABC 6.58 62. Fox Files FOX 6.54 63. “Train Wrecks” FOX 6.51 64. Cops FOX 6.44 65. Family Guy FOX 6.39 66. Two of a Kind ABC 6.36 67. Dawson’s Creek WB 6.32 68. Dateline NBC (Sun.) NBC 6.23 The Simpsons FOX 6.23 70. Early Edition CBS 6.20 71. “Mars Attacks” FOX 5.93 72. Charmed WB 5.59 73. “The Joy Luck Club” NBC 5.15 74. “Thanks of/Nation” Part 1 NBC 5.11 75. “Dogmatic” ABC 4.92 76. “I’ll Do Anything” ABC 4.86 77. Star Trek: Voyager UPN 4.80 78. Felicity WB 4.65 79. “Quiz Show” ABC 4.49 80. Funniest Home Videos ABC 4.23 81. Buffy, Vampire Slayer (Tue.) WB 3.99 82. World’s Funniest FOX 3.95 83. The Steve Harvey Show WB 3.94 For Your Love WB 3.94 85. Buffy, the Vampire Slayer WB 3.61 86. The Jamie Foxx Show WB 3.57 87. The Wayans Bros. WB 2.83 7 Days UPN 2.83 89. Moesha UPN 2.54 90. Dilbert UPN 2.47 91. Unhappily Ever After WB 2.45 92. Smart Guy WB 2.38 93. Malcolm & Eddie UPN 2.28 94. Clueless UPN 2.26 95. Sister, Sister WB 2.25 96. “Riddler’s Moon” UPN 2.10 97. Between Brothers UPN 2.03 98. Zoe, Duncan, Jack & Jane WB 1.98 99. The Parent ‘Hood WB 1.81 100. The Sentinel UPN 1.76 101. Home Movies UPN 1.72 102. America’s Greatest Pets UPN 1.59 103. America’s Greatest Pets II UPN 1.54 104. The Parent ‘Hood (7 p.m.) WB 1.38 105. Love Boat: The Next Wave UPN 1.30

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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. Wrestling (Mon., 10 p.m.) USA 8.17 2. Wrestling (Mon., 9 p.m.) USA 8.11 3. NBA Playoffs (Thurs.) TNT 5.60 4. Wrestling (Mon., 8 p.m.) TNT 5.11 5. “Hope Floats” HBO 4.41 6. Wrestling (Mon., 9 p.m.) TNT 4.08 7. Wrestling (Sun., 7 p.m.) USA 3.90 8. Wrestling (Mon., 10 p.m.) TNT 3.84 9. Wrestling (Thurs., 9 p.m.) TBS 3.54 10. “Lethal Weapon” HBO 3.24

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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 ABC 10.95 million 11.69 NBC 10.52 12.62 CBS 10.23 12.95 FOX 8.26 10.56 WB 4.27 4.47 UPN 2.31 2.73

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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. Home Improvement KABC 1,139,992 2. Mad About You KNBC 955,129 3. Ally McBeal KTTV 852,427 4. Law & Order KNBC 785,670 5. Spin City KABC 770,265 6. NYPD Blue KABC 718,914 7. Law & Order (9 p.m.) KNBC 631,617 8. “Cleopatra,” Part 2 KABC 621,347 Friends KNBC 621,347 10. Just Shoot Me KNBC 616,212

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