NBC Enjoys a Sweeps Tea Party With ‘Alice’

NBC cemented victory in the February rating sweeps with Sunday’s telecast of “Alice in Wonderland” and another strong showing from its Thursday lineup, based on results for last week issued Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research.

Although sweeps don’t officially conclude until tonight, when ABC seems assured of a big audience for its Monica Lewinsky interview, NBC holds an insurmountable lead over second-place CBS thanks in part to the finishing kick from “Alice,” its latest big-budget fantasy. Starring Tina Majorino, the three-hour production sank the premiere of Disney’s “The Little Mermaid,” coming through the looking glass with this season’s highest rating for a single-part TV movie despite the fact roughly a quarter of the audience tuned out before it ended.

CBS received a major boost from the Grammy Awards, while “Dateline NBC” televised its own interview coup with Juanita Broaddrick, the woman who has accused President Clinton of sexual assault. “Dateline” drew nearly 14 million viewers but finished well behind the Grammys.

“ER” experienced only minor complications after Dr. Ross checked out, with the first post-George Clooney episode dropping 15% compared to the previous week’s heavily promoted installment.

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., 9 p.m.) USA 6.41 2. Wrestling (Mon., 10 p.m.) USA 6.17 3. Wrestling (Mon., 8 p.m.) TNT 5.80 4. Wrestling (Mon., 10 p.m.) TNT 5.20 5. Wrestling (Mon., 9 p.m.) TNT 4.82 6. “Sister Act” TBS 4.58 7. Wrestling (Thur., 9 p.m.) TBS 4.08 8. Wrestling (Sun., 7 p.m.) USA 4.02 9. “Lansky” HBO 3.80 10. Rugrats NICK 3.73

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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 15.46 million 13.34 NBC 14.85 12.85 ABC 11.90 12.12 FOX 11.41 11.32 WB 4.93 4.65 UPN 2.61 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. Grammy Awards KCBS 1,068,101 2. Frasier KNBC 955,129 3. Friends KNBC 919,183 4. Ally McBeal KTTV 893,507 5. 60 Minutes KCBS 883,237 6. “Alice in Wonderland” KNBC 837,021 7. ER KNBC 831,886 8. Jesse KNBC 816,481 9. The X-Files KTTV 790,805 10. “And the Beat Goes On” KABC 749,725

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