‘Cleopatra’ Keeps ABC Competitive in Sweeps

“Cleopatra” failed to conquer the ratings but still provided ABC a bit of a boost as the May sweeps march toward their conclusion, based on results issued Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research.

Starring Leonor Varela in the title role, “Cleopatra” didn’t rival viewing of the other epic miniseries broadcast this month, “Noah’s Ark” and “Joan of Arc”--a disappointment given its $30-million budget. CBS, in fact, held its own with “Michael Landon: The Father I Knew,” more than doubling the audience for NBC’s competing biography of wrestler-turned-politician Jesse Ventura. ABC’s premiere of Disney’s animated “Hercules”was also weak, while Fox fared better than usual Sunday thanks to the blockbuster film “Independence Day.”

CBS recorded solid numbers for a “Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman” movie and the Daytime Emmy Awards, which exceeded tune-in from a year ago by 9%, beating both the final episode of NBC’s critically lauded “Homicide: Life on the Street” and “20/20” on Friday.

NBC’s Thursday lineup closed its sweeps run on a strong note, as one-hour episodes of “Friends” and “Frasier” helped “ER” race to its second best mark this season, behind only George Clooney’s farewell in February.

National Nielsen Viewership

Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (May 17-23) 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.

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 7.71 2. Wrestling (Mon., 9 p.m.) USA 5.94 3. World Champion. Boxing (Sat.) HBO 5.02 4. Lakers-Spurs NBA Playoff (Wed.) TNT 4.83 5. Lakers-Spurs NBA Playoff (Mon.) TBS 4.79 6. Wrestling (Sun., 7 p.m.) USA 4.73 7. Jazz-Blazers NBA Playoff (Sun.) TNT 4.69 8. World Champion. Boxing (Sat.) HBO 4.23 9. Wrestling (Mon., 8 p.m.) TNT 4.18 10. Blazers-Jazz NBA Playoff (Tues.) TNT 3.94

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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 13.33 million 12.68 CBS 13.33 13.03 ABC 10.42 11.71 FOX 10.41 10.63 WB 4.60 4.47 UPN 2.20 2.74

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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. Frasier KNBC 1,129,722 2. ER KNBC 1,124,587 3. Friends KNBC 1,114,317 4. Ally McBeal KTTV 811,346 5. “Cleopatra” Part 1 KABC 795,941 6. “Independence Day” KTTV 682,968 7. 60 Minutes KCBS 667,563 8. Law & Order KNBC 636,752 9. Touched by an Angel KCBS 600,807 “Joan of Arc” Part 2 KCBS 600,807 10. “Busted Everywhere” KTTV 595,672

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