Post-Series NBC Win, but Shows in Foul Territory

NBC’s third consecutive weekly ratings win was dampened by its scary performance after the final World Series out, based on viewing estimates issued Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research.

Last week’s two World Series games exceeded viewing from 1998 by 10%, but because the playoffs again ended in a four-game sweep by the New York Yankees, NBC fielded lower ratings than the network might have had if the Atlanta Braves had put up more of a fight.

Moreover, baseball provided no afterglow. In fact, reruns of NBC’s Thursday lineup scheduled because the Series ended slid to a record regular-season low, allowing CBS’ “Chicago Hope” to de-liver its biggest audience in more than a year and “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” to improvise ABC’s best results for a series at 8 p.m. Thursday since 1997.

A weak performance Friday by NBC’s new drama “Cold Feet” also sealed its cancellation, and reception was equally fuzzy for the 1950s movie “Mr. Rock ‘n’ Roll: The Alan Freed Story.” That may bode ill for “Shake, Rattle and Roll,” a nostalgic CBS miniseries premiering Sunday.

National Nielsen Viewership

Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (Oct. 25-31) 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 260 million potential U.S. viewers age 2 and older. Viewership is listed here in millions.

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Net- View- Program work ers Net- View-

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1. World Series (Tue.) NBC 25.85 2. World Series (Wed.) NBC 24.12 3. Monday Night Football ABC 17.93 4. Touched by an Angel CBS 17.74 5. Every. Loves Raymond CBS 17.29 6. Becker CBS 16.35 7. Friends NBC 16.15 8. 60 Minutes CBS 16.06 9. Series Pregame (Tue.) NBC 16.05 10. Ally McBeal FOX 16.02 11. Frasier NBC 15.69 12. “Anya’s Bell” CBS 15.00 13. The Drew Carey Show ABC 14.81 World Series Pregame (Wed.) NBC 14.81 15. Dharma & Greg ABC 14.60 16. 20/20 (Fri.) ABC 14.35 17. The Simpsons (8:30 p.m.) FOX 14.23 18. ER NBC 14.15 19. Family Law CBS 13.99 20. Providence NBC 13.83 The Simpsons FOX 13.83 22. Diagnosis Murder CBS 13.60 23. 48 Hours CBS 13.32 24. JAG CBS 13.10 25. Chicago Hope CBS 13.08 26. 48 Hours (Tue.) CBS 12.94 27. King of Queens CBS 12.76 28. Law & Order: SVU NBC 12.48 29. The Practice ABC 12.42 60 Minutes II CBS 12.42 31. Dateline: NBC (Mon.) NBC 12.36 32. The X-Files FOX 12.25 33. Walker, Texas Ranger CBS 12.22 34. Jesse NBC 12.15 35. Stark Raving Mad NBC 12.04 36. Ladies Man CBS 11.98 37. Nash Bridges CBS 11.92 38. 20/20 (Wed.) ABC 11.61 39. Oh Grow Up ABC 11.57 40. Once and Again ABC 11.43 41. Spin City ABC 11.29 42. Sports Night ABC 10.97 43. Sabrina, the Teenage Witch ABC 10.79 44. Martial Law CBS 10.76 45. “Best Commercials Never Seen” ABC 10.75 46. “A Secret Affair” CBS 10.65 47. 20/20 (Mon.) ABC 10.61 Third Watch NBC 10.61 49. The Hughleys ABC 10.50 50. Kids Say the Darndest Things CBS 10.28 51. “Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown” CBS 10.26 52. Two Guys and a Girl ABC 10.22 53. “A Time to Kill” ABC 10.12 54. Norm ABC 10.01 55. Candid Camera CBS 9.90 56. Early Edition CBS 9.84 57. Snoops ABC 9.81 58. King of the Hill FOX 9.76 59. “Garfield’s Halloween” CBS 9.72 60. Friends (Mon.) NBC 9.68 61. Whose Line Is It? (8:30 p.m.) ABC 9.66 62. It’s like, you know. . . ABC 9.35 63. “Casper” ABC 9.04 64. King of Queens CBS 9.02 65. That ‘70s Show FOX 8.95 66. 20/20 Downtown ABC 8.86 67. “Mr. Rock ‘n’ Roll” NBC 8.69 68. Cosby CBS 8.67 69. Whose Line Is It Anyway? ABC 8.31 Veronica’s Closet NBC 8.31 71. Boy Meets World NBC 8.18 72. Odd Man Out ABC 8.11 World’s Scariest Police Chases 5 FOX 8.11 74. Cops (8:30 p.m.) FOX 8.08 75. Time of Your Life FOX 7.92 76. Dateline: NBC (Sun.) NBC 7.84 77. Beverly Hills, 90210 FOX 7.81 78. The Pretender NBC 7.63 79. Profiler NBC 7.61 80. America’s Most Wanted FOX 7.48 81. 7th Heaven WB 7.44 82. Party of Five FOX 7.29 83. Freaks & Geeks (Fri.) NBC 7.04 84. Cops FOX 6.95 85. Ally FOX 6.70 86. WWF Smackdown! UPN 6.67 87. Buffy, the Vampire Slayer WB 5.98 88. “Shocking Behavior on Tape” FOX 5.78 89. Angel WB 5.45 90. “Night of Headless Horseman” FOX 5.42 91. Freaks & Geeks NBC 5.02 92. Cold Feet NBC 4.61 93. Get Real FOX 4.35 94. Dawson’s Creek WB 4.34 95. Star Trek: Voyager UPN 4.07 96. The Parkers UPN 3.81 Roswell WB 3.81 98. Action FOX 3.66 99. Moesha UPN 3.57 100. Action (9:30 p.m.) FOX 3.47 101. Safe Harbor WB 3.27 102. “Radio Music Awards” WB 3.05 103. Grown-Ups UPN 2.86 104. Malcolm & Eddie UPN 2.70 105. Jack & Jill WB 2.61 106. 7th Heaven Beginnings WB 2.54 107. Jamie Foxx Show (8:30 p.m.) WB 2.38 108. The Strip UPN 2.30 109. For Your Love WB 2.26 110. Felicity WB 2.24 111. The Steve Harvey Show WB 2.17 112. The Disciples” UPN 2.15 113. The Jamie Foxx Show WB 2.14 114. Dilbert (8:30 p.m.) UPN 1.95 115. Dilbert UPN 1.80

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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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Net- View- Program work ers 1. Football: Tampa Bay-Detroit ESPN 8.91 2. Wrestling (Mon., 10 p.m.) USA 6.11 3. Wrestling (Mon., 9 p.m.) USA 6.10 4. NFL Primetime ESPN 5.30 5. Wrestling (Mon., 8 p.m.) TNT 4.15 6. South Park COMC 4.00 7. Wrestling (Mon., 9 p.m.) TNT 3.65 8. Wrestling (Mon., 10 p.m.) TNT 3.53 9. Hey Arnold NICK 3.25 10. Autopsy 6 HBO 3.22

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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 Season week to date NBC 13.65 million 14.42 CBS 12.75 13.20 ABC 11.37 11.18 FOX 8.97 8.68 WB 3.71 4.32 UPN 3.64 3.81

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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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Sta- House- Program tion holds 1. Ally McBeal KTTV 837,021 2. World Series Postgame (Wed.) KNBC 821,616 3. The Drew Carey Show KABC 677,833 4. Dharma & Greg KABC 652,158 5. 20/20 (Wed.) KABC 605,942 6. Frasier KNBC 595,672 7. Once and Again KABC 590,537 8. Oh Grow Up KABC 585,401 9. The Simpsons KTTV 580,266 The X-Files KTTV 580,266

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