‘Millionaire’ Boosts ABC’s Sweeps-Stakes Chances

“Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” showed no signs of slowing last week, allowing ABC to head into Thanksgiving anticipating its first prime-time sweeps victory in more than five years, based on viewing estimates issued Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research.

The show continues to follow the same ratings pattern--easily winning its time period against all comers, peaking on Monday and Sunday nights while dipping a bit Fridays and Saturdays, and drawing far bigger audiences than any of the ABC programs around it.

On Sunday, for example, more than half of those watching “Millionaire” bailed out prior to ABC’s “Snoops,” and “The Practice”--which climbed to record heights for two weeks with the quiz show funneling viewers directly into it--slipped to its lowest tune-in this season for a new episode.

Admittedly, both CBS and NBC provided more formidable competition than usual. The third movie in the “Sarah, Plain and Tall” franchise, starring Glenn Close, thawed out CBS’ biggest Sunday movie audience of the fall, while NBC attracted a younger crowd--if a somewhat smaller one overall--with the thriller “Y2K.”

Friday’s “20/20,” featuring a Dudley Moore interview, also scored its highest rating in nearly a year.

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. “The Wizard of Oz” TBS 9.05 2. Saints vs. Jaguars (Sun.) ESPN 7.53 3. Wrestling (Mon., 9 p.m.) USA 7.30 4. Wrestling (Mon., 10 p.m.) USA 6.85 5. NFL Primetime ESPN 4.21 6. Wrestling (Sun., 7 p.m.) USA 4.20 7. You Pick NICK 3.81 8. Wrestling (Mon., 8 p.m.) TNT 3.46 9. Boxing (Sat., 9:30 p.m.) HBO 3.43 10. Wild Thornberrys NICK 3.40

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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 ABC 16.15 million 12.53 NBC 13.51 14.02 CBS 13.02 13.12 FOX 10.62 9.10 WB 4.34 4.29 UPN 3.72 3.86

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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. ER KNBC 1,042,425 2. Friends KNBC 944,858 3. Millionaire (Thur.) KABC 893,507 4. Millionaire (Wed.) KABC 867,832 Millionaire (Sun.) KABC 867,832 6. Law & Order KNBC 759,995 7. Friends (8:30 p.m.) KNBC 754,860 Frasier KNBC 754,860 9. Millionaire (Sat.) KABC 744,590 Millionaire (Wed.) KABC 744,590

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