Emmys, Fox Tops Despite Show’s Dip in Ratings

The lowest-rated Emmy Awards since 1990 still managed to take prime time’s top honors last week, helping Fox score its first weekly win since televising baseball’s All-Star Game in July, based on viewing estimates issued Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research.

Hosted by Jenna Elfman and David Hyde Pierce, this year’s Emmy telecast fell 10% from a year ago; still, Fox boasted that the show posted increases versus 1998, when the awards aired on NBC, in teen and young-adult viewing--demographic segments usually less likely to watch the ceremony.

Despite being overlooked in the Emmy voting, CBS’ “Everybody Loves Raymond” continued itshot run, ranking as the week’s most-watched series for the second time this summer. “Beverly Hills, 90210,” meanwhile, began its 10th season with so-so ratings, with the new Fox series that follows it, “Get Real,” fumbling away 15% of the veteran serial’s lead-in audience in its season premiere.

The recent popularity of Latin music didn’t translate into big tune-in for the ABC special “Latin Beat,” which drew that network’s lowest 10 p.m. Tuesday rating since March. Thanks largely to wrestling, UPN inched ahead of a repeat-laden WB network for the second time in three weeks.

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. “Video Music Awards” MTV 11.9 2. NFL Sunday Night Football ESPN 10.2 3. Wrestling (Mon., 10 p.m.) TNT 5.54 4. NFL Primetime ESPN 5.46 5. Wrestling (Mon., 9 p.m.) TNT 5.06 6. Wrestling (Mon., 8 p.m.) TNT 4.39 7. “ANTZ” HBO 4.36 8. Wrestling (Sun., 7 p.m.) USA 3.94 9. “Ghost” TBS 3.79 10. “Unforgiven” HBO 3.32

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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 FOX 9.84 million 9.42 CBS 9.40 11.83 NBC 8.63 11.42 ABC 8.23 10.67

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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. Emmy Awards KTTV 560,264 2. 60 Minutes KCBS 534,050 3. Emmy Awards Preshow KTTV 523,780 4. Will & Grace KNBC 503,240 5. The Drew Carey Show KABC 498,105 6. Dateline NBC (Fri.) KNBC 482,699 7. Law & Order KNBC 477,564 8. Beverly Hills, 90210 KTTV 467,294 9. Dharma & Greg KABC 462,159 Spin City KABC 462,159

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