‘ER,’ Comedies and a Movie Are Music to NBC

“The Sound of Music” struck the right chord and “ER” delivered its second-highest rating of the season, pacing NBC to a weekly ratings victory based on viewing estimates issued Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research.

NBC’s Thursday comedies also fared well, though “Cursed” remains star-crossed even by its new name, “The Weber Show,” losing more than a quarter of the audience that viewed “Friends.” By contrast, ABC’s “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” added nearly 3 million viewers during that same half-hour.

CBS also received a mixed holiday gift from the Peanuts gang’s “A Charlie Brown Christmas,” as the audience for the perennial special surged by 6 million viewers compared to a year ago. On the downside, CBS’ 25-year hold on those specials ends after an encore Christmas telecast, with ABC having snagged away the rights beginning next year. A handful of other holiday-themed specials hugged the bottom of the ratings chart.

Fox’s “The X-Files” attracted a season-low audience Sunday despite “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire’s” second-worst results in that hour. Both could have been hurt in part by NBC’s broadcast of “The Sound of Music,” but ABC’s “The Practice” managed to exceed its “Millionaire” lead-in for only the second time this fall.

National Nielsen Viewership

Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (Dec. 11-17) 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 1. ER NBC 29.84 2. Friends NBC 23.26 3. Millionaire (Wed.) ABC 22.01 4. Every. Loves Raymond CBS 21.25 5. Will & Grace NBC 20.77 6. Millionaire (Tue.) ABC 19.76 7. The Practice ABC 19.39 8. Just Shoot Me NBC 19.19 9. 60 Minutes CBS 19.11 10. “Charlie Brown’s.” CBS 19.00

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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. Sunday Night Football ESPN 10.50 2. Wrestling (Mon. 10 p.m.) TNN 7.30 3. Wrestling (Mon., 9 p.m.) TNN 7.10 4. George Bush Speech (Wed.) CNN 5.68 5. Al Gore Speech (Wed.) CNN 5.28 6. “Galaxy Quest” HBO 4.68 7. George Bush Speech (Wed.) FOXN 4.41 8. Larry King Live (Wed.) CNN 4.37 9. NFL Primetime ESPN 4.25 10. Supreme Court Decision CNN 4.23

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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 12.95 million 13.28 NBC 12.77 12.72 CBS 11.86 12.28 FOX 9.61 10.06 UPN 3.93 4.23 WB 3.48 4.20

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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 963,756 2. Friends KNBC 915,568 3. Will & Grace KNBC 824,547 4. Frasier KNBC 674,629 5. Ally McBeal KTTV 663,921 6. The West Wing KNBC 653,212 7. The Weber Show KNBC 647,858 Millionaire (Tue.) KABC 647,858 9. Just Shoot Me KNBC 621,087 Will & Grace KNBC 621,087

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