Michael J. Fox’s Farewell Spins ABC to Victory

The major networks simultaneously ended the May sweeps and official TV season with a bang May 24, as Michael J. Fox’s “Spin City” farewell episode climbed to that program’s highest rating ever and paced ABC to its 22nd straight weekly victory, based on viewing estimates issued Wednesday by Nielsen Media Research.

The same night also saw “Law & Order” and “20/20” deliver season-high ratings, the latter capitalizing on “Spin’s” lead-in to attract the biggest audience for any newsmagazine during the just-completed season.

“NYPD Blue” finished its seventh year on an upbeat note as well, with the cop drama’s highest tune-in since January, while “Everybody Loves Raymond” closed in similar fashion by easily surpassing time-period rival “Ally McBeal.” By contrast, Fox’s special “Opening the Tomb of the Golden Mummies” didn’t unearth an inordinate amount of interest from a Nielsen standpoint.

NBC inaugurated its prime-time NBA playoff coverage Friday, with viewing up 8% compared to the corresponding game a year ago but still down markedly versus 1998, when Michael Jordan was still presiding over the courts.

A flurry of reruns followed the conclusion of sweeps, with CBS most effectively programming over the holiday weekend by running the films “The Pelican Brief” and “Sleepless in Seattle.”

National Nielsen Viewership

Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (May 22-28) 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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Program Network Viewers 1. Spin City ABC 32.76 2. Millionaire (Thur.) ABC 26.21 3. Millionaire (Wed.) ABC 23.57 4. Millionaire (Tue.) ABC 22.56 5. Law & Order NBC 19.48 6. 20/20 ABC 19.16 7. Every. Loves Raymond CBS 18.52 8. Millionaire (Sun.) ABC 18.17 9. NYPD Blue ABC 16.69 10. Becker CBS 16.05 11. Will & Grace NBC 15.51 12. Law & Order (9 p.m.) NBC 15.12 13. Judging Amy CBS 14.99 14. 20/20 Downtown ABC 14.17 15. “Con Air” ABC 13.24 JAG CBS 13.24 17. Every. Loves Raymond (8:30) CBS 13.20 18. “Sleepless in Seattle” CBS 12.57 19. 48 Hours CBS 12.32 20. ER NBC 11.80 21. King of Queens CBS 11.71 22. 60 Minutes CBS 11.46 23. Dateline NBC (Tue.) NBC 11.35 24. Ally McBeal FOX 11.17 25. “The Pelican Brief” CBS 11.14 26. 60 Minutes II CBS 10.90 27. Friends NBC 10.77 28. Third Watch NBC 10.63 29. Lakers-Blazers (Fri.) NBC 10.57 Touched by an Angel CBS 10.57 31. Frasier NBC 10.49 32. The Practice ABC 9.96 33. “Men in Black” NBC 9.92 34. 20/20 (Fri.) ABC 9.79 35. Whose Line Is It? (8:30 p.m.) ABC 9.54 36. Jesse NBC 9.40 37. Walker, Texas Ranger CBS 9.39 38. Diagnosis Murder CBS 9.36 39. Jesse (9:30 p.m.) NBC 9.27 40. Dateline NBC (Sun.) NBC 8.90 41. Friends (Wed.) NBC 8.85 42. “Tomb Golden Mummies” FOX 8.70 43. 3rd Rock From the Sun NBC 8.29 44. That ‘70s Show FOX 8.09 45. The Simpsons FOX 8.00 46. Whose Line Is It Anyway? ABC 7.95 47. Titus FOX 7.83 48. Malcolm in the Middle FOX 7.62 49. 48 Hours CBS 7.56 50. WWF Smackdown! UPN 7.51 51. Dateline (Fri.) NBC 7.46 52. “Happy Gilmore” FOX 7.45 53. 7th Heaven WB 7.43 54. Early Edition CBS 7.21 55. NBA Tipoff (Fri.) NBC 7.13 56. Martial Law CBS 7.10 57. Cops (8:30 p.m.) FOX 6.87 58. Diagnosis Murder (9 p.m.) CBS 6.74 59. “Assassins” ABC 6.64 60. Most Amazing Videos NBC 6.48 61. Guinness World Records FOX 6.39 62. “A Kid in King Arthur’s Court” ABC 6.32 63. The X-Files FOX 6.04 64. Making the Band ABC 5.95 “Inherit the Wind” NBC 5.95 Cops FOX 5.95 67. “25 Hottest Stars Under 25” ABC 5.92 68. Greed FOX 5.87 69. Twenty One NBC 5.85 70. “The Wednesday Woman” CBS 5.76 71. King of the Hill FOX 5.43 72. “When Seconds Count” CBS 5.23 73. “Best TV You’ve Never Seen” ABC 5.13 74. Dawson’s Creek WB 4.83 75. “Timecop” NBC 4.77 76. Star Trek: Voyager UPN 4.68 77. The Parkers UPN 4.62 78. Moesha UPN 4.58 79. Angel WB 4.52 80. Buffy, the Vampire Slayer WB 4.50 81. “Beyond Belief” FOX 4.47 82. Futurama FOX 3.98 83. “2000 Essence Awards” FOX 3.78 84. Felicity WB 3.36 85. Grownups UPN 3.35 86. Malcolm & Eddie UPN 3.16 87. Charmed WB 3.14 88. Moesha (Tue.) UPN 3.08 89. 7 Days UPN 3.03 90. The Parkers (Tue.) UPN 2.70 91. Steve Harvey Show (9 p.m.) WB 2.65 92. For Your Love WB 2.57 93. The Steve Harvey Show WB 2.45 94. “Killers in the Water” UPN 2.35 95. Popular WB 2.16 96. 7th Heaven Beginnings WB 2.12 97. The Jamie Foxx Show WB 2.09 98. Secret Agent Man UPN 2.05 99. I Dare You UPN 2.03 100. Angel WB 2.00 101. Movie Stars WB 1.82 102. Zoe WB 1.53 103. Jack & Jill WB 1.47

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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 13.67 million 14.20 CBS 10.24 12.38 NBC 9.50 12.26 FOX 6.71 8.92 UPN 3.99 3.93 WB 3.24 3.62

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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. Spin City KABC 1,224,920 2. Millionaire (Thur.) KABC 926,542 3. Millionaire (Wed.) KABC 868,960 4. Law & Order (9 p.m.) KNBC 858,491 5. Millionaire KABC 816,613 6. Will & Grace KNBC 764,266 7. 20/20 (Wed.) KABC 696,215 NYPD Blue KABC 696,215 9. Law & Order KNBC 675,276 10. Millionaire KABC 633,399 Friends KNBC 633,399

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