That ‘70s Miniseries Can’t Find a Place in 2000

NBC had a bad hair night with its miniseries “The ‘70s,” which came up short in the first weekend of the May rating sweeps, based on viewing estimates issued Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research.

By way of comparison, the opening of NBC’s last nostalgic MTV-style take on history, “The ‘60s,” attracted 23.7 million viewers in February 1999. ABC fared considerably better with “Arabian Nights,” its own big-budget miniseries featuring Mili Avital, though even those numbers were well below some of the past spectacles from producer Robert Halmi Sr. CBS held its own with the network’s John Denver biography (ABC’s film about the Three Stooges also performed well); “The X-Files” equaled its biggest audience since February.

Of course, “Arabian Nights” received a lift from following “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire,” which saw its audience shrink Sunday due to its shift to 7 p.m. but still out-rated “60 Minutes” by more than 6 million viewers.

“NYPD Blue” slipped to its lowest rating for a new episode in roughly a year--possibly depressed by dismal tune-in for its since-yanked lead-in, the short-lived sitcom “Talk to Me.” In other highs and lows, “Cosby” ended its four-year run on CBS with a whimper Friday; UPN’s “WWF Smackdown!” hit a ratings high on that network. Wrestling also accounted for six of the Top 10 cable telecasts.

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. Wrestling(Mon., 10 p.m.) USA 10.0 2. Wrestling(Mon., 9 p.m.) USA 8.08 3. Wrestling (Mon. 8 p.m.) TNT 4.24 4. The Expendables USA 3.97 5. Wrestling (Sun., 7 p.m.) USA 3.25 6. The Snick House NICK 3.23 7. Walker (Mon., 8 p.m.) USA 3.18 8. Walker (Wed., 8 p.m.) USA 3.15 9. Wrestling (Wed., 10 p.m.) TBS 3.05 10. Wrestling (Wed., 8 p.m.) TBS 3.02

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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 13.28 million 14.10 NBC 12.42 12.30 CBS 11.07 12.48 FOX 8.09 9.04 UPN 4.07 3.93 WB 3.42 3.65

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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. Friends KNBC 937,011 2. ER KNBC 916,073 3. Frasier KNBC 863,726 4. Just Shoot Me KNBC 774,736 Law & Order KNBC 774,736 6. Millionaire (Tue.) KABC 764,266 7. Frasier KNBC 727,623 8. The Practice KABC 675,276 9. “Arabian Nights” KABC 664,807 10. Millionaire (Thur.) KABC 649,103

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