ABC jumps the gun 
to claim season victories

(You'd be itchy too after such a losing streak)

By Kevin Downey

    To hell with formalities such as the actual final numbers. ABC, flush with its "Millionaire"-induced mastery, is declaring itself triumphant.
    The May sweep ends tonight, but ABC can’t contain itself in its urge to call itself the winning broadcast network of the 1999-2000 TV season.
    ABC claims victory both in total households and in the important 18-49 age group.
    This is the first time the Disney-owned network has been first in five years.
    ABC jumped the gun by two days, perhaps to steal a bit of thunder from NBC, which came on strong towards the end of the sweep period.
    NBC may yet end up grabbing the 18-49 age group for the sweep itself.
    During the last week of the May sweep NBC captured the top 3 network TV spots with its Thursday "must-see" finales.
    "ER," "Frasier," and "Friends" had household ratings of 20 or better, with more than 30 million viewers for each show. The block of programs performed better than rival ABC’s "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?" which took a series of hits with May sweep stunt programming on the other networks.
     Part one of CBS’ "Jesus" miniseries beat the game show in total viewers the week before but fell a bit with part two on Wednesday. The mini tied with "Touched by an Angel" as the network’s highest rated shows last week.
    Meanwhile "Millionaire" still accounted for four of the top ten highest-rated shows. "The Practice" did well also for ABC, ranking No. 6.
    Fox had only one show ranking in the top 25 network programs with "Beverly Hills 90210’s" final episode.
    In cable, the WWF held onto its top two spots for the week of May 8th – 14th, scoring just below a 5 rating. Nickelodeon cartoons dominated the week with eight of the top 15 rated shows.
   In syndication, "Wheel of Fortune," "Jeopardy," and "Judge Judy" were the highest rated programs, for the week of May 1st – 7th.
    Nielsen will release syndication and cable ratings for last week on Wednesday and Thursday.

 

                  NETWORK PRIMETIME 

 

 

 

HOUSE HOLDS

PERSONS 2+

#

PROGRAM

Net

Ratng

Shr

Audience (000)

#

Rating

Audience (000)

1

E.R.

NBC

22.3

35

22450

1

13.3

34588

2

FRASIER

NBC

22.1

33

22263

2

13.0

33701

3

FRIENDS

NBC

20.0

32

20151

3

11.8

30734

4

MILLIONAIRE
Sunday

ABC

18.2

28

18309

4

10.7

27727

5

MILLIONAIRE
Tuesday

ABC

15.5

26

15657

5

9.1

23573

6

PRACTICE

ABC

15.4

26

15542

6

8.9

23177

7

MILLIONAIRE
Wednesday

ABC

15.3

25

15387

7

8.6

22410

8

MILLIONAIRE
Thursday

ABC

12.4

18

12545

8

7.2

18633

9

TOUCHED 
BY AN ANGEL

CBS

12.3

21

12397

10

6.7

17327

9

CBS WEDNESDAY MOVIE, JESUS II

CBS

12.3

19

12395

9

7.1

18418

11

LAW AND ORDER

NBC

12.2

20

12288

10

6.7

17491

12

20/20-WED

ABC

11.7

19

11788

14

6.3

16256

13

60 MINUTES

CBS

11.6

22

11677

16

6.1

15956

14

JUDGING AMY

CBS

11.5

19

11622

16

6.1

15769

15

DHARMA & GREG

ABC

11.4

18

11539

10

6.7

17425

15

EVERYBODY LOVES RAYMOND

CBS

11.4

17

11457

13

6.4

16716

17

DREW CAREY

ABC

10.9

17

10969

15

6.2

16037

18

SPIN CITY

ABC

10.4

16

10521

19

5.8

15194

19

BECKER

CBS

10.3

15

10383

19

5.8

15106

20

ABC MONDAY NIGHT MOVIE, 
AIR FORCE ONE

ABC

10.0

16

10107

25

5.3

13867

21

PROVIDENCE

NBC

9.8

19

9837

27

5.2

13510

22

JUST SHOOT ME

NBC

9.7

15

9729

23

5.4

14010

23

BEVERLY HILLS 90210

FOX

9.6

15

9680

21

5.5

14375

24

MURDER, SHE WROTE

CBS

9.5

15

9589

29

5.1

13273

24

NYPD BLUE

ABC

9.5

15

9548

23

5.4

14022

26

BEHIND SCENES
-MILLIONAIRE(S)

ABC

9.4

15

9430

27

5.2

13424
Source: Nielsen

 

 

                        CABLE RANKINGS

WEEK OF: 05/08/2000-05/14/2000 MONDAY - SUNDAY 6:00A - 6:00A

                       RANKED BY HOUSEHOLD AUDIENCE

BASIC CABLE

 

RANK

PROGRAM NAME

(000)

US Rating %

1

WWF ENTERTAINMENT-05/08/2000

4986

4.9

2

WWF ENTERTAINMENT-05/08/2000

4651

4.6

3

HEY ARNOLD-05/10/2000

2707

2.7

4

RUGRATS-05/13/2000

2690

2.7

5

RUGRATS-05/11/2000

2598

2.6

6

NBA PLAYOFFS-05/12/2000

2580

2.6

7

RUGRATS-05/14/2000

2449

2.4

8

RUGRATS-05/11/2000

2377

2.4

9

NBA PLAYOFFS-05/09/2000

2364

2.3

10

RUGRATS-05/13/2000

2350

2.3

11

NBA PLAYOFFS-05/10/2000

2288

2.3

12

RUGRATS-05/10/2000

2286

2.3

13

WCW MONDAY NITRO LIVE!-05/08/2000

2279

2.3

14

WWF SUNDAY NIGHT HEAT-05/14/2000

2235

2.2

15

RUGRATS-05/14/2000

2223

2.2
     

PAY CABLE

 

 

RANK

PROGRAM NAME

(000)

US Rating %

1

WCB DOUBLEHEADER 5/13/00(JONES JR VS HALL)

3489

3.5

2

WCB DOUBLEHEADER 5/13/00(POST 2)

3243

3.2

3

WCB DOUBLEHEADER 5/13/00(PRE 2)

2557

2.5

4

WCB DOUBLEHEADER 5/13/00(HOPKINS VS VANDERPOOL)

2257

2.2

5

CORNER, THE

2256

2.2

(NOTE: When comparing a cable network's ratings to another cable network or to a broadcast network, use the "Total U.S. Rating.")
*Coverage area ratings are within each cable network's universe.
*Total U.S. ratings and household projections are based on 100.8 million TV homes.
*For inclusion in the rankings, telecasts must be promoted as distinct programs and must be of 5 minutes minimum duration.
~This report includes only those cable networks who supply program names to the industry.
Any network that does not supply program names is not included in this report.



                      SYNDICATED PROGRAMS
                                    May 1 to May 7

 

 

Household

RANK

PROGRAM NAME

US Rating %

(000)

1

WHEEL OF FORTUNE-SYN

10.2

10260

2

JEOPARDY

8.4

8419

3

JUDGE JUDY (AT)

6.5

6578

4

OPRAH WINFREY SHOW (AT)

6.1

6176

5

ENTERTAINMENT TONIGHT

5.8

5848

6

FRIENDS-SYN (AT)

5.5

5514

7

SEINFELD

5.3

5318

8

FRASIER-SYN (AT)

4.9

4944

8

WHEEL OF FORTUNE-WKND

4.9

4900

10

ER-SYN (AT)

4.3

4327

10

HOLLYWOOD SQUARES

4.3

4294

Copyright 2000 Nielsen Media Research

 

-Kevin Downey is a staff writer for Media Life.


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