Olympics, ’60 Minutes’ Put CBS on Winner’s Stand

Early ratings for the Olympic Games fell short of expectations but still hoisted CBS onto last week’s victory platform and dropped ABC well out of prime-time medal contention, based on results issued Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research.

With coverage disrupted by the weather, audience levels for the first three nights trailed Winter Olympics in 1994 and 1992. Nevertheless, Sunday’s prime-time lineup, hosted by Jim Nantz, topped all programs and helped “60 Minutes” hit its ratings high this season. Viewing of the Games also promises to increase as more prestigious events take center stage.

Even the buildup to the Olympics generated big ratings for two ice skating-themed specials: CBS’ documentary “My Sergei” and Fox’s Nancy Kerrigan-Tonya Harding reunion, “Breaking the Ice,” which scored that network’s largest Thursday audience in three years, excluding playoff baseball.

Some regular series--especially Fox’s Sunday trio of “The X-Files,” “King of the Hill” and “The Simpsons”--seemed immune to the Olympic drain, resulting in an overall viewing increase for the major networks last week; however, another sports showcase, the NBA All-Star Game, didn’t fare quite as well, with NBC’s audience slipping 11% compared to last year’s telecast.

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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.

Last Week

CBS: 18.09 million

NBC: 15.38

FOX: 12.14

ABC: 11.20

WB: 5.10

UPN: 3.30

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Season to Date

NBC: 15.67 million

CBS: 13.65

ABC: 12.73

FOX: 10.70

WB: 4.46

UPN: 4.21

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. Seinfeld KNBC 1,187,188 2. ER KNBC 1,122,068 3. 60 Minutes KCBS 1,102,031 4. Winter Olympics (Fri.) KCBS 1,026,892 5. Friends KNBC 1,001,846 6. Veronica’s Closet KNBC 976,800 7. Winter Olympics (Sat./Sun.) KCBS 936,726 8. Frasier (Thur.) KNBC 926,708 9. Frasier KNBC 921,698 10. Law & Order KNBC 816,504

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