NBC Gets Bullish Against a Weak Field

NBC’s coverage of the NBA Finals slam-dunked the competition for the third consecutive week, while overall viewing of the major networks keeps dwindling as the official start of summer approaches, according to results issued Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research.

Basketball was easily the week’s top gun, as the last two games of the Chicago Bulls-Utah Jazz series attracted a bigger audience than any of the preceding four. Holding their own were newsmagazines, which accounted for five of the top 20 programs. News traditionally does better in prime time during the summer, providing a fresh alternative to reruns of popular series.

Efforts to introduce new programs, meanwhile, have initially fizzled, with scant tune-in for Fox’s “The Ruby Wax Show” and CBS’ “Life and Stuff.” ABC’s “Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman” also ended its network flight quietly, with less than 5 million people watching Saturday’s series finale, which ranked 85th out of 92 programs broadcast by the four major networks.

ABC, in fact, attracted its lowest prime-time rating ever where viewing levels weren’t depressed by a political convention or holiday.

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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.

NBC: 13.28 million

CBS: 9.83

ABC: 8.58

FOX: 6.50

UPN: 3.01

WB: 2.87

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NBC: 15.03 million

CBS: 13.49

ABC: 13.06

FOX: 11.20

UPN: 4.38

WB: 3.56

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 Network Viewers 1. “NBA Post-Game” KNBC 790,790 2. 60 Minutes KCBS 726,539 3. Seinfeld KNBC 691,942 4. PrimeTime Live KABC 642,517 5. ER KNBC 622,747 6. High Incident KABC 598,035 7. “Roggin’s Post-Game” KNBC 588,150 8. Home Improvement KABC 583,208 9. Turning Point KABC 573,323 10. 20/20 KABC 568,381

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Source: Nielsen Media Research