Prime-Time TV Rankings

The birth of a baby girl on “Mad About You,” starring Paul Reiser and Helen Hunt, and Part 2 of “The Odyssey” delivered NBC another easy prime-time ratings win, according to results issued Wednesday by Nielsen Media Research. “The Odyssey” ranked No. 1 for the week in total viewers--the first made-for-TV movie to do so in four years.

Last week marked the end of the May ratings sweeps, and the combination of repeats and the holiday weekend dropped the four major networks to 58% of the prime-time audience, from an average 62% during the season.

ABC did choose the weekend to kick off the three-part swan song of its legal drama “Murder One,” attracting about 8.3 million viewers, significantly fewer than CBS’ rerun movie “Thicker Than Blood.” “Murder One” concludes tonight.

The week’s series finales saw some gains but generally drew modest ratings. “Wings” flew off with its largest audience of the season, while the last “Roseanne” was watched by 16.6 million people--a level the show had surpassed in October--as “Mad About You” dominated that hour.

Third-place ABC’s best news came outside prime time: After trailing NBC for months, “World News Tonight” has inched back ahead in the nightly news race three of the last four weeks. 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: 13.43 million

CBS: 11.81

ABC: 11.17

FOX: 9.29

UPN: 4.55

WB: 3.40

Season to Date

NBC: 15.13 million

CBS: 13.74

ABC: 13.38

FOX: 11.55

UPN: 4.45

WB: 3.60

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. *--*

Program Station House-holds 1.Mad About You KNBC 1,072,506 2.Frasier (9:30 p.m.) KNBC 1,032,970 3.Frasier KNBC 1,008,258 4.Home Improvement KABC 978,603 5.Seinfeld KNBC 909,409 6.Roseanne KABC 899,524 7.”The Odyssey” Pt. 2 KNBC 894,582 8.NYPD Blue KABC 874,812 9.Beverly Hills, 90210 KTTV 859,985 10.Melrose Place KTTV 746,308 Friends KNBC 746,308

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