TV Ratings : CBS Starts Off the New Year on Good Note

Things may be looking up for CBS in ’96. The first week of the year found the network placing second in the prime-time ratings for the first time in the 16-week-old season. Its audience was 24% higher than CBS’ season average.

That was the good news in the figures released Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research. The bad news was that CBS’ highest-rated program last week--and its only one in the Top 10--was the college football championship between Nebraska and Florida. That was a one-time-only boost.

And while CBS was second in households reached, it still trailed NBC and ABC among the key 18- to 49-year-old demographic that is most prized by advertisers. Nevertheless, CBS said that “Murder, She Wrote” got its best Thursday ratings of the season and that the addition of “Matt Waters” and “American Gothic” improved the network’s showing on Wednesday night.

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Southland Ratings

Here are A.C. Nielsen’s Top 10 prime-time programs in the Los Angeles area during the same week. Each rating point equals 50,064 households.

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Program Network Rating 1. ER KNBC 27.3 2. Seinfeld KNBC 25.9 3. Friends KNBC 25.6 4. Caroline in the City KNBC 20.7 5. Single Guy KNBC 19.1 6. The X-Files KTTV 17.7 7. Mad About You KNBC 15.9 8. “Trouble With Lawyers” KABC 15.8 9. Home Improvement KABC 15.7 10. 60 Minutes KCBS 15.4

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Weekly Averages

NBC: 13.3

CBS: 11.8

ABC: 11.3

FOX: 7.9

UPN: 2.4

WB: 2.3

Season to Date

NBC: 11.7

ABC: 11.3

CBS: 9.5

FOX: 7.4

UPN: 3.1

WB: 2.3

Source: A. C. Nielsen