In Game of Numbers, It’s a Super Week for Fox

Televising the Super Bowl left Fox atop the prime-time standings for only the second time in its 10-year history last week--just as another major sports event, baseball’s World Series, did for the network in October.

Based on figures released Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research, an average of more than 87.8 million people watched Sunday’s Super Bowl, called by announcers Pat Summerall and John Madden, and that big football handoff helped “The X-Files” score a record 29 million viewers, although the audience was considerably smaller than NBC’s post-game “Friends” episode a year ago.

In terms of more conventional highlights, NBC’s tabloid-magazine sitcom “The Naked Truth” kept all but 13% of “Seinfeld’s” circulation with its second edition, and CBS’ “JAG” and “Nash Bridges” flew to best-yet ratings on Friday night. On the flip side, NBC’s “Chicago Sons” and CBS’ Larry Hagman hour “Orleans” have faded after promising starts, with the latter to be pulled from the lineup until March.

Evening news remains one of TV’s most competitive battlegrounds, with ABC and NBC tying last week. Buoyed by NBC’s strength elsewhere, “NBC Nightly News” has now held at least a share of the lead five consecutive weeks--its best run since 1987.

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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.

FOX: 26.37

NBC: 14.21

CBS: 12.15

ABC: 11.94

UPN: 4.29

WB: 3.32

Season to Date

NBC: 15.42

ABC: 13.93

CBS: 13.91

FOX: 12.29

UPN: 4.53

WB: 3.64

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. The X-Files KTTV 1,329,516 2. ER KNBC 1,205,955 3. Seinfeld KNBC 1,131,819 4. NYPD Blue KABC 988,488 5. Frasier KNBC 929,179 6. The Naked Truth KNBC 845,157 7. Friends KNBC 835,272 8. Caroline in the City KNBC 795,733 9. The Simpsons KTTV 775,963 10. The Single Guy KNBC 736,424

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