TV Ratings : ‘Boston Common’ Enjoys Uncommon Debut

The new entree in NBC’s Thursday block of hit shows, “Boston Common,” had a smash premiere, finishing at No. 3 last week according to information released Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research. It did help that the 8:30 p.m. sitcom, starring stand-up comedian Anthony Clark, had the No. 1-rated “Friends” as a lead-in at 8. The two shows plus reruns of “Seinfeld,” “Caroline in the City” and “ER” guided NBC to another win in the weekly prime-time ratings race.

NBC also got a good return from its Monday movie “The Ultimate Lie,” which was No. 7.

“60 Minutes”’ interview with a former cigarette company scientist, who had given damaging information to the Justice Department about the tobacco industry, enabled the CBS newsmagazine to finish at No. 8, while its Sunday night rival “Dateline NBC” dropped to No. 50.

For ABC, there was good and bad news. Its drama “In the Blink of an Eye” (No. 13) won the battle of Sunday night movies over CBS’ “A Stranger to Love” (No. 15) and NBC’s “Batman Returns” (No. 52). But the comedy “The Dana Carvey Show,” which premiered two weeks ago at No. 11, dropped to No. 37.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

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.

*--*

Program Station Rating 1.Seinfeld KNBC 23.9 2.Friends KNBC 23.5 3.Boston Common KNBC 19.4 4.Caroline in the City KNBC 19.4 5.Melrose Place KTTV 16.6 6.Home Improvement KABC 16.6 7.NYPD Blue KABC 16.4 8.60 Minutes KCBS 16.3 9.ER KNBC 15.6 10.The Dana Carvey Show KABC 14.7

*--*

Weekly Averages

NBC: 10.8

ABC: 10.4

CBS: 9.6

FOX: 7.2

UPN: 3.7

WB: 3.0

Season to Date

NBC: 11.9

ABC: 10.9

CBS: 9.7

FOX: 7.5

UPN: 3.2

WB: 2.5