All-Time Ratings Low for Big 3

The combination of sagging viewership for the Republican National Convention and reruns throughout most of the rest of the schedule sent audience shares for the three major networks plummeting to their lowest levels in history last week, figures from Nielsen Media Research showed Tuesday.

ABC, CBS and NBC combined to attract only 37% of the prime-time audience last week, the first time they have ever fallen below 40%. The beneficiary, not surprisingly, was the multitude of cable channels that collectively garnered 41% of the available viewers. Cable’s previous high had been 36% a week earlier.

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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 Station Rating 1. Seinfeld KNBC 14.0 2 20/20 KABC 13.8 3. ABC Movie “Jacksons Pt 2” KABC 13.6 4. Home Improvement KABC 11.9 5. 3rd Rock From the Sun Special KNBC 11.8 -. 3rd Rock From the Sun KNBC 11.8 7. The Simpsons KTTV 11.7 8. Friends KNBC 11.6 9. Frasier KNBC 11.3 10. NBC Sun. Movie “Friend to Die For” KNBC 11.0

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Weekly Averages

NBC: 7.0

ABC: 6.4

CBS: 6.1

FOX: 4.8

WB: 2.5

UPN: 2.4

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Season to Date

NBC: 11.6

ABC: 9.6

CBS: 8.9

FOX: 6.5

UPN: 2.8

WB: 2.1

Note: This abbreviated version of the TV ratings will appear each week until the fall season begins.

Source: A.C. Nielsen Ratings