Willey Interview Boosts ’60 Minutes’ to Top

With NBC’s “Seinfeld” and “ER” in reruns Thursday, “60 Minutes’ ” exclusive Kathleen Willey interview boosted the venerable CBS newsmagazine’s audience more than 40% over its average to claim the week’s top rating, Nielsen Media Research reported Tuesday.

Good news for the major networks nevertheless remains scarce. Few midseason series have exhibited much ratings pop in their initial airings, the exception being ABC’s “Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place”--a new sitcom that had the benefit of following “The Drew Carey Show,” which delivered its second-biggest audience ever last week.

Ratings were less than impressive for other rookies that began spring tryouts last week: ABC’s “That’s Life,” NBC’s “House Rules” and Fox’s “Significant Others.” In relative terms, in fact, two of the year’s biggest hits air on smaller networks: the WB’s “Dawson’s Creek” and Comedy Central’s “South Park.”

Two high-profile Monday shows, meanwhile, appear headed in different directions. The audience for Fox’s blossoming “Ally McBeal” keeps building (including best-yet results March 9), while CBS’ Tom Selleck comedy “The Closer” looks to be sinking--gradually losing viewers since its heavily promoted post-Olympics debut.

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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.

Last Week

NBC: 13.00 million

CBS: 12.44

ABC: 12.07

FOX: 10.73

WB: 4.85

UPN: 3.96

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Season to Date

NBC: 15.18 million

CBS: 14.57

ABC: 12.54

FOX: 10.90

WB: 4.57

UPN: 4.16

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. 60 Minutes KCBS 1,041,920 2. Seinfeld KNBC 966,781 3. Friends KNBC 811,495 4. Touched by an Angel KCBS 801,477 5. Just Shoot Me KNBC 796,468 6. ER KNBC 791,458 7. Ally McBeal KTTV 476,375 8. Veronica’s Closet KNBC 726,338 9. Frasier KNBC 696,283 10. The Drew Carey Show KABC 671,237

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