‘Seinfeld’ Stays on Steady Course to Finale

“Seinfeld” kept marching toward its finale with a top-rated performance last week, according to results issued Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research.

Despite media hype regarding the “Seinfeld” countdown, the show’s planned end hasn’t as yet generated any surge in viewing, with last week’s original episode mirroring the program’s average audience for the season. NBC has experienced gains, however, since moving “Just Shoot Me” to Thursdays, where the show retained nearly all of the “Friends” audience. (The network gave “ER” the week off, offering “Seinfeld” and “Frasier” reruns in its place.)

Several new series also premiered last week, getting off to reasonably good starts. NBC’s Tuesday tryouts “For Your Love” and “Lateline” lost a little over 10% of viewers who watched their lead-ins--”Mad About You” and “Frasier,” respectively--and Fox’s comedy “Damon,” starring Damon Wayans, did about the same Sunday following “The Simpsons.”

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Cable’s Top 10

Here are Nielsen’s top 10 cable programs in prime time last week, also ranked by total viewers.

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Program Network Viewers 1. “Moby Dick” Part 2 USA 9,977,000 2. Wrestling (Mon., 10 p.m.) TNT 6,737,000 3. Wrestling (Mon., 9 p.m.) TNT 6,033,000 4. Wrestling (Mon., 8 p.m.) TNT 5,059,000 5. Wrestling Fed. (Tue., 10 p.m.) USA 4,869,000 6. Wrestling Fed. (Tue., 9 p.m.) USA 4,555,000 7. Thunder Wrest, (Thu., 9 p.m.) TBS 4.409,000 8. South Park CC 4,366,000 9. Always Outnumbered HBO 4.095,000 10. Thunder Wrest, (Thu., 8 p.m.) TBS 4,084,000

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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: 13.43 million

CBS: 12.60

ABC: 11.93

FOX: 9.78

WB: 4.67

UPN: 3.19

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. Seinfeld KNBC 1,182,178 2. Friends KNBC 1,011,864 3. Seinfeld (10 p.m.) KNBC 951,754 4. Caroline in the City KNBC 931,717 5. Just Shoot Me KNBC 876,615

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