NBC’s ‘Dateline,’ Diana Close Summer Big

NBC looked most ready to get back to work as Labor Day signaled the near end of summer doldrums. The network’s Thursday lineup, “Dateline NBC” and a Princess Diana special paced the network to its widest margin of victory in 12 weeks, based on results issued Friday by Nielsen Media Research.

Weekend viewing suffered due to the holiday, but the Aug. 31 special on Princess Diana and NBC’s penultimate “Seinfeld” telecast provided strong numbers earlier in the week.

ABC’s “Dharma & Greg” also continues to show promise in its new 8 p.m. Wednesday time slot, as that comedy and “The Drew Carey Show” both delivered their biggest audiences since May. The weak link for ABC appears to be the show sandwiched between them, “Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place.” (Fox did provide somewhat stiffer competition Sept. 2 with “The Quick and the Dead,” a movie featuring Leonardo DiCaprio.)

Both ABC and CBS aired college football in East Coast prime time last week, scoring only modest ratings; by contrast, CBS’ overtime New York Jets-San Francisco 49ers pro game would have topped all programs had it been included in the rankings.

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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.

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Last week Season to date NBC 10.47 million 13.44 CBS 8.80 12.56 ABC 8.13 10.93 FOX 7.03 9.43 WB 2.21 4.10 UPN 2.25 3.53

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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 796,468 2. Frasier KNBC 741,368 3. Frasier KNBC 736,357 4. ER KNBC 711,311 5. The Drew Carey Show KABC 626,154 6. Diana KNBC 606,117 Guinness World Records KTTV 606,117 8. Friends KNBC 601,108 9. Dateline: NBC (Tue.) KNBC 591,089 Whose Line Is It... KABC 591,089

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