ABC tops CBS in Nielsens
They were the Sunday team of "To Grandmother's House We Go" and "Christmas Vacation.""Grandmother's," a vidpic starring the "Full House" twins Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen, toddled to ABC's best Sunday 7-9 p.m. share since the Super Bowl aired there Jan. 27, 1991.
Then "Christmas Vacation" followed as ABC's top-rated single-episode film (made-for-TV or theatrical) since "Everybody's Baby: The Rescue of Jessica McClure" May 21, 1989. The Chevy Chase film topped even the great figures from last month's web debut of "Pretty Woman."
Surprisingly, those stellar "Vacation" numbers weren't even enough to win the night, thanks to CBS' running of the Katharine Hepburn-Ryan O'Neal telefilm "The Man Upstairs," CBS' top-rated Sunday film since "A Woman Scorned" aired last March 1.
But ABC still crushed CBS for the night in the key adults 18-49 category, winning by 11 shares and more than doubling CBS' results from 9-11 p.m.
And that put ABC in the Nielsens winner's circle for the fifth time in the last six weeks, solidifying its status as a legitimate challenger for the season's household-ratings crown, as well as confirming ABC's dominance in the key adults 18-49 race.
The week's adults 18-49 averages were: ABC, an 8.5 rating, 21 share; CBS, 6.7 /17; NBC, 6.2/16; Fox Broadcasting Co., 5.4/13.
Last week ABC also enjoyed the highest new-series-premiere rating since "Twin Peaks" 21.7/33 back on April 8, 1990, from "The Jackie Thomas Show," as well as impressive growth for the new Wednesday juggernaut of "Home Improvement" and "Coach."
Fox last week enjoyed the widest "Simpsons" margin of victory ever, the top-rated "Martin" so far and a slot-record rating for "America's Most Wanted." While NBC continues to run a fairly competitive third in adults 18-49 this season, the Peacock is looking particularly haggard in household numbers this holiday season.
Last week, NBC plunged to its worst Saturday 8-9 p.m. share in more than 10 years with "Here and Now" and "The Powers That Be," while both "Quantum Leap" and "Reasonable Doubts" on Tuesday hit the net's worst regular-season shares in their slots in more than 10 years.
And it's now been three weeks in a row that Thursday's "Out All Night" has remained at NBC's lowest share levels in that slot in at least 11 years.
NBC can hope for better results during the current week, since it started off with a second Monday win in three weeks. The Emma Samms-Parker Stevenson vidpic "Shadow of a Stranger" (15.1/24) ran a strong second over CBS from 9:30-11 p.m. on Monday of the current week and "Blossom" (14.1/21) dominated the 8:30 half-hour over a "Hearts Afire" rerun (12.9/19).
'Man Upstairs' helps CBS
ABC's Nov. 30-Dec. 6 weeklong win was capped by the spectacular second-place Sunday performance of the holiday films "To Grandmother's House We Go" and "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation." CBS still won the night with "Man Upstairs," its top-rated film of the season so far, but the Eye was never in that night's adults 18-49 race.
There wasn't much room left for Fox that night, and the weblet slipped to its worst Sunday share since Super Bowl night last January. "Tiny Toon Christmas" did manage to equal Fox's best Sunday 7-7:30 share in 13 weeks.
NBC's "I Witness Video" captured its best regular-series rating yet.
Saturday fell completely out of NBC's grasp last week, as ABC's "Columbo" and "Commish" won the night in households and Fox's "Cops" and "Code 3" took the evening in adults 18-49. It was ABC's first Saturday win since Feb. 27, 1988.
NBC continues to suffer in the 8-9 p.m. hour, where the web ran fourth in households last week with "Here and Now" and "The Powers That Be." It was NBC's lowest share that hour since Jan. 16, 1982, when a "Project Peacock" spec managed a meager 5.2/8 for the 8-9:30 period.
"Here" and "Powers" were a bit more competitive in adults 18-49, but still a mere 1 share out of fourth-place by that measure. Fox's "Cops" fell just short of doubling NBC's numbers among viewers 18-49 from 8-9 p.m..
Competitiveness doubts
CBS' competitiveness that hour remains in doubt. "Miracles and Other Wonders" plunged in rating by 20% in its second try last week.
Friday belonged to ABC, while CBS clung to second despite "Perry Mason" competition from NBC. Fox was a solid third from 8-9 p.m. with the top-rated "America's Most Wanted" in that slot ever.
Thursday went narrowly to NBC in households, but from 8-10 p.m. Fox won among adults 18-49 and clobbered the competition among young men (a 27 share among men 18-34), teens (a 48 share) and kids (a 40).
Fox stormed the night with the top-rated "Simpsons" since Oct. 11, 1990, the top-rated "Martin" ever and the first of a series of first-season "In Living Color" repeats at 9 p.m.
"Color" captured Fox's top rating in that time period since last May 7 ("Beverly Hills, 90210"). But at 9:30, "Down the Shore" suffered 33% erosion compared to the "Color" lead-in rating.
Fox was otherwise so powerful that night that "Martin" won its half-hour in households (where the networks are usually stronger) by a previously unheard-of six shares.
"Simpsons" exactly doubled the household numbers of its closest timeslot competitor, winning the half-hour by 13 shares. That's the largest margin ever for the hit animation series.
"Simpsons"' demographic margins of victory last week were even more breathtaking: among adults 18-49, 19 shares; men 18-34, 29 shares; teens, 39 shares; and kids, 44 shares.
Wednesday fell to CBS' highest rated "48 Hours" since Sept. 2. Also adding cheer to net's results were the original "A Charlie Brown Christmas" (up 22% in rating from last year) and "Garfield's Christmas" (up 50%). The yule spex brought CBS home in second place in the Wednesday 8-9 p.m. hour for only the second time since last June 24.
But Wednesday is still easily ABC's night demographically, now that "Coach" has teamed so perfectly with "Home Improvement" to give ABC a powerhouse 9-10 p.m. hour. Last week "Improvement" nailed down its highest rating ever.
"Coach" is making big trouble for NBC's "Mad About You," which last week plunged to its worst rating and biggest dropoff yet from the slot's "Seinfeld" lead-in rating (29%).
Tuesday's big story was the debut of "The Jackie Thomas Show" on ABC, and the first numbers have been solid. "Jackie" held 90% of "Roseanne's" lead-in, topping every "Coach" performance in the slot since Sept. 8.
"Jackie" topped the combined scores of the two competing webs that half-hour.
Low clearances and a "Quantum Leap" rerun contributed, but NBC's Tuesday troubles may have reached crisis dimensions last week. "Leap" plunged to NBC's worst regular-season share that hour since weak-rated election coverage Nov. 2, 1982, while "Reasonable Doubts" hit the net's lowest regular-season share for its hour in at least 12 years, perhaps ever.
Monday went to CBS as ABC slipped to its lowest "Monday Night Football" rating since Sept. 14 and NBC settled for its lowest-rated Monday pic in eight weeks (Daily Variety, Dec. 2).
Each rating point represents an estimated 931,000 households, or 1% of the country's TV homes. The share is the same sort of percentage, except that it's measured against only the households watching TV during the timeslot involved.
