NBC's "Lateline" has cooled somewhat in its second try, while fellow Tuesday rookie "For Your Love" continues to outperform "Lateline" in the demos.
"Lateline" (10.4 rating, 17 share, according to Nielsen) declined from last week's 87% retention of its 18-49 lead-in to an 83% retention this week. That's still within the range of what's probably acceptable to NBC, but definitely slipping and well behind slot predecessor "Just Shoot Me" and its 91% average. "Lateline" easily won the slot in homes and adults 18-49 and 25-54.
At 8:30 p.m., "For Your Love" (7.9/12) was a discouraging fourth in households but first in adults 18-49 with a solid 96% retention of its 18-49 "Mad About You" lead-in (9.0/15 in homes). Slot predecessor "NewsRadio" averaged 90% retention.
Despite a best actress Oscar the night before for Helen Hunt, "Mad About You" stumbled to its lowest firstrun homes rating this season. Fox probably got more of a post-Oscar surge with its 8-9 p.m. rerun "Titanic: Breaking New Ground" (7.4/12, down just 4% from its firstrun rating Feb. 13).
Each household rating point represents an estimated 980,000 homes, or 1% of the country's TV homes. Each adults 18-49 rating point reps 1.23 million viewers, 1% of the U.S. total. A share is the same sort of percentage, except it's measured against only the homes of viewers watching TV during the timeslot involved.
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