Prime-Time TV Rankings

‘Angel,’ ‘X-Files’ Have Post-Game Party

Heightened Sunday afternoon viewing caused by championship football translated into big prime-time ratings that night on CBS and Fox, but last week belonged to NBC and its comedy all-star team, according to figures released Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research.

With viewers scattering after football, CBS’ “60 Minutes” scored its highest rating in nearly a year and both “Touched by an Angel” and Fox’s “The X-Files,” starring Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny, rose to best-ever results. “The Simpsons” also scared up its highest numbers since the 1995 Halloween episode, while new companion series “King of the Hill”--from “Beavis and Butt-head” creator Mike Judge--retained nearly all of that audience.

NBC still won the week behind season-high ratings for the Thursday sitcoms “Friends” and “Seinfeld” (the No. 1 program, watched by nearly 34.5 million people) as well as its Friday shows “Unsolved Mysteries” and “Homicide: Life on the Street.” After pulling ahead of CBS, ABC’s third-place finish in prime time last week leaves the two networks dead even in second place season to date. “NBC Nightly News” also extended its win streak over longtime leader “ABC World News Tonight” to five of the last six weeks, albeit by a narrow margin.

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: 11.00 million

CBS: 10.22 million

ABC: 9.18 million

FOX: 7.50 million

UPN: 3.04 million

WB: 2.7 million

Season to Date

NBC: 10.28 million

CBS: 9.49 million

ABC: 9.31 million

FOX: 7.8 million

UPN: 3.11 million

WB: 2.60 million

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 1,161,473 2. The X-Files KTTV 1,008,258 3. 60 Minutes KCBS 1,003,325 4. Friends KNBC 953,891 5. The Single Guy KNBC 919,294 6. Suddenly Susan KNBC 914,351 7. NYPD Blue KABC 869,869 The Simpsons KTTV 869,869 King of the Hill KTTV 869,869 10. 3rd Rock From the Sun KNBC 840,215

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