Network News Series Losing Summer Momentum

After a summer hot streak competing with reruns of drama series, newsmagazines suffered from some viewer burnout last week, based on results issued Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research.

Facing record-low ratings this summer, the networks have scheduled additional prime-time news programs as an alternative to repeats, but the strategy is beginning to yield diminishing returns.

ABC’s “20/20” did rank behind only “Seinfeld” last week, but Tuesday’s “Dateline NBC” slipped to its smallest audience since October. In addition, “PrimeTime Live”--a Top 10 finisher five of the last six weeks--had to compete with CBS’ “48 Hours” and dropped to its lowest rating in more than two years. With two news shows splitting that audience, NBC’s “Law & Order,” with Jerry Orbach, booked its highest rating this summer and beat “PrimeTime” for the first time since February.

Fox’s Aaron Spelling soap “Pacific Palisades” achieved a dubious milestone last week, meanwhile, by finishing sixth in its time slot, trailing even the WB network comedies and UPN’s “The Sentinel.” Fox did considerably better with its latest UFO special, which won its time period last Monday, beating both “Cosby” and “Suddenly Susan.”

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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: 9.91 million

CBS: 9.48

ABC: 8.53

FOX: 6.51

UPN: 3.73

WB: 3.08

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Season to Date

NBC: 14.26 million

CBS: 12.48

ABC: 12.36

FOX: 10.54

UPN: 4.25

WB: 3.51

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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 731,481 2. 20/20 KABC 721,596 3. ER KNBC 627,690 4. “Lies of the Heart” KABC 617,805 5. Suddenly Susan KNBC 578,266 6. Men Behaving Badly KNBC 543,668 7. “UFO’s/Caught on Tape” KTTV 523,899 8. Dateline NBC (Fri.) KNBC 518,956 9. Friends KNBC 509,071 10. Touched by an Angel KCBS 504,129 -- King of the Hill KTTV 504,129

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Source: Nielsen Media Research.