TV Ratings : Jackson Interview Pulls ABC to Top of Weak Week

When it came to the TV ratings last week, there was Diane Sawyer’s interview with Mr. and Mrs. Michael Jackson on “PrimeTime Live,” and then there was everything else. The ABC newsmagazine had at least double the audience of all but a handful of other shows, according to figures released Tuesday by the A.C. Nielsen Co.

The broadcast, during which Jackson and his wife, Lisa Marie, fielded questions about their marriage and his relationship with children, was seen in about 24.7 million homes. The final game of the NBA championship was the No. 2 program for the week, reaching about 14.2 million homes.

With “PrimeTime Live” pulling the largest audience an ABC newsmagazine has ever had and four other programs finishing in the Top 10, ABC won handily the network competition for the week. Even so, none of the Big Three could be happy, as together they attracted only 48% of the prime-time viewers. And Fox accounted for only 9%--meaning roughly four out of every 10 TV viewers were spending their evenings watching cable, independent stations or videocassettes.

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Southland Ratings

Here are A.C. Nielsen’s Top 10 prime-time programs in the Los Angeles area during the same week. Each rating point equals 50,064 households.

Program Network Rating 1. PrimeTime Live KABC 34.8 2. Friends KNBC 19.0 3. Seinfeld KNBC 17.7 4. Roseanne KABC 17.5 5. Home Improvement KABC 17.1 6. “NBA Finals: Postgame Show” KNBC 16.6 7. Grace Under Fire KABC 15.3 8. ER KNBC 15.2 9. 20/20 KABC 13.7 10. 60 Minutes KCBS 13.2

Weekly Averages ABC: 9.2 NBC: 8.1 CBS: 7.4 FOX: 4.7 UPN: 2.4 WB: 1.7

Season to Date ABC: 11.6 NBC: 11.3 CBS: 10.6 FOX: 7.3 UPN: 3.8 WB: 1.8 Source: A. C. Nielsen Ratings