TV Ratings : Shepherd Scores Twice in Top 10

Cybill Shepherd made a double appearance Tuesday in the Top 10 television ratings for last week. Figures from Nielsen Media Research ranked “There Was a Little Boy,” a TV movie in which she starred, at No. 9 in the measurement of homes watching, followed by a repeat episode of her CBS series, “Cybill.”

At the top of the charts, locally and nationally, were “Friends,” “Seinfeld” and “ER,” NBC’s powerhouse Thursday trio. With the Tuesday edition of “Dateline NBC” also finishing in the national Top 10, NBC narrowly won the weekly prime-time competition against its rival networks.

The final episode of “Northern Exposure” failed to ignite any ratings fireworks. The Wednesday telecast on CBS finished 49th among the week’s 95 network programs, attracting 13% of the available viewers.

That was better, however, than Michael Jackson’s latest ABC appearance last Friday, which ranked 53rd.

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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.

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Program Network Rating 1. Friends KNBC 21.8 2. Seinfeld KNBC 16.8 3. ER KNBC 14.8 4. 20/20 KABC 14.2 - Home Improvement KABC 14.2 6. 60 Minutes KCBS 12.7 7. Married ... With Children KTTV 12.6 8. PrimeTime Live KABC 12.4 9. Grace Under Fire KABC 12.3 10. Coach KABC 11.8

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Weekly Averages

NBC: 8.3

ABC: 8.1

CBS: 8.0

FOX: 4.9

UPN: 2.2

WB: 1.7

Season to Date

ABC: 11.2

NBC: 10.9

CBS: 10.2

FOX: 6.9

UPN: 3.4

WB: 1.8

Source: A. C. Nielsen Ratings