Prime-Time TV Rankings

Nearly 26 million people accepted CBS’ offer to watch “The Last Don,” which rubbed out the competition Sunday, according to results issued Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research.

The Mario Puzo adaptation, starring Danny Aiello, opened with the highest rating for a CBS miniseries since the “Gone With the Wind” sequel, “Scarlett,” aired 2 1/2 years ago. “Last Don” also sank ABC’s “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea,” which reeled in half as many viewers.

NBC, led by “ER” with its best ratings since February, still won the week and remains the May sweeps leader; however, its viewership thus far is down compared to last May, while CBS and ABC have shown a yearly gain and Fox has dropped only slightly.

Some established NBC hits slumped last week, as “Frasier” posted its lowest rating ever for a new episode and “Mad About You” had its worst showing since 1993, partly due to airing opposite the Fox movie “Mrs. Doubtfire,” starring Robin Williams. “Fired Up” (just renewed for next year) also received a cool reception, losing about 9 million people (or 28%) from the “Seinfeld” audience.

Bidding farewell to dysfunctional family values, 15.4 million people tuned in for the final episode of Fox’s “Married ... With Children”--the comedy’s highest rating in more than two years.

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: 14.33 million

CBS: 13.98

ABC: 12.27

FOX: 10.57

UPN: 4.19

WB: 3.34

Season to Date

NBC: 15.16 million

CBS: 13.76

ABC: 13.50

FOX: 11.65

UPN: 4.47

WB: 3.69

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.ER KNBC 1,136,761 2.Seinfeld KNBC 978,603 3.Married ... With Children KTTV 944,006 4.20/20 KABC 855,042 5.The X-Files KTTV 820,445 6.Fired Up KNBC 790,790 7.”Last Don” Pt. 1 KCBS 785,848 8.Friends KNBC 756,193 9.NYPD Blue KABC 731,481 10.60 Minutes KCBS 726,539

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