Newsmagazines, ‘Pelican’ Help CBS Land on Top

Getting a lift from “The Pelican Brief� and the continued strength of newsmagazines “60 Minutes� and “48 Hours,� CBS flew off with its fourth first-place finish in the last six weeks, based on results issued Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research.

Fox’s premiere of “Guinness World Records: Primetime�--featuring such oddities as a bug-eyed woman and the world’s biggest tumor--provided some endorsement for the idea of original summer programming, more than doubling the network’s average Tuesday night audience and decisively beating reruns of “Frasier� and “Spin City.� On the flip side, “Melrose Place� began its summer run July 27 by scoring its lowest rating for a new episode.

Fox also moved “King of the Hill� to its new 8 p.m. Tuesday slot last week, where the animated series topped NBC’s “Mad About You� but lagged behind ABC’s “Home Improvement.�

Despite CBS’ recent status as the most-watched network overall, NBC, thanks to its Thursday lineup, has still ranked first among adults age 18 to 49--the group most avidly sought by advertisers--for 18 consecutive weeks.

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Cable Top 10

Here are Nielsen’s top 10 cable programs in prime time last week, also ranked by total viewers (in millions).

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Program Network Viewers 1. Wrestling (Mon., 10 p.m.) USA 5.76 2. Wrestling (Mon., 9 p.m.) TNT 5.06 3. Wrestling (Mon., 10 p.m.) TNT 5.05 4. Wrestling (Mon., 8 p.m.) TNT 4.55 5. “Fire Down Below� HBO 4.35 6. Wrestling (Mon., 8:57 p.m.) USA 4.25 7. Sunday Night Baseball ESPN 3.71 8. Wrestling (Sun., 7 p.m.) USA 3.62 9. NFL Preseason Football ESPN 3.11 10. Rugrats NICK 3.03

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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

CBS: 9.38 million

NBC: 8.79

ABC: 7.35

FOX: 7.25

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. “Guinness World Records� KTTV 656,209 2. 60 Minutes KCBS 651,200 3. Just Shoot Me KNBC 631,163 4. Seinfeld KNBC 591,089 5. Friends KNBC 571,052 6. “Scariest Police Chases 3� KTTV 546,006 7. Melrose Place KTTV 530,978 8. 20/20 KABC 510,941 9. Frasier KNBC 500,923 10. The Simpsons KTTV 490,905

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