CBS Beats Up Competition With Magnificent Week

College football and cowboys made the most noise as the television networks otherwise quietly rang in the new year, based on prime-time results for last week issued Thursday by Nielsen Media Research.

A revival of “The Magnificent Seven,” starring Michael Biehn, shot up the competition Saturday, as the premiere--with most prime-time regulars airing reruns--blasted its way into the week’s Top 10. The CBS series will hold down the fort usually occupied by “Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman” for six weeks, until the Winter Olympics.

The week’s other new entry, Fox’s man-in-drag sitcom “Ask Harriet,” didn’t fare as well, as a Sunday preview fumbled away 15% of “The Simpsons” audience.

Beyond that, college football piled up most of the ratings yardage, as CBS scored a win last Friday with the Orange Bowl game, while ABC’s football coverage (including the portion of the Rose Bowl that spilled into prime time on the East Coast) upset repeats of NBC’s Nielsen all-pro team on New Year’s night.

The holidays depressed viewing levels early in the week. Programs airing on New Year’s Eve were especially hard hit, with lower-than-usual ratings for such Wednesday night fare as “The Drew Carey Show.”

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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: 13.89 million

NBC: 12.89

ABC: 11.91

FOX: 9.78

WB: 4.19

UPN: 3.26

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Season to Date

NBC: 14.88 million

CBS: 13.71

ABC: 12.94

FOX: 10.62

UPN: 4.38

WB: 4.30

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. 60 Minutes KCBS 851,569 2. Seinfeld KNBC 778,431 3. The X-Files KTTV 751,385 4. Touched by an Angel KCBS 656,209 5. Homicide: Life on the Street KNBC 636,172 6. NewsRadio KNBC 616,135 7. The Magnificent Seven KCBS 586,080 8. Friends KNBC 576,080 9. The Pretender KNBC 540,997 10. 20/20 KABC 535,986

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