Networks, Not Game, Record All-Star Numbers

CBS’ “Survivor” climbed to its biggest audience yet last week as summer TV viewing continued to be hot, with the three major networks all recording increases of 8% or more compared to a year ago, based on viewing estimates issued Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research.

NBC received only a minor assist from televising baseball’s All-Star Game, as many top names sat out the game and tune-in sunk to a record low to see Derek Jeter’s MVP performance. The audience scorecard was down 17% compared to a year ago and more than 20% versus the game’s slugging percentage in 1998.

Ratings remain uneven for CBS’ other summer series, “Big Brother,” plummeting during theweekend but faring somewhat better on other nights. CBS is said to be contemplating scheduling changes on the five-night-a-week program, which is generally winning its time slot (going up mostly against reruns) and bringing in young viewers who normally don’t watch the network.

Despite the perception that the audience is completely turned off by reruns--with newsmagazines such as “20/20 Downtown” beating “ER” in its Thursday slot--popular programs such as “Everybody Loves Raymond,” “The Practice” and “Law & Order” are still holding up pretty well in the summer months.

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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Net- View- Program work ers 1. Wrestling (Mon., 10 p.m.) USA 8.85 2. Wrestling (Mon., 9 p.m.) USA 8.56 3. Baseball Home Run Derby ESPN 6.51 4. “Nuremberg” Pt. 1 (8 p.m.) TNT 6.46 5. Boxing HBO 5.06 6. Wrestling (Mon., 8 p.m.) TNT 3.87 7. Boxing (Sat., 9:30 p.m.) HBO 3.77 8. “Wild Wild West” HBO 3.75 9. “The Parent Trap” DISN 3.70 10. “Nuremberg” Pt. (10 p.m.) TNT 3.54

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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.

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Last Season week to date ABC 9.65 million 13.45 CBS 9.24 11.96 NBC 9.02 11.81 FOX 6.25 8.47 UPN 3.17 3.83 WB 2.42 3.42

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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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Sta- House- Program tion holds 1. Millionaire (Thur.) KABC 842,787 2. Millionaire (Tue.) KABC 785,205 3. Survivor KCBS 706,685 4. Millionaire (Sun.) KABC 696,215 5. 20/20 Downtown KABC 596,756 6. Law & Order KNBC 586,286 7. 60 Minutes KCBS 502,531 8. Dharma & Greg KABC 481,592 9. Making the Band KABC 476,358 Two Guys and a Girl KABC 476,358

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