TV Ratings : ‘ER’ Shows World Series Who’s the Big Slugger

Not even the World Series could derail the “ER” express. NBC’s second-season medical drama finished atop the prime-time ratings again last week, Nielsen Media Research reported Tuesday.

Of course, there was no World Series last year, so any audience had to be an improvement from baseball’s point of view. Actually, ratings for Game 1 of the Cleveland-Atlanta matchup on ABC, a brilliant pitching performance by the Braves’ Greg Maddux last Saturday, were 6% higher than for the first game in 1993, and NBC’s coverage of Game 2 on Sunday was up 8% from 1993.

With NBC also benefiting from the final game of the American League playoffs on Tuesday, the network handily won the weekly competition and strengthened its hold on the season lead over defending prime-time champion ABC, in both households and among 18-to-49-year-olds.

Even with baseball fever, however, ABC’s “Monday Night Football” scored its second highest rating of the season and ranked No. 7 for the week.

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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. ER KNBC 25.8 2. Seinfeld KNBC 23.7 3. Friends KNBC 22.2 4. Home Improvement KABC 19.2 5. Caroline in the City KNBC 18.6 6. The Single Guy KNBC 17.5 7. Coach KABC 15.6 8. Roseanne KABC 14.8 9. Beverly Hills, 90210 KTTV 14.6 10. “Behind Closed Doors III” KABC 13.8

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Weekly Averages

NBC: 13.3

ABC: 12.0

CBS: 9.5

FOX: 7.0

UPN: 3.3

WB: 2.2

Season to Date

NBC: 12.1

ABC: 11.7

CBS: 9.5

FOX: 7.3

UPN: 3.3

WB: 2.2

Source: A. C Nielsen