TV Ratings: NBC Got Game
Okay, so we lied on that last one.
NBC won the weekly ratings race last week, fueled by the closer-than-expected NBA Finals, plenty of Weakest Link and a solid performance from its new reality series Fear Factor. But when it came to ABC's new behind-the-news show The Beast, the Nielsens were down right, um, beastly.
The Los Angeles Lakers' five-game victory over the scrappy Philadelphia 76ers produced a solid, if not spectacular, 12.1 rating--the best showing for NBA Finals since Michael Jordan hung up his sneaks in 1998. (A ratings point equals 1.02 million households.) The fourth and fifth games finished 1-2 for the week ended Sunday, with the respective pregame specials also landing high on the Nielsen charts.
And Fear Factor, the new reality show that attempts to scare its participants silly, drew nearly 12 million viewers to finish with a 7.4 rating.
Usual suspects like ABC's Who Wants to Be a Millionaire (with all three airings in the top 20) and NBC's Weakest Link (number seven for the week with a 9.6 rating and 14.1 million viewers) also did well.
Then there's The Beast. The show, starring the game-but-not-exactly-bankable Frank Langella, focuses on the off-screen goings-on at a CNN-type cable news network. Airing opposite the decisive Game 5 of the NBA Finals, The Beast barely registered with viewers, drawing about 6.3 million viewers and a 4.5 household rating.
Overall, NBC averaged 9.8 million viewers, followed by CBS (8.3 million), ABC (7.8 million), Fox (5 million), UPN (2.8 million) and the WB (2.4 million).
Here are the top 10 shows, according to household rating provided by Nielsen Media Research:
1. NBA Finals Game 4, NBC, 12.6 rating
2. NBA Finals Game 5, NBC, 11.2 rating
3. Who Wants to Be a Millionaire (Tuesday), ABC, 10.1 rating
4. Who Wants to Be a Millionaire (Thursday), ABC, 9.8 rating
5. PrimeTime Thursday, ABC, 9.7 rating
6. NBA Finals Tip-Off, Game 4, NBC, 9.6 rating
7. Weakest Link, NBC, 9.3 rating
8. Everybody Loves Raymond, CBS, 8.9 rating
9. 20/20 Friday, ABC, 8 rating
10. Becker, CBS, 7.5 rating
10. C.S.I., CBS, 7.5 rating
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