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Tuesday a dogfight for all
    Tuesday night, won almost entirely by ABC last season, is turning out to be quite a dogfight so far this year, and last Tuesday's numbers were no exception. While "Millionaire" (21.0/35) ran away with 8pm, coming up with it's best non-celeb Tuesday numbers of the season, the race for second was set between CBS & Fox. "JAG" (13.3/22) won the hour for the eye, but did get knocked off by "That 70s Show" (11.7/19) in younger viewers. That show recorded it's highest numbers since October.
    At 9pm, the race was much tighter, with only one clear winner. "Frasier" slid slightly to a 17.8/30, winning it's 9pm slot by a comfortable 4 million viewers margin. Number 2 for the 9pm hour belonged to timeslot partner "DAG," which increased to a 13.7/23. Right behing that was ABC's rising "Dharma & Greg," which recorded a 13.5/23. The real treat was for Fox, which saw "Dark Angel" (12.6/21) continue to grow, reaching it's largest audience in over a month.
    The 10pm crown once again belonged to CBS's "Judging Amy" (15.1/28), which has all but nailed the last spike in the coffin of "Once & Again" (9.0/17). (November 29)
Monday rules for CBS, Fox
    There was not just one big winner on Monday night, but two. Both CBS & Fox got in on the action, each drawing some of their highest numbers of the season.
    On the eye, "Everybody Loves Raymond" (20.3/30) kept rolling on Monday, drawing numbers high enough to probably make it the weeks top rated sitcom ("Friends" is in repeats). That would make two weeks in a row, the first time "Raymond" has ever accomplished that feat in the regular season. At 9:30, "Becker" (18.4/27) held on to a season high 91% of it's lead-in aud. While the show hasn't been struggling this season, it hasn't seen the growth that "Raymond" has.
    Fox got a boost from both it's show. At 8pm, "Boston Public" (12.1/20) continued to grow, increasing over it's previous two weeks performances. So far the show is averaging 12.2 million viewers, double what Fox drew in the slot last season. Robert Downey Jr's drug arrest seemed to lift "Ally McBeal" (13.5/20) to it's highest numbers of the season. That show is averaging 13.1 million viewers so far, down 15% from last season, but up over a disappointing spring performance.
    At 10pm, "Third Watch" finally shone, drawing a 13.5/21. It's not only built over it's repeat "Law & Order" (10.7/16) lead-in, but beat CBS's "Family Law" (13.0/20). It has only done that a handfull of times this season, much thanks to weak lead-in numbers from both "Deadline" & "Law & Order."
    On the WB, "7th Heaven" continued to shine, dropping only slightly to a 8.8/15. The show is averging a huge 9.2 million viewers this sweeps period, up 13% from last year. (November 28)

"Titanic" disappoints; so does WB
    NBC's feature presentation of "Titanic" took up it's entire line-up, but failed to light it on fire.
The movie drew a less than spectacular 17.0/23 from 7-11, winning only two timeslots, 8 & 8:30.
Though that number is 70 percent ahead of what the network drew last week, it's disappointing compared to the millions the network paid to air the most popular movie ever made. It did rank as NBC's most popular movie bradcast since last season.
    Equally disappointing numbers were had on the WB were the half-hour shows lived up to their
name. "Grosse Pointe", (2.1/3) airing at 9:30, drew two third's of "Nikki"s audience (3.2/4), while "Hype" (2.3/3) dropped an equal amount of "Steve Harvey"s (3.6/5) aud.
    When all was said and done, ABC once again won the night, even stronger than before. Both
"Millionaire" (21.7/28); "The Practice" (19.0/27) & "The Disney Movie: The Santa Claus" (15.1/22)
all drew above their season averages. (November 27)

Frasier slides with lineup
    NBC's weak Tuesday line-up is finally catching up with "Frasier" - the show slid to it's lowst first run numbers in three years on Tuesday. Though it did place first (16.8/28), beating it's nearest competitor by 3 million viewers ("60 Minutes II"- 13.7/23), that's a million and a half lower than last week's results and 12 million less than it's premiere weak. The slid can be attributed to it's surrounding shows- a dive of lead-out "DAG" (12.7/21) & a very weak lead-in "3rd Rock From The Sun" (8.7/15). The drop for "Frasier" could be even more as ABC's "Dharma & Greg" (13.2/22) is building nearly every week, slowly closing in on it's NBC competitor. The 9pm picture is also looking bleak for WB's "Angel" (4.2/7), which slid to it's lowest first run numbers yet. The culprit? Fox's "Dark Angel," (11.7/20) which is starting to look more and more at home in the slot.
    The rest of the night was a mixed bag. "Millionaire" (19.7/33) won at 8pm, but "That 70s Show" (11.4/19) also had a very strong outing. At 10pm, "Judging Amy" (15.5/29) easily handled "Once & Again" (9.1/16), although the latter was up over recent weeks. (November 22)

The "Angel"s have fallen
    It seems that CBS shows with the word "Angel" in title are taking a beating this season. Sunday mainstay "Touched By An Angel"- drawing 28 million viewers only three November's ago, dropped to 13.8 million last week. And now the other show, Steve Bochco's "City of Angels," has been let off contract. CBS decided not to order a back-nine of the series on Wednesday, letting it's end it's run at just 26 episodes- including the 13 that aired on Wednesday last spring.
    The series was weak from the beginning, critically and in the ratings. It averaged on 9.1 million viewers last season at 8pm on Wednesday. It was speculated that CBS kept the series to appease the NAACP. Critically, the series started the season on a much higher note, coming off by some as one of the best series on tv. But moving to a new Thursday at 9pm slot didn't help: the series fell to 7.7 million viewers, CBS's lowest rated series in that slot ever. It is not know when the remaining 7 episodes of the series will air, or what the network will replace it with.
    CBS is probably clearing out series for what will be a big Thursday showing come February with "Survivor II." But that is only speculation. (November 22)

ABC wins big on Monday
    In what is becoming a boring headline, ABC won once again Monday, thanks to all of it's line-up. At 8pm, "20/20 Downtown" (15.0/24) grabbed it's highest numbers of the season, beating out "King of Queens" (14.0/22), the NBC special "Dixie Chicks: Learn to Fly" (11.1/17) and "Boston Public" (10.7/17). "7th Heaven" (9.0/14) continued to draw well on the WB, dropping only about a million
viewers from it's huge ratings last week.
    After that, it was all ABC- after 9:30. "Everybody Loves Raymond" (20.3/29) continued to beat it's "Monday Night Football" (20.1/30) competition. It never managed to accomplish that feat last season, but so far this season it has beaten the girdion every week but one.
    "Third Watch" (12.2/19) finally beat "Family Law" (12.0/18), the first time it has done that in six weeks. (November 21)

Sunday=ABC win
    ABC continued it's streak last Sunday- it's streak of winning every Sunday since the Olympics finished two months ago. The net won with the final edition of "Celebrity Millionaire" (23.5/30), which beat it's nearest competitor (CBS's Sunday Movie "The Lost Child"- 16.0/22) by over 7 million viewers.
    Also winning on Sunday were the combo of "The Simpsons" (15.4/24) & "Malcolm In The Middle" (15.0/23), which combined to win their slots for the first time this season. That sent both "Touched By An Angel" (13.8/22) & "Ed" (9.5/15) to season lows. In the latter's case, it represents the first time the series dropped below 10 million viewers.
    The big loser on Sunday? WB's "Grosse Pointe" (2.1/3), which recorded it's lowest numbers yet.
It lost an astounding 28% of it's meagre "Nikki" (2.9/4) lead-in. (November 20)

Saturday ratings high
    Television ratings hit a two year high for Saturday last night as the four nets combined to draw an average of 40.5 million viewers, up 3 million viewers over last week. The only net that didn't benefit from this increase was Fox, which saw a ratings flatline.
    ABC (10.7/22) led the way on the night, winning with coverage of College Football. "The District" (13.1/26) led CBS (10.4) into second, followed by another weak-ish outing by "Walker, Texas Ranger" (10.2/20). NBC rounded up third with the ump-teenth showing of "Twister." Apparently, the movie is still packing some punch, because it drew a season-high 10.2/21. Fox fell to fourth, led by "Cops II" (9.7/21).
    Usually Saturdays are the weakpoints on the ABC & NBC schedule, bringing week to date numbers down considerably. But that didn't happen this week. So far, the peacock leads the alphabet 14.4 million viewers to 14.1, a margin with ABC will likely overcome on it's highly rated Sunday night. Sweeps to date, NBC (14.2) has a commanding lead over ABC (13.3), which the ratings period on a bad note. (November 19)

ABC, WB, "CSI" pick up
    It was a good Friday night for nearly all the nets as viewership finally picked up on a night that has been previously averaging low 40 million total viewership. Peaking at 48.0 million at 9pm, the big
beneficiaries were both ABC and the WB, as well as CBS's "CSI."
    After averaging less than 6 million viewers from 8-10pm last week, the special "The Beatles Revolution" rounded up a 10.3/22. While this rating is similar to what ABC did in this slot last year with TGIF, the net has been struggling this season with a slew of adult comedies. Also winning from 8-10 pm was the entire WB line-up, headed off by an hour of "Sabrina" (4.3/9). Since taking over the 8:30 slot with repeats, the show has boosted it's 8pm ratings by 11%, and the WB's 8:30
ratings by a whopping 78% over "Grosse Pointe." All this has done wonders for "Popular," which has been dying in the 9pm timeslot. This Friday it averaged a 3.7/8, by far it's highest numbers of the season. The show is averaging 2.7 million viewers in it's new Friday slot so far this season.
    The other big winner of the night? CBS' already-hit "CSI." The show drew 16.3/34 at 9pm, it's highest numbers since it's premiere. It beat out time-slot competitor "Dateline NBC" (10.4/22) by a large margin and co-Friday dramas "Providence" (13.1/28); "Law & Order: SVU" (13.2/25); and 8pm lead-in "The Fugitive" (8.5/18) to take top drama honours on the night. So far the show is averaging 15.3 million viewers this season, qualifying it as Friday night's biggest hit since the aforementioned "Providence" in 1998. (November 18)

"Whose Line" over "Cursed"
    We predicted it, and now it had happened, last Thursday a Robin Williams-backed "Whose Line Is It Anyway" climbed over it's NBC competitor "Cursed" for the first time, also raking up a series record in viewers. "Whose Line" drew a 16.1/26 at 8pm, topping "Cursed" (15.6/25) by a small, but important margin. The show has also grown by wide leaps over 5 consecutive episodes, going from
8.5 million viewers to 9.3; 11.0; 12.3 and now to 16.1. During that time it's NBC competitor has decreased from 18.7 million to 15.6.
    It became a "Millionaire" affair at 9pm, where the final celeb edition of the gamer drew a 21.1/31, it's highest Thursday numbers of the season. NBC's "Will & Grace" also had something to be "cher"ry about, as a Cher-backed ep drew a 20.0/29. The bad news, however, was that it was the first time "W&G" lost to "Millionaire" this season.
    "ER" ran away with the cake at 10pm. Sally Fields stopped by, helping the show rake up 29.8/42. That beat it's closedt competitor, "PrimeTime Thursday" (9.6/14) by an astounding 20.2 million viewers. (November 17)

Wednesday reach for the bottom
    While some established shows raked up ratings gold on Wednesday, it was pretty much a race to the bottom for the bulk of the mid-week series. In fact, while  5 shows drew 14.6 million viewers plus, the next highest rated drew just 8.8 million, with the expection of "Gideon's Crossing" (10.8/19) on ABC.
    The bottom dwelling all started at 8pm, where "Millionaire" (24.5/44) bowled over it's competition. In an attestment to how weak the competition was, "Millionaire"s 44 net share is the highest obtained by any network broadcast so far this season. 'The race for second was between "Malcolm In The Middle" (8.8/16) & "Bette" (8.5/15), both of which drew disappointingly low numbers for their respective networks. Even further down the list was "Normal, Ohio" (7.2/13), which beat the good-as-dead "Welcome To New York" (6.8/12). In the middle was "Titans,"
(7.6/14), which gave back previous ratings gains.
    Nine o'clock produced more head-shaking performances. "The West Wing" (19.0/34) didn't quite run away with the hour, as "The Drew Carey Show" (17.0/30) came up with it's best numbers of the season. The two shows combined to take almost two thirds of the network tv audience, also making it the first time this season two shows in the same slot drew a 30 net share. A good 9 million viewers later was part 2 of CBS's OJ Simpson biopic "An American Tragedy" (8.3/15), which lost 20% of
it's part 1 Sunday aud. After that, its was a three was battle for 4th, as "The $treet" (4.7/8), "Star Trek: Voyager" (4.4/8) & "Felicity" (4.2/7) all rated within close proximity of each other. With the performance is extremely disappointing for Fox's "$treet" & UPN's "Trek," it's sterling for "Felicity," which held most of "Dawsons Creek"s audience.
    At ten there wa sonly one stand-out, the always sparking "Law & Order." That show drew it's highest ratings of the season, a 19.6/34. (November 16)

Beil exit soars "7th Heaven"
    Monday ratings for "7th Heaven" were like no other the show as seen in 2 seasons: the exit of Mary (Jessica Beil) lifted the show to a chokingly high 10.1/17, the series highest ratings since it
drew 11.7 million in February of 1999. That was good enough to lift it past ABC's "News Special"
(9.2/16) at 8pm, and bring it to within a million viewers of Fox's "Boston Public" (11.0/19). It even came close to part 2 of the NBC mini "In The Beginning" (11.3/17). Only CBS's "King of Queens"
(14.0/24) was able to safely distance itself from the established WB hit.
    The ratings glory didn't conitue at 9pm, however, as the slumping "Roswell" (5.1/7) dropped half of "Heaven"s aud. The big winner in this hour was once again "Everybody Loves Raymond," which held steady at a 20.6/28, tip-toeing over ABC's Football (20.2/28), but soaring over one-time stalemate partner "Ally McBeal" (13.0/18). So far this season "Raymond" is averaging 20.9 million viewers, up 22% over last season's tally.
    Sweeps wise, Monday's numbers tightened the race between NBC (13.9 million) & ABC (13.2), while WB (4.7) took the lead over UPN (4.6). (November 14)

Super Sunday on ABC
    Thanks to the strength of all of it's programming, it really was a super Sunday on ABC. The net accomplished a feat it hasn't managed since last November: winning every one of it's Sunday timeslots from 7 until 11.
    It all started at 7pm, where the Disney Movie "Miracle Worker" drew 15.5 million viewers. The movie grew throughout it's duration, eventually averaging a 17.2/26, peaking at 8:30 with 19.7 million viewers. At 9pm, the return of "Celebrity Millionaire" was all the alphabet needed to lock viewers in: the show drew a 25.5/32 with Alec Baldwin and Jon Stewart on the hot seat. While those numbers are weel off what the celeb edition of the gamer drew last May, it does represent the series highest numbers since that time.
    At 10pm, "The Practice" dropped a signifigant portion of it's lead-in, but still came up with a 20.1/29. ABC's totals on this night should be enough to top NBC on the week, a much needed win for the net.
    Elsewhere om the Sabbath, "King of The Hill" (12.0/18) came up with it's best 7:30 numbers yet, helping lead-out "The Simpsons" to a 15.1/22. "Malcolm In The Middle" (15.2/22) grew slightly on that number. (November 13)

Another low Friday tally
    With competition on Friday nights fierce this season, the ratings haven't been. And last Friday was no exception. NBC (13.0 mil) managed to take the night, but still suffered low numbers for "Providence" (12.6/30). Those numbers were good enough to win the slot over "The Fugitive" (8.2/20), but the third year series is down 15% this season. Bad numbers in the 8 o'clock hour were also had on ABC, where an 8:30 repeat of "Two Guys & A Girl" (5.9/18) barely beat out ABC's performance last week for the now cancelled "The Trouble With Normal."
    At 9pm, the race went overwealmingly to "CSI" (14.5/34), which continued to reign as the season top rated new drama. Falling all the way down to a 5.5/13 was "Madigan Men," which for the very first time failed to build on it's "Norm" lead-in.
    The win at 10pm belong to NBC's "Law & Order: SVU" (14.3/28), which grabbed it's best ratings of the season. (November 11)

"Whose Line" vs "Cursed"
    The real race on Thursday night is not turning out to be "Millionaire" (17.6/27) vs. "Will & Grace"
(18.2/28), but a half hour earlier where ABC's "Whose Line Is It Anyway?" is coming up fast on NBC's "Cursed."
    The ABC improv fest, which was recently renewed for two more seasons, drew a 12.1/20 at 8:30, off only three and a half million from "Cursed" (15.5/28). That may seem like a huge gap, but consider: last week that gap was 7.5 million (18.5 mil vs 11.0), and the week before that 8.5 (17.8 vs 9.3). With Celebrity "Millionaire" coming up soon, "Whose Line" could soon overtake "Cursed," just as it did last season with the weak "Jesse."
    "Cursed"s numbers were especially disappointing considering the lead-in "Friends" gave it: 22.0 million viewers. While the freshman drama is well of "Jesse" 8:30 numbers last season, it veteran lead-in is actually up over last season.
    Not so disappointing were the numbers for WB's "Gilmore Girls," which reached a 4.0/6. Those are the series highest numbers since it's premiere. So far, ratings for show have grown every episode since the second. (November 11)

Carey live bombs
    "The Drew Carey Show" may have went live last night, but viewership was pretty stagnant.
The show, which integrated aspects of "Whose Line Is It Anyway" & "Spin City" drew a weak 15.5/28, up only 900,000 viewers from last week and off 20 percent from that live episode the show did last year.
    And all that despite "Millionaire"s Wednesday edition giving it's best performance of the season. The game show drew a 21.0/37 at 8, beating it's closest competitor (CBS's "Bette") by almost 10 million viewers (11.4/20). "Millionaire" wasn't the only winner in the 8pm hour though: NBC's "Titans" drew it's highest numbers since it's premiere (8.3/14). But those gains were at the expense of Fox's sitcom block: "Normal Ohio" (7.9/14) fell 36% from it's premiere last week. (November 9)

NBC wins Presidential vote
    The result at the poles may not have been clear, but the tv results were: NBC blew away the network competition with it's election coverage. The peacock drew a 18.6/31 from 8-11pm, beating both ABC (13.6/23) and CBS (12.3/21) by large margins. The only net that did not draw for it's election coverage was Fox, which fell to a miniscule 3.8/6 from 8-10. That represents only a third of the viewership that the net drew last week.
    On the mini-nets, a repeat of "Bad Boys" (5.4/9) gave UPN it's best Tuesday numbers in over a year, while the WB secured an audience with "Buffy The Vampire Slayer" (5.9/10). (November 8)

"Football" blows away Monday
    "NFL Monday Night Football" was all ABC needed to blow away Monday night. The show drew a massive 20.1/29 from 9-12pm, beating last week's result by 200,000 viewers. The show even managed to beat out CBS's "Everybody Loves Raymond" (19.0/28), only the second time it has done that so far this season. That show dropped to it's lowest numbers of the season.
    Outside of the 9 o'clock winners, competition was fierce on Monday as ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC and even the WB took each other on. At 8pm, the winner was CBS with "King of Queens"
(13.7/24) & "Yes, Dear" (13.0/23), but Fox's "Boston Public" (12.0/21) didn't linger too far behind. The rookie drama did win the hour in 18-49's, however. The race was tight for 4th, with "Dateline NBC" (9.0/16) just edging out "7th Heaven" (8.7/15). The wholesome drama reversed it's losing trend of the season to post it;s biggest numbers since February 1998.
    At 10pm, ABC took the cake, but the real race was for second. Thanks to a stronger lead-in "Law & Order" (9.5/14), "Third Watch" (12.3/18) managed it's best numbers in a month. But ti still got beat by CBS's "Family Law" (12.3/18). That show, however, lost a big portion of it's "Becker"(16.2/24) lead-in. (Novmeber 7)

CBS takes Saturday
    Saturday, once the strongest night on the CBS schedule, has finally had it's "Welcome Home"
this season, and last Saturday was no exception. Thanks to strong numbers from "The District"
(14.2/33), CBS (10.9 mil) beat the number two network (Fox- 9.1 mil) on the night by almost
2 million viewers.
    But the news wasn't all great for the eye. While it's 10pm rookie "The District" is doing fine, the net's 8pm entry "That's Life" is struggling. It pulled a weak 8.0/20 at 8pm, coming in third in it's slot.
That's off 10% what "Early Edition" pulled last season, and the show is down even further in 18-49's.
    With one night left to go this week, any net could take the prize. NBC (13.5 mil) does have a commanding lead over ABC (11.7) & CBS (11.4), but both of those net's pull their strongest numbers on Sunday. Distant but not totally done, Fox (9.7) could creep through for a win if it's Sunday premieres draw a big enough crowd. (November 5)

"Friends" has strong start
    Despite a weakened lead-out in "Cursed," "Friends" had a strong start to November sweeps for NBC, increasing over last year by a slim, but important 3%. The episode drew a 24.3/40 at 8pm,
topping it's closest competition ("48 Hours" on CBS) by 275%. That rating also represents "Friends" highest of the regular season so far (excluding premiere week). But it appeared that "Cursed" had fewers friends at 8:30 as a quater of it's lead-in's aud fleed the show, leaving it with a 18.5/29.
That closed the closet competitor gap to 79%, the 8:30 edition of "Whose Line Is It Anyway" (10.6/18) on ABC. That gap could quickly close as "Celebrity Millionaire" begins in a few weeks.
Towards the end of last season, "Whose Line?" frequently beat NBC's 8:30 entry "Jesse."
    At 9pm, "Will & Grace" brought in it's second highest ratings of the season with a 19.7/28, beating out "Millionaire" (17.0/26) by almost 3 million viewers. But that gap closed at 9:30, when "Just Shoot Me" fell to a 18.0/25. But all is not lost: while "Will & Grace" is down 8% from "Frasier"s performance last season, "JSM" is up 7% over "Stark Raving Mad"s, giving solace to the peacock.
    "ER" (28.0/38) once again owned the 10pm hour, but it has some competition from ABC's revamped "PrimeTime Thursday." Although it wasn't really a threat to NBC's bohemoth, it did draw a 11.9/17, it's best numbers yet. (November 5)

"Normal" brings abnormal numbers
    "Normal, Ohio" didn't live up to it's name on Wednesday for Fox, it was actually quite the opposite. The John Goodman sitcom drew a 12.8/22 in it's debut, falling only 200,000 viewers behind it's lead-in, a new episode of "The Simpsons" (13.0/22). Last season the net struggled in this slot, averaging only 8.2 million viewers for "Beverly Hills 90210." If "Normal" can remain strong for the next few weeks, it will not only become Fox's third new hit of the season (including "Dark Angel" & "Boston Public"), but the nets first Wednesday hit since "90210." The marks a big change for Fox, considering last season every one of it's new shows were promptly cancelled or shelved.
    But what Fox gained, CBS lost as both of it's 8pm entries struggled. A Dolly Parton-themed "Bette" fell to an 11.0/19, while "Welcome to New York" stumbled to an 8.2/14. That barely beat out NBC's "Titans" while rose slightly to an 8.0/14.
    After 9pm, the night belonged to NBC, which raked up high numbers for both "The West Wing" & "Law & Order." The latter drew it's highest numbers since it's premiere, flying to a 19.3/34. That beat it's nearest competitor ("The Drew Carey Show") by almost 5 million viewers. At 10pm, "Law & Order" took great advantage of it's lead-in, drawing a 19.0/34. That slammed "Gideon's Crossing"
ABC by almost 10 million viewers (9.2/17). (November 2)
 
Geena gets more
    After 3 weeks of solid numbers on ABC, "The Geena Davis Show" has recieved a full season order. The move by the alphabet was not a surprise, considering how much of it's "Dharma" lead-in it holds. This past week it drew 10.4 million viewers to "Dharma"s 10.9, but it built 9% over "D&G"s 18-49 numbers. Although both shows are running second in their slots, they have takena  big hit since NBC's "Frasier" premiered.
    And the one we've all been waiting for (LOL), Oprah has decided to renew her contract through
2004. The move is not a surprize either, considering her continued, although diminished, ratings prowess. (November 2)