ABC Finds a ‘Hook’ to Post a Rare Weekly Win

Third-place ABC closed 1996 with a rare Christmas present, wrapping up its third ratings win in 15 weeks this season, as the Big Three networks finished within a hair of each other.

Based on figures issued Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research, the holiday and an onslaught of reruns took a bite out of overall TV viewing, and relatively low-rated repeats of NBC’s Thursday hits leveled the network playing field. That allowed ABC’s telecast of the movie “Hook” to fly off with that network’s highest Thursday numbers since March, while “The Kennedy Center Honors” inched up to its best ratings performance since 1993. CBS also found an audience for holiday-themed movies “The Christmas Box” and “A Holiday to Remember” on Christmas night and eve, respectively.

Though viewing of most series dropped, Fox’s “The Simpsons” received its highest rating this season; however, nearly 40% of those viewers turned elsewhere before “Ned and Stacey,” which equaled its lowest rating. Fox will move the latter show to a different night later this month.

ABC’s “Monday Night Football” ended its 26th season down 5% compared to 1995 but still ranks No. 5 among all prime-time programs, averaging 22.7 million viewers.

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 Station Rating 1. Seinfeld KNBC 14.2 2. ER KNBC 13.9 3. The X-Files KTTV 12.6 4. 60 Minutes KCBS 12.2 5. Friends KNBC 11.7 6. The Simpsons KTTV 11.6 7. Men Behaving Badly KNBC 11.1 8. 20/20 KABC 10.9 9. 3rd Rock From the Sun KNBC 10.5 10. The Single Guy KNBC 10.4 Unsolved Mysteries KNBC 10.4

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Weekly Averages

ABC: 8.2

NBC: 8.1

CBS: 8.1

FOX: 5.4

UPN: 2.5

WB: 2.0

Season to Date

NBC: 10.6

CBS: 9.8

ABC: 9.6

FOX: 7.9

UPN: 3.3

WB: 2.7