Ratings Archives: Week of April 20, 1998

It is the last full week of April, 1998 and the networks are gearing up for a their finale season push and the May sweeps period. NBC dominated the week of April 20th, with a 1.4 rating for a margin of victory over the number two network CBS. The entire NBC Thursday night line up, plus the Sunday movie, MERLIN, Pt. 1, grabbed the first six spots on the chart. ER was the number one show, pulling in 32.4 million viewers and a 36 share in households.

The two part movie, MERLIN, placed second on the week, hauling in 37.1 million viewers, but just a 32 share. It was the most watched program of the week, but on a more competitive night.

CBS took the final four spots of the top 10, with it's Sunday line up, plus its presentation of the Academy of Country Music Awards, on Wednesday night. The country awards placed 10th on the week with 17.3 million viewers and was the top program on Wednesday night. The CBS Sunday movie was NICHOLAS' GIFT, wicked ranked 9th for the week, brining in 18.6 million viewers, despite going up against MERLIN.

ABC was a distant third place on the week, nearly two full ratings points behind CBS and more than three from NBC. Of the networks three top 20 programs, two were episodes of the newsmagazine 20/20. HOME IMPROVEMENT was the only regular series from the network to make the top chart, ranking 17th on the week.

FOX was less than a point behind ABC and it's two Animated series THE SIMPSONS and KING OF THE HILL draw good numbers to make the top 20. THE SIMPSONS, ranking 16th, brought in 17.4 million viewers, on a competitive Sunday night. The was immediately followed by KING OF THE HILL which kept 16 million viewers and finished in 20th place.

The WB and UPN tied for the week. The top performing series for each network. respectively, were 7th HEAVEN with 5.2 million viewers and LOVEBOAT: THE NEXT WAVE with5.0 million viewers.

Nielsen Broadcast ratings chart for the week of April 20, 1998.