Ratings Archives: November 1996

The November sweeps were pretty much won by NBC, which won three of the four weeks. Its dominating schedule filled with hit comedies was just to much fro ABC and CBS to keep up.The top series for the month was ER, with SEINFELD a close second, plus SUDDENLY SUSAN and FRIENDS usually placing third and forth, respectively.

For ABC, HOME IMPROVEMENT was the top series, while CBS usually had TOUCHED BY AN ANGEL as its #1 show for the network. For FOX, X-FILES was king. It was the only series to regularly crack the top 20 chart.

UPN, was only scheduling Three nights (Mon - Wed) and STAR TREK: VOYAGER was its flag ship series. The WB, also only three nights, had yet to find its break out series, but THE JAMIE FOX SHOW seemed to generate more viewers on a consistent basis.

Going back to last week's look at the two classic TV series that debuted during this season, ABC's SPIN CITY. It is still a top 20 series, but the retention level from its lead in, HOME IMPROVEMENT, is now at about 80%, at best.

EBERYBODY LOVES RAYMOND is starting to pick up a little steam. It viewership is now closer to 10 million viewers, but being a friday night series, it finds itself preempted often. By the end of the November  sweeps, 11 weeks into the season, ELR is has been preempted three times.

On the movies and specials front, DALLAS: JR RETURNS generates decent ratings on November 15th with 19.2 million viewers tuning in, good enough for ranking #14 for the week.

The four hour TV movie, PANDORA'S CLOCK, generated an average of 24 million viewers over two nights. This was the most watched special event of the sweeps. However, HOME ALONE on thanks giving night, after the sweeps, pulled in 23.8 million viewers for NBC. NBC also aired JERRASIC PARK that following Sunday and it posted 23.6 million viewers. Both movies were in the top five of that last week of the month.

Nielsen Broadcast ratings charts for October 28 to December 1, 1996