Ratings Archives: September - October 1996

The 1996 - 97 season featured the debut of of two classic TV comedies, ABC's SPIN CITY and CBS'  EVERYBODY LOVES RAYMOND.

SPIN CITY was an instant hit, thanks to its prime time slot, after HOME IMPROVEMENT. The series debuted with 25.9 million viewers, ranking sixth for the first week of the new season. It retained over 90% of the audience delivered by HOME IMPROVEMENT.  The numberes did drop slightly, but SPIN CITY was a solid top 10 series for ABC.

Meanwhile, EVERYBODY LOVES RAYMOND had a so-so time slot, Fridays at 8:30, behind DAVE'S WORLD. It premiered to just 9.9 million viewers. It did hold on to almost all of the audience from its 8:00pm lead in. But, ranked 69th for the week and was only able to muster third in the time slot. over the first five weeks, ELR held its own, staying in that low nine million viewer range. Only time will tell if it can break out and attract an audience.

This was also the season that gave us HOMEBOYS IN OUTER SPACE (UPN), MEN BEHAVING BADLY (NBC), MR. & MRS SMITH (CBS), DANGEROUS MINDS (ABC) and PARTY GIRL from FOX. In all there were 38 new series from the six networks.

FOX had reason to celebrate this season. For the first time ever, the network was the most watched network for the week of October 21 - 27. On the strength of five World Series Games, FOX wasily won the week with a 15.8 HH Rating. That was over six ratings point over second place NBC. The promotional platform the World Series gave fox allowed freshman series MILLENNIUM to crack the top 20, with 17.7 million viewers.


Nielsen Broadcast ratings charts for September 16 to October 27, 1996