Ratings Archives: February 1997

This week's archives looks at the 1997 February Sweeps period, from January 30th to March 26th.

ER was the #1 program all four weeks of the sweeps, averaging about 34 million viewers each week. In fact the whole MUST SEE TV, Thursday lineup was the top of the chart each week. SEINFELD, THE SINGLE GUY, FRIENDS, THE NAKED TRUTH, all were hogging the top five spots.

In Movies and Mini-Series for the month, the most watched was ASTEROID, parts 1 & 2. Part one aired on Sunday, February 16,1996 and grabbed 34.5 million viewers for NBC. The next night, part 2 retained about 90%, with just under 31 million viewers.

In specials, The Grammy Awards posted 19.2 million viewers, but the American Music Awards topped it with 19.7 million viewers. However, the AMAs did air outside of the sweeps period, airing on January 27th, the Monday before the seeps began.

NBC was by far the top network of the month, winning each of the five full weeks that included the sweeps period. ABC and CBS fought for the second spot with CBS just edging out ABC. The UPB vs WB battle was still being dominated by UPN, mainly on the strength of STAR TREK: VOYAGER.

Nielsen Broadcast ratings charts for January 27, 1997 to March 2, 1997