Ratings Archives: April 1997

Well, like March of 1997, I only have three of the four weeks for April of 1997. But, we will make the most of what we do have.

Closing out the month of March was the NCAA championship basketball game. the Final game of March Madness won the week ending April 6, 1997 with 28.4 million viewers and a 31 household share. That helped propell CBS in a tie with NBC for the week's lead in the ratings race.

The week missing is from April 7 - 13, 1997, so lets skip to the week of April 14.

The third week of April looked pretty typical. NBC takes four of the top five spots with ER, SEINFELD, FRINEDS and new sitcom FIRE UP. FIRED up was the short lived comedy starring Sharron Lawrence and Leah Remini. The seres premiere pulled in 22 million viewers and a 25 household share. The following week, the series ROSE in the ratings with 25.4 million viewers and a 28 HH share.Given the time slot (Thursdays at 9:30) and lead in (SEINFELD), getting 20 million viewers is not a problem. In fact, it is a requirement.

In the final week of April, ABC airs its remake of Stephen King's THE SHINING. Part 1 aired on Sunday, April 27th and was able to attract 19.8 million viewers. that was good enough to rank 12th for the week. We will see how Part 2 does in the next blog post.

Nielsen Broadcast ratings charts for March 31 to April 27, 1997