Ratings Archives: Week of December 8, 1997

Now that we are in the month of December, lets take a look the specials that the networks are presenting.

The most watched special was the CBS Sunday movie ELLEN FOSTER. It drew 24.1 million viewers and finished #4 for the week. The movie is about a young girl's mother dies and she is separated from her abusive father and is sent between her various friends and relatives, always longing to find a place to call home.

FOX presented the 1997 BILLBOARD MUSIC AWARDS on Monday, December 8th. David Spade hosted the annual The big winners were The Spice Girls (New Artist), LeAnn Rimes (Country) and Toni Braxton (R&B).

FOX also gave us the broadcast airing of the theatrical movie SON-IN-LAW, starring Pauly Shore. Appropriately, it ranked 73rd for the week, with 9.8 million viewers. Personally, that's 9.8 million too many.

CBS gave us a Christmas Friday night with the annual airings of FROSTY THE SNOW MAN (8:00 p.m.), FROSTY RETURNS (8:30 p.m.), STORY OF SANTA CLAUSE (9:00 p.m.) and KATHIE LEE CHRISTMAS (10:00 p.m.). The ratings were mostly the same for each show as the network averaged about 13.4 million viewers for the night.

The following night, ABC gave us two hours of Christmas programming. kicking the night off was OZZIE THE ELF (5.5 million viewers), followed by SANTA VS. THE SNOWMAN (6.3 million) and CHRISTMAS MIRACLES (6.5 million). Looking at images of these programs, I see why they are no longer in the holiday rotation.

That same night, CBS got a little more traction out of their CHRISTMAS CONCERT special at 9:00 p.m. Sandwiched between DR. QUINN and WALKER, TEXAS RANGER, it drew 8.4 million viewers.

Closing out the week was the ABC movie HOLIDAY IN YOUR HEART, going head to head with the CBS Movie ELLEN FOSTER. The movie starred LeAnn Rimes and Bernadette Peters. In an acting stretch, LeAnn RImes plays a Country singer Dealing with success and family.

Nielsen Broadcast ratings chart for the week of December 8, 1997