Ratings Archives: Week of March 16, 1998

Debuting this week on NBC was the sitcom LATELINE. It starred Al Franken as the host of a late night news program. Also in the cast was Megyn Price (RULES OF ENGAGEMENT), and Miguel Ferrer (ROBO COP). The pilot aired at 9:30 p.m. on Tuesday night, after FRAISER. It collected 14.3 million viewers and a 10.2 household rating. It retained 88% of the audience from its lead in. The series would be renewed as a mid-season replacement in 1999, but was cancelled after just 6 of the 13 episodes produced.

ER took the week off, so a double shot of SEINFELD takes the #1 and #2 spots of the week.

The new episode at 9 p.m. drew the top numbers of the week, with 30.9 million viewers and a 20.8 household rating/31 share. That is one of every three homes watching TV at that time, was watching SEINFELD.

After an episode of CAROLINE IN THE CITY, NBC aired a 10 p.m. encore episode of SEINFELD. That pulled in 23 million viewers and a 16.3 HH rating/27 share. Pretty good for a repeat. In total, all six NBC program on that Thursday night placed in the top six of the week. That is dominating the competition.

CBS continued with week two of MARCH MADNESS and the 3rd and 4th round games are getting better numbers. Last week, all of the Thursday - Saturday primetime games could only draw a viewership of 6 to 9 million. This week, the games easily average over 10 million viewers, with the best being Saturday night's overrun, at 12.6 million.

Nielsen Broadcast ratings chart for the week of March 16, 1998.