Ratings Archives: Week of March 23, 1998

ABC takes the last full week in March of 1998, on the strength of the 70th Academy Awards presentation on the 23rd. The annual Hollywood love fest completely dominated the ratings, pulling in 55.3 million viewers and a 34.9 household rating, 55 share of the TV audience. That is more than half of people watching TV that night. Everything else on that night was in repeats and just two CBS sitcoms managed to pull in 10 million viewers, or more. COSBY and EVERYBODY LOVES RAYMOND, during the 8 p.m. hour.


Big winner of the OSCARS were TITANIC (Best Picture & Director, plus 9 others), AS GOOD AS IT GETS (Best Actor & Actress), GOOD WILL HUNTING (Best Supporting Actor, Screenplay) and LA CONFIDENTIAL (Best Supporting actress & Adapted Screenplay).

Preceding the OSCARS, was the annual Barbara Walters special. The one hour fluff piece was the #4 program of the week with 22.8 million viewers and a 16.1 household rating.

CBS had the final four games of the NCAA Men's Basketball Championship. The evening game, played on Saturday, brought in 19.4 million viewers and a 12.7 HH rating, 24 share. It was the #12 program of the week.

CBS also had the top movie of the week with a Sunday presentation of CHANCE OF A LIFETIME. The movie starred John Ritter, Katey Segal and Jean Stapleton. The moive collected 20.3 million viewers and a 22 HH share, ranking 9th for the week.

NBC's usual suspects were at the top of the charts. Its four Thursday night comedies finished in 7th, or better, while ER, in repeats, placed 10th. SEINFLED was the top series, at #2, with just under 28 million viewers.

FOX had a somewhat down week. It failed to place a program in the top 20 and it was nearly three ratings points behind the #3 network, NBC.

Nielsen Broadcast ratings chart for the week of March 23, 1998.