NBC’s ‘Witness’ Takes Out the Competition

T he mob ruled the airwaves last week, with NBC’s “Witness to the Mob” outgunning CBS’ “The Last Don II” in the weekly standings, based on results issued Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research.

The NBC miniseries, starring Nicholas Turturro, provided more muscle Sunday than CBS’ “Only Love,” with Marisa Tomei. “The Last Don” faced tougher competition, as the second half was broadcast opposite “NYPD Blue” and “Dateline NBC.”

CBS’ sweeps arsenal included the 39th showing of “The Wizard of Oz,” which dropped a house on Fox’s “Millennium” and ABC’s “Sabrina the Teenage Witch” Friday, as both shows slumped to record-low ratings for new episodes. ABC, meanwhile, is in such a funk that even “The Lion King” couldn’t chase down enough viewers to equal “The Wonderful World of Disney’s” average this season.

“Veronica’s Closet” also wasn’t as full as it might have been following the highest-rated “Seinfeld” ever, losing 30% of that lead-in audience.

CBS’ biggest highlight came outside prime time, as “The CBS Evening News With Dan Rather” edged longtime leader NBC for the second consecutive week.

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CABLE TOP 10

Here are Nielsen’s top 10 cable programs in prime time last week, also ranked by total viewers (in millions).

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Program Viewers Network 1. Wrestling (Mon., 8:57 p.m.) USA 5.87 2. Wrestling (Mon., 10 p.m.) USA 5.74 3. “The Fifth Element” HBO 5.19 4. Wrestling (Mon., 8 p.m.) TNT 4.40 5. Lakers-Sonics (Mon.) TNT 3.92 6. South Park COMC 3.76 7. Lakers-Sonics (Wed.) TNT 3.74 8. Rugrats Nick 3.64 9. Sonics-Lakers (Fri.) TNT 3.63 10. Spurs-Jazz (Tue.) TNT 3.61

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Network Averages

Here is the number of viewers that each network averaged per hour of prime time, for last week and for the season.

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Last week Season to date NBC 14.82 million 14.77 CBS 12.33 14.12 ABC 11.00 12.30 FOX 9.96 10.59 WB 4.42 4.47 UPN 3.70 4.03

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Southland Viewing

Here are Nielsen’s Top 10 prime-time programs in the Los Angeles area during the same week. The rankings are based on the number of households watching.

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Program Station Households 1. Seinfeld KNBC 1,367,520 2. Friends KNBC 1,287,372 3. ER KNBC 1,152,123 4. Veronica’s Closet KNBC 951,754 5. Frasier KNBC 781,440 -- The X-Files KTTV 781,440 7. NYPD Blue KABC 766,412 8. Just Shoot Me KNBC 696,283 -- Law & Order KNBC 696,283 10. Ally McBeal KTTV 691,274

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Source: Nielsen Media Research