We’re down to the wire in the May sweeps, and NBC really tightened this race up last week with yet another monster Thursday. With the Must See season finale triple-header coming this Thursday, do we smell a potential ABC upset in the offing? We certainly hope so. Because if that smell isn’t “upset,” then it must be us. And frankly, it’s getting pretty unpleasant in here.
But we digress.
Here now is an annotated look at the Top 10 primetime shows for the TV week ended May 14, as determined by the fine folks at Nielsen Media Research. (Each rating point is worth a little more than 1 million viewers).
1. “ER,” NBC – 22.1 This was Julianna Margulies‘ last episode as a regular. The show’s rating probably would have been even higher had it not aired opposite an Arena Football game on TNN.
2. (TIE) “Frasier” (9 p.m., Thursday) NBC – 15.6 Seriously, these are all second-to-last episodes before the cliffhangers. Watch for NBC to be a beast this coming Thursday.
2. (TIE) “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” (Tuesday), ABC – 15.6 Obviously still very impressive, but maybe they should have filmed an extra week with the celebrities, just in case.
4. “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” (Wednesday), ABC – 15.1
5. “Jesus” (Part I, Sunday), CBS – 15.0 This was a retelling of the life of Jesus that broke all the rules, defied convention and showed us a Jesus we haven’t seen before. Call us old-fashioned, but four hours of Bible stuff and not even a cameo for Charlton Heston?! Is nothing sacred anymore?
6. “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” (Sunday), ABC – 14.8 So, here it is: “Jesus” beat out Regis in the head-to-head battle Sunday night. Thank God Hey, wait a minute!
7. “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” (Thursday), ABC – 14.5
8. “Friends” (8 p.m., Thursday), NBC – 14.4 Bruce Willis appeared in this episode; Tom Selleck shows up in the next episode … but remember the one with Charlton Heston? Now that was a good one. We’re not saying an eighth place finish is bad or anything, but Mr. Heston definitely could have helped.
9. “Friends” (8:30 p.m., Thursday), NBC — 14.0
10. “Frasier” (9:30 p.m., Thursday), NBC – 13.8 Sure, everybody loves the Niles/Daphne love story, but doesn’t the rather obvious sexual orientation issue make it all a little hard to believe? Seriously, Daphne is just way too masculine, don’t you think?
And in the overall battle for network supremacy, ABC held on to its lead with a 9.3 average rating. NBC got serious, grabbing second place with a just-off-the-pace 9.0. CBS is undoubtedly rethinking the Charlton Heston issue, as “Jesus” was only good enough to help the network limp to a third place 8.1 finish. Fox continued to show improvement as its consistent, if unspectacular lineup, pushed it to a 5.7.
As for the weblets, “WWF Smackdown!” continued to put up big numbers, making all the difference in the battle of UPN vs. the WB. The winner? The “Smackdown”-equipped UPN — 2.8 to 2.3.
