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NBC back on top of Nielsens with Thursday night lineup
5.43 p.m. ET (2144 GMT) April 14, 1998

By David Bauder, Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — Season leader NBC returned to the top of the television ratings on the strength of its Thursday night schedule, even though viewers don't yet appear overly sentimental about the impending demise of "Seinfeld.''

NBC won last week's prime-time crown with an 8.8 rating and 15 share, beating second-place CBS's 8.0 rating and 14 share, Nielsen Media Research said Tuesday.

NBC's five Thursday night series were the most-watched shows of the week.

"Seinfeld'' had 29.6 million viewers last week, narrowly below its season average of just over 30 million. NBC didn't get a boost even though it aired an original episode and received a burst of publicity over filming of the final "Seinfeld,'' to air May 14.

Still, "Seinfeld'' was behind only "ER'' in the weekly ratings. NBC also pointed out that it has more viewers than "Cheers'' did during the buildup to its final episode.

For the week, ABC finished in third place with a 7.4 rating and 13 share, Fox was fourth with a 6.2 rating and 11 share, the WB was fifth with a 2.7 rating and 5 share, and UPN had a 2.3 rating and 4 share.

ABC's Wednesday night comedies, "The Drew Carey Show'' and "Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place,'' were the network's two highest-rated entertainment series. It compensated for ratings disasters like the new "Push,'' which finished in 86th place for the week.

"The X-Files'' on Fox, once seemingly a threat to break the Top 10, sunk to 56th place last week, although it was a repeat episode.

A rating point represents 980,000 households, or 1 percent of the nation's estimated 98 million TV homes. Share is the percentage of in-use televisions tuned to a given show.

NBC's "Nightly News'' finished first in the evening news race with a 7.6 rating and 17 share. ABC's "World News Tonight'' was second with a 7.2 rating and 16 share, followed by the "CBS Evening News'' at 7.0 and 16.

For the week of April 6-12, the top 10 shows, their networks and ratings were:

"ER,'' NBC, 20.7; "Seinfeld,'' NBC, 19.9; "Veronica's Closet,'' NBC, 15.8; "Friends,'' NBC, 15.4; "Just Shoot Me,'' NBC, 14.2; "PrimeTime Live,'' ABC, 13.4; "60 Minutes,'' CBS, 12.9; "Frasier,'' NBC, 11.8; "The Drew Carey Show,'' ABC, 11.4; "Touched By an Angel,'' CBS, 11.4.

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