It was time for network entertainment executives to sound like pee-wee football coaches again last week as the November sweeps rating period ended, bringing with it the obligation to brag about the many ways your team beat their team.
This time, the undisputed prime-time leaders, ABC and NBC, verbally duked it out over which was better: a team that wins because of one superstar–in this case, NBC with its powerful Thursday night lineup–or a team that is well balanced overall, like ABC.
Meanwhile, Fox tried to poke its nose in by crowing about its popularity with viewers under age 35. And CBS could say little to hide its steep ratings decline in every category since last year.
NBC had the most viewers overall in November, and was the only network to show growth from last year in every demographic category, but ABC’s shows finished first in their time periods more often. NBC had the top five regular series–all appear Thursday night, topped off by the No. 1 show, “ER”–but ABC had five of the next six.
CBS’ newsmagazine “60 Minutes” finished ninth.
Among adults 18 to 49–the group advertisers pay the highest rates to reach–NBC had the top five shows (the Thursday lineup), ABC had the next five, and the only CBS show in the top 20 was “Chicago Hope” at 12th.
Calculated through Nov. 27 (though the sweeps period was Nov. 2 through last Wednesday, the numbers will not change much), NBC had the highest average household rating, with an 11.9; ABC had an 11.3; CBS a 10.0; and Fox a 7.5.
Among 18- to 49-year-olds, NBC had an average rating of 7.6, while ABC’s was 7.1 and Fox, with a 5.5, finished ahead of CBS (4.7). One rating point equals 959,000 homes.
Sweeps months–November, February and May–are important because advertising rates are based on audience ratings in that month. And the network executives twist and tweak the numbers to look their best.
Larry Hyams, ABC’s vice president for audience analysis, pointed out that ABC had finished first in 24 of the 44 half-hour slots during the sweeps period. NBC, he said, had finished first in 10 half-hours, six of them Thursday.
But NBC’s entertainment chiefs, Warren Littlefield and Don Ohlmeyer, bristled at any suggestion that the network was a one-night wonder. “Would you ask Muhammad Ali how good he’d be without a strong left jab?” Ohlmeyer said. “Any time a network wins, it has one strong night.”
A year ago, CBS actually won the November sweeps period in overall households. But its schedule was already fading, and this time CBS’ ratings were down from last November by at least 22 percent in every demographic category, and by 25 percent in the 18- to 49-year-old group.
