TV Ratings : Super Bowl Gives NBC Something to Brag About

NBC, running third in the prime-time ratings all season, finally got to crow Tuesday about being No. 1, thanks to the highest-rated Super Bowl telecast in seven years. The NFL championship game attracted two-thirds of the people watching TV during that period Sunday and sent NBC’s weekly ratings average through the roof.

For the season as a whole, however, the network continues to trail CBS and ABC.

According to figures released Tuesday by the A.C. Nielsen Co., the Super Bowl XXVIII victory by Dallas over the Buffalo Bills--led by running back Emmitt Smith and quarterback Troy Aikman--attracted the largest audience in history for a commercially sponsored broadcast, more than 134 million people. The reason the telecast could reach more viewers than previous games without necessarily having a higher rating is that as the U.S. population grows, the number of homes represented by a rating point increases.

Meanwhile, “The Critic” premiered to big numbers on ABC last week. The animated series about a frumpy movie critic won its time period Wednesday night and ranked No. 16 among the week’s 92 prime-time network programs.

Southland Ratings

Here are A. C. Nielsen’s Top 10 prime-time programs in the Los Angeles area during the same week. Each rating point equals 50,064 households.

Program Station Rating 1. Home Improvement KABC 22.5 2. Seinfeld KNBC 20.0 3. The Simpsons KTTV 18.8 4. Roseanne KABC 17.1 5. Frasier KNBC 17.0 6. Wings KNBC 16.6 7. Home Improvement (8 p.m.) KABC 16.3 8. 60 Minutes KCBS 16.1 9. Married ... With Children KTTV 15.6 10. Full House KABC 15.1

Weekly Averages

NBC 16.9

ABC 12.8

CBS 10.2

FOX 7.5

Season to Date

CBS 12.9

ABC 12.6

NBC 11.4

FOX 7.2