NEW YORK, Sept. 7 -- The last week of TV viewing domination by reruns found the usual shows on the top 10 Nielsen ratings list with NBC -- no longer an also-ran network -- still in the lead. NBC got a 9.8 rating and 18 percent share of the viewing audience for the week ending Sept. 4, the A.C. Nielsen Company reported. CBS and ABC were tied in second place with 9.2-17 each, although ABC claimed five spots on the top 10 list. Fox made a showing with 6.2-11 for 15 hours of prime time programming compared to the other networks' 22 hours. NBC programming dominated viewing on Monday, Thursday and Saturday, a night that used to be a CBS preserve, and ABC took Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday, leaving only Sunday to CBS. ABC's 'Home Improvement' held to the No. 1 spot on the top 10 with an 18.2 rating and 30 share. It was followd by 'Grace Under Fire,' 'Seinfeld,' 'Roseanne,' and two episodes of 'Frasier.' The first seasonal episode of 'Ellen,' a sitcom starring Ellen DeGeneris now in its second season, claimed the No. 7 spot, a breath of fresh air after months of tween-seasons reruns. 'Sister, Sister,' was No. 8, followed by '60 Minutes,' also a rerun, and 'Mad About You,' a rerun of the urban comedy starring Paul Reiser and Helen Hunt, a fresh entry for the top 10. ABC was out in front, as usual, for its evening news coverage, registering 9.4-20.
CBS was second with 8.3-18 and NBC third with 7.9- 17. Each ratings point represents about 942,000 households. A share is the percentage of TV sets in use that are tuned into a particular show or network. ------
The top 10 programs for the past week, according to Nielsen, were: 1. Home Improvement (R) (ABC) 18.2-30. 2. Grace Under Fire (R) (ABC) l7.5-29. 3. Seinfeld (R) (NBC) 16.5-27. 4. Roseanne (R) (ABC) l4.8-24. 5. Frasier (Thursday) (R) (NBC) l3.7-23. 6. Frasier (Monday) (R) (NBC) 13.5-21. 7. Ellen (ABC) 13.4-22. 8. Sister, Sister (R) (ABC) 13-22. 9. 60 Minutes (R) (CBS) 12.9-27. 10. Mad About You (R) (NBC) 12.6-21.
