NEW YORK -- The final two-hour episode of 'Dallas' beat its Friday night competition but came in No. 2 for the week, topped by the second half of the NBC miniseries 'Switched At Birth,' it was reported Tuesday.
More than 41 million people watched all or part of the last 'Dallas, ' and CBS pointed out that only accounted for people in homes because the A.C. Nielsen Co., does not include out-of-home viewing in bars, colleges, etc., in its ratings numbers.
The show about what the world -- and Dallas -- would have been like without J.R. Ewing earned a 22.0 rating and a 38 share of the audience, compared to 'Switched' which had a 23.1 rating on the more heavily viewed Monday night -- and a 35 share, lower than 'Dallas.'
In Dallas, the city, 'Dallas' had a 32.5 rating and a 51 share.
As for where CBS would be without J.R. Ewing and family, the season finale of 'Dallas' was only the second time this season that CBS won the ratings war on a Friday night. The other win was on Oct. 19, 1990 -- a World Series game.
'Dallas' might even have said farewell from the top of the Nielsen list if it hadn't aired in the same week as the second half of the No. 1 miniseries of 1990-91. 'Switched At Birth' made the top of the list with both part one and part two -- the first time a miniseries has been tops two weeks in a row since NBC's 'Fatal Vision' in February 1984.
'Switched' also knocked CBS's 'Murphy Brown' and 'Designing Women' out of the top 20 -- two shows that are often found in the top 10. Last week 'Murphy' was 26th,' 'Designing' tied for 34th and the show to really suffer -- 'Northern Exposure' -- tied for 51st.
For ABC, it wasn't an all-bad week even though the network came in third and did not take a single night.
Its 'Dinosaurs' came in tied for 17th, just down from its established 'Full House' leadin which tied for 14th. A Sunday 'Dinosaurs' special came in 19th.
ABC also was the winner in the Sunday movie contest, with its remake of 'Night Of The Hunter' tied for 21st. NBC's 'White Hot: The Mysterious Death of Thelma Todd' came in 36th and CBS's 'Victim of Love' was 38th.
In the May sweeps, NBC leads with a 13.3 rating and a 23 share, 16 percent better than second place CBS which has an 11.5 rating and a 20 share, while ABC has an 11.3 sweeps rating and a 19 share.
NBC also won five nights last week -- Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday, while CBS took Friday and Sunday.
NBC won the week ending May 5, earning a 13.5 rating and a 23 share. CBS was second with a 12.0 rating and a 20 share, while ABC had a 10.8 rating and an 18 share.
For the 33 weeks since the season began, the race remains close with only .4 of a ratings point spread. NBC leads with a 12.6 rating and a 21 share. ABC comes in with a 12.3 rating and a 21 share, with CBS right behind with a 12.2 rating and a 20 share.
ABC's 'World News Tonight' with Peter Jennings continued on top of the news race with a 9.8 rating and a 21 share. 'NBC Nightly News' with Tom Brokaw was No. 2 with an 8.2 rating and an 18 share -- the 14th time in the last 15 weeks that NBC has been second or tied for second -- while 'CBS Evening News' with Dan Rather was third for the eighth consecutive week with a 7.9 rating and a 17 share.
Each ratings point represents about 921,000 households. A share is the percentage of TV sets in use that are tuned to a particular show or network.NEWLN: ------
The top programs for the week ending May 5, according to the A.C. Nielson Co., were:
1. NBC Monday movie, Switched At Birth, part 2
2. Dallas (CBS)
3. Cheers (NBC)
4. Roseanne (ABC)
5. L.A. Law (NBC)
6. 60 Minutes (CBS)
7. Different World (NBC)
8. Unsolved Mysteries (NBC)
9. Murder, She Wrote (CBS)
10. America's Funniest Home Videos (ABC)
