‘Millionaire’ Leads the Quiz Show Parade

The preliminary answer, at least, appears to be that quiz shows are back: The “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” steamroller showed no signs of slowing despite the presence of three additional prime-time game shows, based on viewing estimates issued Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research.

While failing to approach “Millionaire’s” lofty heights--as the ABC show, hosted by Regis Philbin, delivered its second-biggest audience yet--NBC’s “Twenty One,” CBS’ “Winning Lines” and multiple showings of Fox’s “Greed” all performed respectably. Each program improved on its network’s average in the time slot, with the NBC revival surpassing everything NBC has aired this season at 8 p.m. Sunday except the World Series.

Funneling viewers into “The Practice,” “Million-aire” also took its toll on ABC’s competition. Both CBS’ People’s Choice Awards and Fox’s “The X-Files’ ” fell by more than 20% compared to ratings for the corresponding week of 1999, even though Fox generated big tune-in during the preceding half-hour for “Malcolm in the Middle,” with Frankie Muniz--the second most-watched series premiere in Fox’s history.

NBC’s highlights included solid ratings for “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit,” as the spinoff inaugurated its new Friday time period by beating both “Nash Bridges” and “20/20.”

ABC’s college football’s national championship coverage also performed well, improving slightly over last year.

Network Averages

Here is the number of viewers that each network averaged per hour of prime time, for last week and for the season.

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Last Season week to date ABC 14.73 million 12.57 NBC 12.94 13.04 CBS 12.59 12.97 FOX 11.87 9.16 UPN 3.68 3.86 WB 3.16 3.90

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Southland Viewing

Here are Nielsen’s Top 10 prime-time programs in the Los Angeles area during the same week. The rankings are based on the number of households watching.

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Sta- House- Program tion holds 1. ER KNBC 975,669 2. Friends KNBC 970,534 3. Frasier KNBC 929,453 4. Who Wants to Be Millionaire KABC 878,102 5. 60 Minutes KCBS 831,886 6. Jesse KNBC 770,265 7. Law & Order KNBC 708,644 Malcolm in the Middle KTTV 708,644 9. Stark Raving Mad KNBC 682,968 10. The Practice KABC 667,563

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