'over' Is Done; Filler For 'hiller'
Thursday, November 6 1997
Published on AllBusiness.com
It's over-and-out for "Over the Top."
ABC on Wednesday announced a revised Tuesday schedule missing sitcoms "Over the Top" and "Hiller and Diller." However, the latter will be back at the end of the November sweeps.
Meanwhile, high jinks were in high gear at the networks Wednesday morning after seeing Tuesday's numbers come in. The first Tuesday of November is Election Day, and Nielsen Media Research allows the networks to "special out" programming on the night -- that is, not include a show's performance in its season-to-date average under the assumption it will be pre-empted in many markets. The networks are supposed to designate beforehand whether a show will be specialed out.
ABC opted to special out its entire primetime lineup Tuesday, so the depressed numbers will not be counted in season averages. NBC, meanwhile, had specialed out its sitcoms but not "Dateline." But when national numbers came in, NBC execs decided they would rather special out "Dateline" and not its sitcoms -- and Nielsen let them. That irked CBS execs: They told Nielsen on Wednesday afternoon that if NBC could decide to special out programming after the fact, they wanted to do so as well.
In a night of depressed ratings, "Over the Top," starring Tim Curry and Annie Potts, stood out with a household 6.8 rating/10 share -- its worst numbers to date. "Over the Top" averaged 9.79 million viewers, about 1.4 million fewer than its "Soul Man" lead-in, according to Nielsen.
But "Soul Man" (7.7/12) and "Hiller and Diller" (8.3/13, 12.31 million viewers) scored their lowest ratings to date; even "Home Improvement" (11.2/17,17.43 million viewers) suffered its lowest rating for an original episode.
For a second straight week, NBC's Tuesday primetime lineup outrated ABC's and CBS', though not Fox's. NBC's 9 p.m. sitcom "Frasier" outrated a first-run episode of ABC's "Home Improvement" in homes, viewers and adults 18-49 for the second consecutive week.
ABC's revised Tuesday plans for the November sweeps include starting the night with a "Home Improvement" rerun and moving "Soul Man" to 8:30 p.m.; original "Home Improvement" episodes will continue to air at 9 p.m. and will be followed by a rerun of either "Spin City" or "Dharma & Greg."
On Nov. 25, the final Tuesday of the November sweeps, ABC will return "Grace Under Fire" to its schedule in the Tuesday 8 p.m. slot that will be its "regular" home. "Hiller and Diller" will return to its 9:30 p.m. half-hour Dec. 2, the first Tuesday after the sweeps period.
Fox, which stunted its way through Tuesday with "World's Scariest Police Chases 3" (18.16 million viewers) and "World's Deadliest Swarms" (14.86 million), averaged a winning 16.51 million viewers for the night, just ahead of NBC's 16.06 million. ABC averaged 14.27 million and UPN averaged 4.53 million viewers.
Meanwhile, sources said, ABC continues to look closely at its Thursday and Saturday drama series situations. Among the moves under consideration is transferring Saturday's "C-16" to Thursday and "Nothing Sacred" from Thursday to Saturday.
ABC on Wednesday announced a revised Tuesday schedule missing sitcoms "Over the Top" and "Hiller and Diller." However, the latter will be back at the end of the November sweeps.
Meanwhile, high jinks were in high gear at the networks Wednesday morning after seeing Tuesday's numbers come in. The first Tuesday of November is Election Day, and Nielsen Media Research allows the networks to "special out" programming on the night -- that is, not include a show's performance in its season-to-date average under the assumption it will be pre-empted in many markets. The networks are supposed to designate beforehand whether a show will be specialed out.
ABC opted to special out its entire primetime lineup Tuesday, so the depressed numbers will not be counted in season averages. NBC, meanwhile, had specialed out its sitcoms but not "Dateline." But when national numbers came in, NBC execs decided they would rather special out "Dateline" and not its sitcoms -- and Nielsen let them. That irked CBS execs: They told Nielsen on Wednesday afternoon that if NBC could decide to special out programming after the fact, they wanted to do so as well.
In a night of depressed ratings, "Over the Top," starring Tim Curry and Annie Potts, stood out with a household 6.8 rating/10 share -- its worst numbers to date. "Over the Top" averaged 9.79 million viewers, about 1.4 million fewer than its "Soul Man" lead-in, according to Nielsen.
But "Soul Man" (7.7/12) and "Hiller and Diller" (8.3/13, 12.31 million viewers) scored their lowest ratings to date; even "Home Improvement" (11.2/17,17.43 million viewers) suffered its lowest rating for an original episode.
For a second straight week, NBC's Tuesday primetime lineup outrated ABC's and CBS', though not Fox's. NBC's 9 p.m. sitcom "Frasier" outrated a first-run episode of ABC's "Home Improvement" in homes, viewers and adults 18-49 for the second consecutive week.
ABC's revised Tuesday plans for the November sweeps include starting the night with a "Home Improvement" rerun and moving "Soul Man" to 8:30 p.m.; original "Home Improvement" episodes will continue to air at 9 p.m. and will be followed by a rerun of either "Spin City" or "Dharma & Greg."
On Nov. 25, the final Tuesday of the November sweeps, ABC will return "Grace Under Fire" to its schedule in the Tuesday 8 p.m. slot that will be its "regular" home. "Hiller and Diller" will return to its 9:30 p.m. half-hour Dec. 2, the first Tuesday after the sweeps period.
Fox, which stunted its way through Tuesday with "World's Scariest Police Chases 3" (18.16 million viewers) and "World's Deadliest Swarms" (14.86 million), averaged a winning 16.51 million viewers for the night, just ahead of NBC's 16.06 million. ABC averaged 14.27 million and UPN averaged 4.53 million viewers.
Meanwhile, sources said, ABC continues to look closely at its Thursday and Saturday drama series situations. Among the moves under consideration is transferring Saturday's "C-16" to Thursday and "Nothing Sacred" from Thursday to Saturday.
