‘Noah’s Ark’ Takes NBC to Higher Ground

Despite a righteous flood of negative reviews, “Noah’s Ark” sailed away with huge ratings Sunday, staking NBC to a strong early lead in the May sweeps, based on results issued Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research.

Starring Jon Voight, “Noah” ranks as the fifth-most-watched prime-time telecast this season, behind the Super Bowl, Academy Awards, Barbara Walters’ Monica Lewinsky interview and George Clooney’s final “ER.” Tune-in the first night (which dropped about 20% on Monday, in results that will be published next week) was just shy of the audience for NBC’s fantasy epic “Merlin” a year ago.

NBC needed that divine intervention, since its Thursday roster looked surprisingly vulnerable last week, scoring the lowest rating for an all-original lineup that night in nearly five years--dating back to the first season of “ER” and “Friends.” The low-brow competition included Fox’s Robbie Knievel “Death Jump,” which drew nearly 12 million viewers despite the jump itself being postponed by bad weather, and a two-hour wrestling event that pinned down decent ratings by UPN’s standards.

NBC’s “Providence” exhibited minor slippage by turning in a lowest-yet rating Friday, as did “Millennium” and “Love Boat” that night.

National Nielsen Viewership

Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (April 26-May 2) as compiled by Nielsen Media Research. They are based on the average number of people who watched a program from start to finish. Nielsen estimates that there are 256.6 million potential U.S. viewers age 2 and older. Viewership is listed here in millions.

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Program Network Viewers 1. “Noah’s Ark,” Part 1 NBC 35.08 2. ER NBC 26.56 3. Frasier NBC 21.41 4. Friends NBC 19.63 5. Touched by an Angel CBS 18.38 6. 60 Minutes CBS 17.43 7. Will & Grace NBC 16.89 8. Veronica’s Closet NBC 16.82 9. Every. Loves Raymond CBS 16.46 10. Ally McBeal FOX 15.96 11. NYPD Blue ABC 15.34 12. JAG CBS 14.42 13. 20/20 (Wed.) ABC 14.05 14. Dateline NBC (Mon.) NBC 13.69 15. Becker CBS 13.44 16. The Practice ABC 13.19 17. “First Wives Club” CBS 13.12 18. Walker, Texas Ranger CBS 13.02 19. The X-Files FOX 12.94 20. Scariest Police Chases 6 FOX 12.91 21. Law & Order NBC 12.68 22. Family Guy FOX 12.61 23. The Simpsons FOX 12.59 24. Providence NBC 12.31 25. Dateline: NBC (Fri.) NBC 12.17 26. The Drew Carey Show ABC 12.12 27. “100 Years of Great Women” ABC 12.08 Dateline: NBC (Wed.) NBC 12.08 Dateline: NBC (Tue.) NBC 12.08 30. King of Queens CBS 11.74 31. “Robbie Knievel 2” FOX 11.71 32. Dateline: NBC (Sun.) NBC 11.66 33. Nash Bridges CBS 11.37 34. The Norm Show ABC 11.29 35. 60 Minutes II CBS 11.20 36. World’s Most Amazing Videos NBC 11.09 37. Home Improvement ABC 11.02 38. Sports Night ABC 10.93 39. Sabrina, the Teenage Witch ABC 10.91 “Phenomenon” NBC 10.91 Cosby CBS 10.91 42. 20/20 (Mon.) ABC 10.81 43. Spin City ABC 10.79 44. Homicide: Life on the Street NBC 10.54 45. Just Shoot Me NBC 10.39 46. Martial Law CBS 10.36 47. Dharma & Greg ABC 10.02 48. Promised Land CBS 9.98 49. L.A. Doctors CBS 9.96 50. Diagnosis Murder CBS 9.86 51. “Funny Flubs.” CBS 9.78 52. Futurama FOX 9.70 53. Party of Five FOX 9.61 54. Kids Say Darndest Things CBS 9.56 55. Chicago Hope CBS 9.53 56. It’s like, you know... ABC 9.51 57. “The Patty Duke Show” CBS 9.48 58. “Bloopers” ABC 9.44 59. The Hughleys ABC 9.29 60. Candid Camera CBS 9.27 61. Boys Meets World ABC 8.93 62. Mad About You NBC 8.63 63. Home Improvement (Fri.) ABC 8.54 64. Beverly Hills, 90210 FOX 8.31 65. “Mr. Murder,” Part 1 ABC 8.25 66. “Happy Gilmore” ABC 8.23 67. America’s Most Wanted FOX 8.14 68. Futurama (9:30 p.m.) FOX 8.09 69. Caroline in the City NBC 8.07 70. NewsRadio NBC 8.02 71. King of the Hill FOX 7.94 72. 3rd Rock From the Sun NBC 7.82 73. Every. Loves Raymond (Wed.) CBS 7.79 74. Mad About You NBC 7.74 75. Early Edition CBS 7.68 76. Payne CBS 7.64 77. The Pretender NBC 7.60 78. Cops (8:30 p.m.) FOX 7.57 79. Melrose Place FOX 7.51 80. Everything’s Relative NBC 7.09 81. America’s Funniest Videos ABC 6.99 82. “Mr. Murder,” Part 2 ABC 6.72 83. “Bulletproof” NBC 6.36 84. Cops FOX 6.17 85. 7th Heaven WB 5.70 86. “Most Dangerous Magic II” NBC 5.62 87. Millennium FOX 5.60 88. World’s Funniest! FOX 5.59 89. “WWF Smackdown!” UPN 5.55 90. Guinness World Records FOX 5.34 91. Dawson’s Creek WB 5.26 92. Charmed WB 5.10 93. Star Trek: Voyager UPN 4.78 94. Rescue 77 WB 4.46 95. Felicity WB 4.28 96. For Your Love WB 4.20 The Steve Harvey Show WB 4.20 98. The Jamie Foxx Show WB 4.09 99. Buffy, the Vampire Slayer WB 3.87 100. Smart Guy WB 3.71 101. Sister, Sister WB 3.35 102. The Wayans Bros. WB 3.33 103. 7th Heaven Beginnings WB 3.31 104. Unhappily Ever After WB 2.88 105. Moesha (8:30 p.m.) UPN 2.83 106. Dilbert UPN 2.68 107. Zoe, Duncan, Jack & Jane WB 2.66 108. Moesha UPN 2.63 109. 7 Days UPN 2.52 110. Star Trek: Voyager (Mon.) UPN 2.50 111. Malcolm & Eddie UPN 2.46 112. America’s Greatest Pets UPN 1.79 113. Home Movies UPN 1.76 114. Clueless UPN 1.65 115. America’s Greatest Pets II UPN 1.63 116. Love Boat: The Next Wave UPN 1.59

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Cable Top 10

Here are Nielsen’s top 10 cable programs in prime time last week, also ranked by total viewers (in millions).

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Program Network Viewers 1. Wrestling (Mon., 10 p.m.) USA 6.93 2. Wrestling (Mon., 9 p.m.) USA 6.53 3. “Kids Choice Awards” NICK 5.20 4. Wrestling (Mon., 8 p.m.) TNT 4.73 5. Wrestling (Mon., 9 p.m.) TNT 4.44 6. “The X-Files” HBO 4.20 7. Wrestling (Sun., 7 p.m.) USA 4.18 8. Wrestling (Mon., 10 p.m.) TNT 3.99 9. “Wild Things” HBO 3.60 10. Wrestling (Thurs., 9 p.m.) TBS 3.31

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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 week Season to date NBC 13.69 million 12.61 CBS 11.43 13.01 ABC 10.17 11.84 FOX 9.35 10.74 WB 4.20 4.48 UPN 3.12 2.76

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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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Program Station Households 1. “Noah’s Ark,” Pt.1 KNBC 1,139,992 2. Friends KNBC 1,047,560 3. Frasier KNBC 970,534 4. ER KNBC 903,778 5. Will & Grace KNBC 842,156 6. Ally McBeal KTTV 811,346 7. 60 Minutes KCBS 785,670 8. Veronica’s Closet KNBC 749,725 9. The X-Files KTTV 734,319 10. 20/20 (Wed.) KABC 647,023 Touched by an Angel KCBS 647,023

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