Two vastly differing Christmas-themed movies -- the life-affirming It's a Wonderful Life (26th) and the violence-prone Home Alone (18th) -- jingled NBC's ratings bells during the pre-Xmas week. ABC's bright spot was the Monday Night Football matchup between the Denver Broncos and the San Francisco 49ers (3rd), which garnered the best numbers for the franchise all year. On the downside, ABC's Tuesday lineup continued to falter while NBC's special commercial-free Mad About You (12th) provided the series' best outing since the season premiere. CBS' ongoing game of musical chairs with Dellaventura (80th) clearly isn't working -- the Danny Aiello show's return to Tuesday night (after two Thursday-night airings) was greeted with its worst ratings ever.
TOP 30
VIEWERS* LAST WEEK
1 32.5 ER NBC, Thursday, 10 p.m. 1 2 30.8 SEINFELD NBC, Thursday, 9 p.m. 2 3 27.0 FOOTBALL: BRONCOS VS. 49ERS ABC, Monday, 9 p.m. -- 4 24.7 VERONICA'S CLOSET NBC, Thursday, 9:30 p.m. 3 5 23.2 FRIENDS NBC, Thursday, 8 p.m. 5 6 20.8 TOUCHED BY AN ANGEL CBS, Sunday, 8 p.m. 9 7 19.4 UNION SQUARE NBC, Thursday, 8:30 p.m. 9 8 19.3 HOME IMPROVEMENT ABC, Tuesday, 9 p.m. 11 9 19.2 FRASIER NBC, Tuesday, 9 p.m. 14 10 18.9 THE DREW CAREY SHOW ABC, Wednesday, 9 p.m. 15 11 18.0 60 MINUTES CBS, Sunday, 7 p.m. 7 12 17.9 MAD ABOUT YOU NBC, Tuesday, 8 p.m. 27 13 17.2 KING OF THE HILL Fox, Sunday, 8:30 p.m. 12 14 17.0 JUST SHOOT ME NBC, Tuesday, 9:30 p.m. -- 15 16.5 DATELINE NBC NBC, Tuesday, 10 p.m. 21 16 16.3 MOVIE: A CHRISTMAS MEMORY CBS, Sunday, 9 p.m. -- 17 16.2 THE SIMPSONS Fox, Sunday, 8 p.m. 20 18 16.0 MOVIE: HOME ALONE (R) NBC, Friday, 8 p.m. -- 19 15.6 NYPD BLUE ABC, Tuesday, 10 p.m. -- 15.6 DHARMA & GREG ABC, Wednesday, 8:30 p.m. 16 21 15.0 DATELINE nbc NBC, Monday, 10 p.m. 17 15.0 WALKER, TEXAS RANGER CBS, Saturday, 10 p.m. 29 23 14.6 MOVIE: JUNIOR ABC, Sunday, 9 p.m. -- 24 14.1 COSBY CBS, Monday, 8 p.m. 43 25 14.0 SOUL MAN ABC, Tuesday, 8:30 p.m. 47 26 13.9 LAW & ORDER NBC, Wednesday, 10 p.m. 26 13.9 MOVIE: IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE (R) -- NBC, Saturday, 8 p.m. 13.9 THE X-FILES (R) Fox, Sunday, 9 p.m. 6 29 13.6 20/20 ABC, Friday, 10 p.m. 37 30 13.5 PRIMETIME LIVE ABC, Wednesday, 10 p.m. 23 13.5 DATELINE NBC NBC, Sunday, 7:24 p.m. --
*IN MILLIONS WEEK OF DEC. 15-21, 1997 (R) RERUN SOURCE: NIELSEN MEDIA RESEARCH
