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The May ratings sweeps ended with a big win for Murphy Brown (the May 18 season finale drew the show's second-highest ratings ever) and a narrow overall victory for NBC, which beat CBS by a mere tenth of a ratings point for the month. (Even third-place ABC was just four-tenths of a point out of first.) But the networks are already looking to next season, and the two Nielsen lists below offer a taste of what may be in store. ABC had the top four new series this season, while CBS was able to muster just one-the news division's Thursday hour Street Stories-in the top 10. And FOX confirmed its status as a network on the rise with three of the four fastest-growing prime- time series-including Saturday's 8:30 half hour of Cops reruns, which actually outdrew original episodes this season. The biggest gainer of them all was FOX's Beverly Hills 90210, which improved its rank from 115th to 49th this season-and will doubtless fly even higher in the Nielsens when new episodes start airing in July. VIEWERS* TOP 10 NEW SHOWS RANK
1 28.1 HOME IMPROVEMENT (ABC) 3 2 24.1 ROOM FOR TWO (ABC) 10 3 21.1 STEP BY STEP (ABC) 24 4 20.1 YOUNG INDIANA JONES CHRONICLES (ABC) 29 5 18.6 NURSES (NBC) 41 6 16.7 DATELINE (NBC) 54 7 15.9 WALTER AND EMILY (NBC) 60 8 15.8 THE POWERS THAT BE (NBC) 62 15.8 STREET STORIES (CBS) 62 10 15.0 ROC (FOX) 65 15.0 SIBS (ABC) 65
% UP FROM 1990-91 FASTEST-GROWING RANK
1 86% BEVERLY HILLS 90210 (FOX) 49 2 46% 48 HOURS (CBS) 47 3 39% COPS (FOX) 93 4 35% COPS (SECOND AIRING) (FOX) 80 5 32% EVENING SHADE (CBS) 17 6 24% QUANTUM LEAP (NBC) 64 7 24% WINGS (NBC) 24 8 21% TOP COPS (CBS) 56 9 20% PRIMETIME LIVE (ABC) 57 10 19% SEINFELD (NBC) 44
*In millions Sept. 16, 1991-Apr. 12,1992
