Here are the first ten programs from the tenth Nielsen Television Index (NTI) report for the 1966-1967 television season, covering the 20th and 21st weeks of the season, from Monday, January 23rd, 1967 through Sunday, February 5th, 1967. They were published in the February 27th, 1967 edition of Broadcasting [1]. Note that the Nielsen ratings are the average of both week’s programming except in the case of special programming or pre-emptions.
There were no specials in the Top Ten during this period and the highest-rated program of the week was NBC’s The Dean Martin Show, which was only broadcast once during the two weeks, on Thursday, January 26th. It was pre-empted on Thursday, February 2nd for a repeat of Hallmark Hall of Fame Movie (“Abe Lincoln in Illinois”). The rest of the Top Ten was filled primarily with CBS programs, although NBC’s Bonanza and ABC’s Bewitched took the sixth and eighth spots, respectively.
Outside the Top Ten were three mid-season replacements: NBC’s Dragnet was 16th while The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour and Mr. Terrific, both on CBS, were 17th and 27th.
Unfortunately, this was the last report for the 1966-1967 season for which Broadcasting listed the Top Ten. The following season, Nielsen would introduce a “fast weekly” national report in addition to its existing two-week and 30-market reports. Broadcasting discussed the various reports but rarely listed entire Top Tens or beyond.
| ## | Program | Net | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | The Dean Martin Show* | NBC | 30.1 |
| 2. | The Andy Griffith Show | CBS | 29.9 |
| 3. | The Red Skelton Hour | CBS | 29.7 |
| 4. | The Lucy Show | CBS | 28.2 |
| 5. | The Jackie Gleason Show | CBS | 27.7 |
| 6. | Bonanza | NBC | 27.1 |
| 7. | The Ed Sullivan Show | CBS | 26.2 |
| 8. | Bewitched | ABC | 25.8 |
| 9. | Daktari | CBS | 25.7 |
| 10. | Green Acres | CBS | 24.9 |
| *Broadcast one week only | |||
Sources:
1 “National Nielsens Give CBS 3 in a Row.” Broadcasting. 27 Feb. 1967: 26-27.
I would think that on the evening of January 27th, 1967, network programming was disrupted due to breaking-news coverage of a fatal fire that consumed the Apollo 1 command module (and killed the there astronauts who would have flown that mission) atop it’s rocket on it’s Cape Canaveral launch pad during a countdown rehearsal.
There were bulletins between 8:30 and 9 P.M. Eastern time; I believe ABC, CBS, and NBC all aired specials from 9 to 9:30 Eastern, which probably pushed back the rest of prime-time that evening in the Eastern and Central time zones.