Nielsen Bottom 10, December 14th-20th, 1987

Week 13 of the 1987-1988 season started on Monday, December 14th, 1987 and ended on Sunday, December 20th, 1987. The highest-rated program was The Cosby Show on NBC with a 29.3/46 Nielsen rating/share and 41.5 million viewers according to AGB Television Research.

Here are the 10 lowest-rated programs on TV during Week 13 of the 1987-1988 season:

## Program Network Rating Viewers
59 Full House ABC 9.8/18 15,100,000
  Hotel ABC 9.8/19 14,300,000
61 The Pursuit of Happiness ABC 9.1/15 14,800,000
62 Rags to Riches (special) NBC 9.0/15 18,600,000
63 The Three Kings (movie) ABC 8.2/13 12,200,000
64 Sledge Hammer! ABC 7.1/11 10,800,000
65 Pink Panther (movie) CBS 7.0/13 12,100,000
66 Ohara ABC 6.7/12 9,300,000
67 The Charmings ABC 6.4/10 11,400,000
68 Sable ABC 6.3/12 10,800,000
  West 57th CBS 6.3/12 13,000,000

Copyright A.C. Nielsen Co. and AGB Television Research

Note: USA Today did not begin including FOX programming in its weekly rating charts until December 1988.

If you’re paying close attention you’ll notice there are 11 programs in the above table. That’s because two programs tied for 59th place and I wanted to include both of them. Both were on ABC, which had eight shows in the Bottom 11. CBS had two and NBC had just one. ABC’s Sable and West 57th on CBS were tied as the lowest-rated programs.

NBC decided to try out Rags to Riches on Sunday evening. The special broadcast on Sunday, December 20th actually performed a bit better than its most recent Friday episode but still landed in the Bottom 10.

Saturday continued to be a sinkhole for both ABC and CBS. Every single program aired by both networks on Saturday, December 19th ended up in the Bottom 10. The CBS Saturday Night Movie this week was Pink Panther, which managed to do better than Ohara and Sable on ABC. At 10PM, however, ABC’s Hotel outdrew West 57th on CBS.

All three ABC programs aired Thursday, December 17th likewise found their way into the Bottom 10: Sledge Hammer!, The Charmings, and The ABC Thursday Night Movie (The Three Kings).

Somehow, ABC’s repeat of I Married Dora managed to do better than new episodes of Full House and The Pursuit of Happiness on Friday, December 18th.

Also of note: Frank’s Place (CBS, Monday, December 14th) ranked 44th for the week; The Oldest Rookie (CBS, Wednesday, December 16th) tied for 56th; a repeat of The Sound of Music (NBC, Friday, December 18th) ranked 38th; and Buck James (ABC, Sunday, December 20th) tied for 53rd.

Source:
“Using this chart.” USA Today. 23 Dec. 1987: 03.d


Related Posts

Become a Patron Today

Are you a fan of obscure television? Please support Television Obscurities on Patreon by becoming a patron today.

One Reply to “Nielsen Bottom 10, December 14th-20th, 1987”

  1. Kind of weird to see “Full House” in the bottom 10, considering how big of a hit the show would eventually become.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.