Nielsen Bottom 10, December 7th-13th, 1987

Week 12 of the 1987-1988 season started on Monday, December 7th, 1987 and ended on Sunday, December 13th, 1987. The highest-rated program was The Cosby Show on NBC with a 30.0/47 Nielsen rating/share and 43.4 million viewers according to AGB Television Research.

Here are the 10 lowest-rated programs on TV during Week 12 of the 1987-1988 season:

## Program Network Rating Viewers
63 Hotel ABC 8.8/16 10,800,000
64 Buck James ABC 8.6/14 14,600,000
65 The Pursuit of Happiness ABC 8.5/15 13,900,000
66 Houston Knights CBS 8.3/13 10,200,000
67 Sable ABC 8.2/14 11,400,000
68 Rags to Riches NBC 7.8/14 15,300,000
69 Best Defense (movie]) ABC 7.1/12 9,300,000
70 Mrs. Delafield Wants to Marry (movie) (repeat) CBS 6.9/12 10,300,000
71 West 57th CBS 6.8/13 10,600,000
72 Sledge Hammer! ABC 6.3/10 8,800,000

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.

The networks saw their schedules impacted again this week by the Washington Summit between President Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev of the Soviet Union (held December 8th-10th). Six different programs were aired without sponsors during the week and therefore Nielsen did not rank them. For the Bottom 10, however, it was business as usual.

NBC landed a show in the Bottom 10 for the first time in several weeks thanks to the return of Rags to Riches after being pre-empted for two weeks straight. CBS had three shows in the Bottom 10 while ABC saw six of its shows among the lowest-rated for the week.

CBS continued to have serious trouble with its Saturday lineup. The CBS Saturday Night Movie on Saturday, December 12th was a repeat of Mrs. Delafield Wants to Marry, which ranked 70th for the week. West 57th followed at 10PM and ranked 71st for the week.

Over at ABC, its Saturday lineup fared little better. Ohara just barely missed the Bottom 10, ranking 62nd for the week. Both Sable and Hotel were in the Bottom 10, however.

President Reagan addressed the nation at 9PM on Thursday, December 10th. ABC pre-empted The Charmings at 8:30PM for a special about the Washington Summit leading into the address. ABC and CBS returned to their regular programming at 8:20PM while NBC aired analysis of the address until 8:30PM. The ABC Thursday Night Movie that night was Best Defense, which ranked 69th for the week.

Also of note: a Barbara Walters special (ABC, Tuesday, December 8th) tied for 6th for the week; the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Awards (CBS, Wednesday, December 9th), and Full House (ABC, Friday, December 11th), and “‘Tis the Season to Be Smurfy” (NBC, Sunday, December 13th) tied for 58th; and I Married Dora (ABC, Friday, December 11th) ranked 61st.

Source:
“Using this chart.” USA Today. 16 Dec. 1987: 03.d


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One Reply to “Nielsen Bottom 10, December 7th-13th, 1987”

  1. Sledge Hammer is at the bottom with 8 million viewers. That’s an average viewership for today’s shows.

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