Nielsen Bottom 10, January 11th-17th, 1988

Week 17 of the 1987-1988 season started on Monday, January 11th, 1988 and ended on Sunday, January 17th, 1988. The highest-rated program was the AFC Championship on NBC with a 32.0/50 Nielsen rating/share. AGB Television Research did not provide a viewership figure for the game.

Here are the 10 lowest-rated programs on TV during Week 17 of the 1987-1988 season:

## Program Network Rating Viewers
64 Disney Movie ABC 11.0/16 16,800,000
65 Sledge Hammer! ABC 9.4/15 14,400,000
66 Houston Knights CBS 9.2/15 17,900,000
67 The Law and Harry McGraw CBS 8.9/13 12,500,000
68 Rags to Riches NBC 8.6/15 14,100,000
69 West 57th CBS 8.4/15 13,000,000
70 Ohara ABC 8.3/14 10,100,000
71 Steve Martin (special) (repeat) CBS 8.2/12 12,000,000
72 Diamonds Are Forever (repeat) [movie] ABC 7.8/12 9,900,000
73 The Charmings ABC 6.1/9 9,400,000

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.

There were only a handful of repeats on the networks this week, a few of which landed in the Bottom 10. ABC placed five shows at the bottom of this week’s chart. CBS had four and NBC just one.

The lowest-rated CBS program for the week aired on Tuesday, January 12th from 8-9PM. The network aired a repeat of comedy special “Steve Martin: Comedy Is Not Pretty,” which originally aired on NBC in February 1980. It ranked 71st for the week out of 73 programs.

The two programs that fared worse than Steve Martin both aired on ABC on Thursday, January 14th. The Charmings ranked 73rd from 8-9PM while a repeat of the James Bond film Diamonds Are Forever from 9-11PM ranked 72nd.

NBC’s sole entry in the Bottom 10 was Rags to Riches, which ran from 8-9PM on Friday, January 15th and ranked 68th for the week. The premiere of new ABC sitcom The Thorns at 9PM tied for 55th, performing worse than Full House (tied for 45th) and Mr. Belvedere (41st), but better than Sledge Hammer at 9:30PM (65th).

ABC shifted Dolly from Sundays to Saturdays beginning January 16th. It replaced Ohara at 8PM; that series returned to 9PM in place of Sable. Dolly tied for 62nd for the week, just missing the Bottom 10, and down significantly from its Sunday, January 10th broadcast which tied for 39th. Ohara, in its new 9-10PM time slot, ranked 70th for the week. Recently introduced CBS drama High Mountain Rangers at 8PM tied for 60th for the week, edging out Dolly but seeing its lowest rating in the three weeks it had been on the air.

On Sunday, January 17th, The Disney Sunday Movie (EarthStar Voyager, Part 1) on ABC had to face both 60 Minutes on CBS and AFC Championship overrun on NBC. It ranked 64th for the week. The ABC Sunday Night Movie (Stranger On My Land) performed only slightly better, tying for 60th. By comparison, NBC’s Sunday movie (Crash Course) ranked 12th while the CBS Sunday movie (Alone in the Neon Jungle) ranked 23rd.

Also of note: Frank’s Place (CBS, Monday, January 11th) ranked 54th for the week; Crime Story (NBC, Tuesday, January 12th) tied for 49th; A Year in the Life (NBC, Wednesday, January 13th) tied for 55th; Tour of Duty (CBS, Thursday, January 14th) tied for 58th; Full House (ABC, Friday, January 15th) tied for 45th; and J.J. Starbuck (NBC, Saturday, January 16th) ranked 48th.

Source:
“Using this chart.” USA Today. 20 Jan. 1988: 03.d


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