Nielsen Bottom 10, January 25th-31st, 1988

Week 19 of the 1987-1988 season started on Monday, January 25th, 1988 and ended on Sunday, January 31st, 1988. The highest-rated program was Super Bowl XXII with a 41.9/62 Nielsen rating/share and 63.6 million viewers according to AGB Television Research.

Here are the 10 lowest-rated programs on TV during Week 19 of the 1987-1988 season:

## Program Network Rating Viewers
58 Live and Let Die (repeat) [movie) ABC 9.6/15 12,300,000
  West 57th CBS 9.6/18 13,500,000
60 St. Elsewhere (repeat) NBC 9.3/17 13,000,000
  Ohara ABC 9.3/16 11,900,000
62 The Thorns ABC 8.8/15 12,600,000
63 Houston Knights CBS 8.7/15 9,800,000
64 Law and Harry McGraw (repeat) CBS 8.1/13 12,300,000
  Sledge Hammer! (repeat) ABC 8.1/14 11,700,000
66 Our House NBC 7.3/11 10,600,000
67 The Charmings (repeat) ABC 7.1/11 9,500,000
68 On the Edge (special) (repeat) NBC 5.9/10 8,400,000

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.

The above chart includes 11 programs because a pair of low-rated shows tied for 58th. The week was bookended by two atypical broadcasts: the State of the Union on Monday, January 25th and Super Bowl XXII on Sunday, January 31st. The networks filled the bulk of the week with repeats, no doubt to conserve original programming from the February 1988 sweeps period. CBS and NBC each placed five programs in the Bottom 11 with ABC taking the remaining five slots. Of those 11 programs, only four were originals.

All three networks carried live coverage of the State of the Union on Monday, January 25th at 9PM. According to the Only CBS and NBC returned to regular programming at 10:20PM; ABC presumably stuck with analysis. CBS aired an original episode of Wiseguy, which landed just outside the Bottom 11, ranking 57th for the week.

NBC opted to air a repeat of an unsold drama pilot called “On the Edge,” originally broadcast on June 5th, 1987. Tom Skerrit starred as a surly police officer who teams up with a rookie cop to track down a serial killer. It ranked dead last for the week in 68th place.

Repeats of The Law and Harry McGraw (CBS) and St. Elsewhere (NBC) on Wednesday, January 27th were both in the Bottom 11. A special airing of Beverly Hills Buntz on NBC was the network’s only original programming that night; it ranked 56th.

With the exception of Simon & Simon and Knots Landing, every single program aired on Thursday, January 28th was a repeat. ABC’s repeat of The Charmings at 8PM ranked 67th. It was followed at 8:30PM by The ABC Thursday Night Movie (a repeat of Live and Let Die) which tied for 58th.

ABC also fared poorly on Friday, January 29th. Full House tied for 52nd at 8PM. Mr. Belvedere perked up to 46th at 8:30PM. But recent mid-season replacement The Thorns dropped down to 62 at 9PM. A repeat of Sledge Hammer! followed at 9:30PM an tied for 64th. Newsmagazie 20/20 performed well at 10PM, however, tying for 28th.

ABC only placed a single program in the Bottom 11 on Saturday, January 30th: Ohara at 9PM tied for 60th. CBS opened the night with mid-season replacement High Mountain Rangers, which ranked 44th. Houston Knights dropped to 63rd at 9PM. West 57th did slightly better at 10PM, tying for 58th.

Amazingly, only one of the programs aired opposite Super Bowl XXII on Sunday, January 31st landed in the Bottom 11. It was NBC’s repeat of Our House at 7PM. It ranked 66th. The only original programming was 60 Minutes on CBS, which tied for 47th.

Also of note: “American Music Awards” (ABC, Monday, January 25th) ranked 15th for the week; 48 Hours (CBS, Tuesday, January 26th) tied for 49th; Jake and the Fatman (CBS, Tuesday, January 26th) ranked 39th; The Slap Maxwell Story (ABC, Wednesday, January 27th) tied for 49th; “Snoopy the Musical” (CBS, Friday, January 29th) tied for 47th; and the series premiere of The Wonder Years (ABC, Sunday, January 31st) tied for 13th.

Source:
“Using this chart.” USA Today. 3 Feb. 1988: 03.d


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2 Replies to “Nielsen Bottom 10, January 25th-31st, 1988”

  1. Actually this was a new episode of SLEDGE HAMMER! called “The Secret of My Excess”. Only two more original episodes remained, the last aired on February 12.

  2. USA Today had it wrong, then. There have been a few other instances where an episode was marked as a repeat when, in fact, it was a new episode.

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