Nielsen Bottom 10, February 22nd-28th, 1988

Week 23 of the 1987-1988 season started on Monday, February 22nd, 1988 and ended on Sunday, February 28th, 1988. The highest-rated program was the Winter Olympics (Saturday) on ABC with a 26.4/43 Nielsen rating/share and 38.1 million viewers according to AGB Television Research.

Here are the 10 lowest-rated programs on TV during Week 23 of the 1987-1988 season:

## Program Network Rating Viewers
45 Wiseguy CBS 11.5/18 10,500,000
46 Cagney & Lacey CBS 11.3/18 13,000,000
47 Sonny Spoon NBC 11.2/20 14,400,000
48 Charlie Brown (repeat) (special) CBS 10.4/15 17,000,000
49 Our House NBC 10.2/17 16,900,000
50 Garfield (repeat) (special) CBS 10.0/15 15,400,000
51 Equalizer CBS 9.3/17 12,400,000
  High Mountain Rangers CBS 9.3/15 12,800,000
53 Houston Nights CBS 7.5/12 11,800,000
54 West 57th CBS 5.5/9 8,200,000

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.

ABC continued to reap the benefits of the 1988 Winter Olympics, placing four of its nightly broadcasts of the games in the Top 10. Two more landed in the Top 20 while Friday’s coverage ranked 30th for the week.

As was the case the previous week, because ABC’s regular schedule was pre-empted, there were only a total of 54 programs in the weekly chart.

The Bottom 10 was filled primarily with CBS programming, most of which were regular low-rated shows like High Mountain Rangers, Houston Knights, and West 57th. NBC placed just two shows at the bottom of the Nielsen chart: the recently introduced Sonny Spoon (ranked 47th) and Our House (ranked 49th).

CBS had its worst performances on Tuesday, February 23rd and Saturday, February 27th. A pair of low-rated repeats of animated specials (“Garfield in Paradise” and “She’s a Good Skate, Charlie Brown”) from 8-9PM on Tuesday. Jake and the Fatman followed at 9PM while Cagney & Lacey closed out the night for CBS. Both dramas weren’t actually significantly impacted by Olympic coverage. Had ABC’s regular programming aired, the two likely would have ranked about where they typically did.

West 57th, the little-watched CBS newsmagazine, was negatively impacted by ABC’s Olympic coverage to some degree. Its ratings were always low, however, and it may have ranked dead last without the Olympics.

Also of note: Noble House (Part 2) (NBC, Monday, February 22nd) ranked 22nd for the week; Noble House (Part 3) (NBC, Tuesday, February 23rd) tied for 28th; The Wizard of Oz (CBS, Wednesday, February 24th) tied for 24th; Noble House (Part 4) (NBC, Wednesday, February 24th) ranked 20th; “Friday Night Surprise!” (NBC, Friday, February 26th) ranked 36th; and Bluegrass (Part 1) (CBS, Sunday, February 28th) ranked 15th.

Source:
“Using this chart.” USA Today. 2 Mar. 1988: 03.d


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3 Replies to “Nielsen Bottom 10, February 22nd-28th, 1988”

  1. Usually a top twenty ratings winner, “The Wizard of Oz” tallied its lowest TV rating since its 1975 telecast because it was scheduled on a weeknight instead of the weekend or Friday night: this telecast was further delayed about 30 to 40 minutes by a presidential news conference. I remember this telecast well. Also, I would like to wish a happy 91st birthday to actor Forrest Compton, who played Crime fighter/attorney Mike Karr on the my all time favorite daytime drama, “The Edge of Night’, from 1971 to 1984.

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