Week 18 of the 1972-1973 season started on Monday, January 8th, 1973 and ended on Sunday, January 14th, 1973. The highest-rated program was All in the Family on CBS with a 33.8/53 Nielsen rating/share. Here are the 10 lowest-rated programs:
## | Program | Network | Rating |
---|---|---|---|
55 | Mission: Impossible | CBS | 14.1/22 |
56 | America | NBC | 14.0/24 |
57 | Robert Young & Family Special | CBS | 13.4/23 |
58 | Streets of San Francisco | ABC | 12.8/21 |
59 | The Men | ABC | 12.1/22 |
60 | Julie Andrews | ABC | 10.6/19 |
61 | Antonioni’s China Special | ABC | 10.0/16 |
62 | Alias Smith & Jones | ABC | 9.8/16 |
63 | 60 Minutes | CBS | 9.8/16 |
64 | Nixon–Next 4 Years Spec. | CBS | 8.6/14 |
For the record, program titles are written exactly the way they were published in 1973.
CBS aired “Nixon: The Next Four Years” from 10-11PM ET on Monday, January 8th. ABC aired “Michelangelo Antonioni’s ‘China'” from 9-10PM ET on Thursday, January 11th. CBS aired “Robert Young and the Family” aired from 9:30-10:30PM ET on Sunday, January 14th.
Sources:
“Paar Boosts ABC Share in Nielsen.” Los Angeles Times. 24 Jan. 1973: G18.
Wasn’t it ironic that CBS looked ahead to 4 years of Nixon and he didn’t last 2 years before resigning. I remember when Nixon reacted to a question from Dan Rather by asking whether he was running for office and Rather responded, “No, Mr President, are you?”.
Alias Smith & Jones’s final episode ends up third from the bottom with a 9.8/16
I’m not 100 percent sure on this but I don’t think Alias Smith and Jones was ever a hit rating wise. I believe the first two seasons it barely squeaked through with renewals. It was on opposite the Flip Wilson show which was a huge hit. When the star Peter Duel committed suicide midway through the second season many people thought that was it. But AS&J did respectably considering the competition and ABC picked it up. They moved it to Saturdays because they hoped it would do respectable numbers against All in the Family as it did Flip Wilson. In short, it didn’t as the numbers above attest. Thanks to reruns it’s still fairly well known today perhaps even better than Flip Wilson which is seldom seen in reruns.