Nielsen Bottom 10, October 12th-18th, 1987

Week 4 of the 1987-1988 season started on Monday, October 12th, 1987 and ended on Sunday, October 18th, 1987. The highest-rated program was NBC’s The Cosby Show with a 30.0/49 Nielsen rating/share and 40.8 million viewers according to AGB Television Research.

Here are the 10 lowest-rated programs on TV during Week 4 of the 1987-1988 season:

## Program Network Rating Viewers
61 Private Eye CBS 9.8/18 15,100,000
62 The Survivors (movie) ABC 8.6/14 10,300,000
63 The Charmings (repeat) ABC 8.1/13 12,900,000
64 Sledge Hammer! ABC 7.7/12 11,500,000
65 My Sister Sam CBS 7.0/13 10,500,000
66 Max Headroom ABC 6.2/11 8,800,000
67 Funny, You Don’t Look 200 ABC 6.1/10 8,600,000
68 Everything’s Relative CBS 5.6/10 8,700,000
  Leg Work CBS 5.6/10 8,200,000
70 West 57th CBS 5.2/10 7,800,000

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.

Week 4 was the weakest week of the new 1987-1988 season for the networks. Every single show in the Bottom 10 fell below a 10.0 Nielsen rating. The five least-watched shows all drew fewer than nine million viewers.

ABC had five shows in the Bottom 10 but could claim one small victory. Week 4 was the first week the network didn’t have the lowest-rated show on television. That honor went to CBS news magazine West 57th. In fact, once again CBS saw its entire Saturday line-up in the Bottom 10, with three of them ranking as the lowest-rated programs. ABC was no doubt thrilled to air Game 1 of the World Series on Saturday, October 17th in place of its low-rated lineup.

ABC pre-empted MacGyver from 8-9PM on Monday, October 12th in favor of “Funny, You Don’t Look 200,” a special celebrating the 200th anniversary of the U.S. Constitution. Hosted by Richard Dreyfuss, the special featured Michael J. Fox, Wilford Brimley, Emilio Estevez, Richard Belzer, Lisa Bonet, and others. It also ranked 67th for the week, a big drop from MacGyver the previous week, which tied for 43rd.

NBC’s sole entry in the Bottom 10 was Private Eye, its new Friday crime drama starring Michael Woods and Josh Brolin. Its fifth episode on Friday, October 16th was the first time it fell into the Bottom 10. It didn’t fare worse than it usually did and if not for ABC airing two World Series games–which meant several of its low-rated shows didn’t air–Private Eye wouldn’t have been in the Bottom 10.

Source:
“Using this chart.” USA Today. 21 Oct. 1987: 03.d


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