Week 14 of the 1987-1988 season started on Monday, December 21st, 1987 and ended on Sunday, December 28th, 1987. The highest-rated program was 60 Minutes on CBS with a 23.5/39 Nielsen rating/share and 31.4 million viewers according to AGB Television Research.
Here are the 10 lowest-rated programs on TV during Week 14 of the 1987-1988 season:
| ## | Program | Network | Rating | Viewers |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 58 | Houston Knights | CBS | 7.9/13 | 10,400,000 |
| Rags to Riches (repeat) | NBC | 7.9/18 | 14,000,000 | |
| Pursuit of Happiness (repeat) | NBC | 7.9/17 | 16,000,000 | |
| 61 | Sable (repeat) | ABC | 7.7/15 | 12,200,000 |
| 62 | Bugs Bunny (special) (repeat) | CBS | 7.6/19 | 15,000,000 |
| 63 | Santabear’s Adventure (special) | CBS | 7.5/19 | 16,800,000 |
| 64 | The Homecoming (movie) (repeat) | CBS | 7.4/19 | 16,900,000 |
| 65 | I Married Dora (repeat) | ABC | 7.2/16 | 14,500,000 |
| 66 | Full House (repeat) | ABC | 6.6/15 | 15,400,000 |
| 67 | The Room | ABC | 5.5/11 | 9,000,000 |
| 68 | Santa Claus: The Making of the Movie (special) | ABC | 4.0/10 | 9,300,000 |
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 are 11 programs in the table again this week because three programs tied for 58th place. ABC placed five shows in the Bottom 11. CBS had four and NBC two. The lowest-rated program of the week was a repeat of the ABC special “Santa Claus: The Making of the Movie.”
The rest of the Bottom 11 was quite a mix of programming. There were two other specials; a new episode of Houston Knights on CBS; five repeats of low-rated fare like Sable and Full House; a repeat airing of The Homecoming (the 1971 made-for-TV movie that served as a pilot to The Waltons); and a play.
On Thursday, December 24th from 8-9PM, CBS two half-hour Christmas specials specials (a repeat of “Bugs Bunny’s Looney Christmas Tales” and “Santabear’s High Flying Adventure”) followed by The Homecoming from 9-11PM. ABC’s “Santa Claus: The Making of the Movie” also ran from 8-9PM. Curiously, the documentary about 1985’s Santa Claus: The Movie was not marked as a repeat in the USA Today chart.
There were no Christmas specials on Friday, December 25th. CBS did air a repeat of “Eight Is Enough: A Family Reunion,” which originally aired in October 1987. The only new program that night was an episode of ABC’s 20/20.
ABC’s hour-long production of Harold Pinter’s play The Room aired on Saturday, December 26th from 10-11PM in place of Hotel. It followed repeats of Ohara and Sable and performed quite a bit worse than them.
Also of note: “Claymation Christmas” (CBS, Monday, December 21st) ranked 5th for the week; “Fear, Frustration and Flying” (NBC, Tuesday, December 22nd) ranked 53rd; “Top of the Pops” (CBS, Wednesday, December 23rd) ranked 57th; Beverly Hills Buntz (NBC, Thursday, December 24th) ranked 47th; and a repeat of the movie Footloose (CBS, Saturday, December 26th) ranked 46th.
Source:
“Using this chart.” USA Today. 30 Dec. 1987: 03.d
