Ratings from the 1990s

[kalbir]

1995/96 was dominated by NBC Thursday: ER #1, Seinfeld 2nd, Friends 3rd. I don't count the NBC Thursday garbage shows that made the Top 10.

1995/96 was CBS 1990s primetime nadir. They were being sold to Westinghouse and Les Moonves arrived. Their only Top 10 show was 60 Minutes.

[Khan]

Only in the mid-'90's could you have any woman losing her [!@#$%^&*] over Fabio without it seeming ridiculous (and even back then, I wondered what all the fuss was about, lol).

[DRW50]

Starting at about 8 minutes you get a story on the Elvira pilot not being picked up by CBS (it is available in full on Youtube - I love Elvira and Katherine Helmond, but it's nothing special, with some elements already done better in Mistress of the Dark), then they go into the new CBS fall shows, ending in a terrifying photo of Tom Arnold. 

One of those sitcoms (The Trouble with Larry) was actually premiered early, and did so badly it got yanked after three episodes, replaced by another short-lived sitcom by the same producers (It Had to Be You) - so short it only ran one more episode than Larry. Anyone know if that's a record for a production team? Then there was a pilot for the aftermath of that show with Dunaway's character having died (I think), which I put in the pilot thread last year.

Only The Nanny would have legs.

Earlier in the episode there's also an extended preview for Frasier.

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Trouble_with_Larry#Reception

Edited April 4 by DRW50

[soapfan770]

The ratings collapses for The Wonder Years and Doogie Howser are pretty startling during the 91-92 and 92-93 seasons. 
 

ABC Wednesdays for the 1992-93 season are a bit peculiar—-While Home Improvement ranked at #3 in the 9/8 time slot, both Wonder Years and Howser died a miserable death in the 8/7 hour with very low ratings, scheduled against 90210 and Unsolved Mysteries. Both shows fell out the Top 50.

Doogie ended up being yanked abruptly mid season and immediately cancelled, much to the producers shock that they weren’t able to finish out their original ending and had already planned a 5th season story arc.

Edited April 15 by soapfan770

[janea4old]

Not sure where to post this -- it's not about 1990s ratings but ..
it's a March 2025 interview, published April 2025,
with former NBC president Warren Littlefield talking about some of the 1990s shows.
https://www.remindmagazine.com/article/28285/former-nbc-warren-littlefield-dont-reboot/

[soapfan770]

@Khan @kalbir 

So lo and behold some certain ratings from Fall 1997 fell into my hands and they revealed that MSW’s South by Southwest was far from the “floundering flop” I was lead to believe.

There was some very  tough competition for sure but ultimately the South by Southwest movie actually hit #13 with an 18.6 for the week of 10/27/97-11/2/97. 
 

Held its own against #3 Before Women Had Wings“  (Oprah movie) which had followed the #4 Cinderella movie with Brandy & Whitney Houston. The Cinderella movie ratings was a 10 year high for ABC. Both T. movies received mixed reviews and seem largely forgotten today. 

Also competed against Fox’s X-Files season premiere at #8. The Season 4 finale had Mulder dead and Scully about to die from cancer as I recall it took a few segments before we got an odd scene of Cigarette Smoking Man crying over Mulder’s death that he found evidence Mulder was still alive. 
 

That’s my teaser I shall post the rest later 

[te.]

Well, the answer is 90210. Doogie Howser was never strong in the overall rankings (#24 at its highest point), but I assume 90210 just about stole all those young viewers - especially those that might've started watching it as younger. They probably could've tried moving it away from the Fox halo, but I guess they had no other open slots.

[soapfan770]

On this day 34 years ago the final episode of Dallas and came in at an astonishing #2 in the ratings after two straight seasons of weak ratings. Interesting Knots was #27 for that week as well:

 

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[kalbir]

The Dallas finale was the highest-rated episode since October 9, 1987 (Gone with the Wind).

Prior to the finale, the last Dallas episode to finish ahead of a new episode of Murder, She Wrote was October 23, 1987 (Tough Love).

Prior to the finale, the last Dallas episode to finish ahead of a new episode of The Cosby Show was February 22, 1985 (Shattered Dreams).

[Khan]

I agree.  I've always chalked it up to the fact that DALLAS had been a pop culture phenomenon for many years and that viewers, including viewers who'd stop watching years before, were tuning in one last time to say goodbye.

Also agree that it was interesting to see KL finish 27th for the week.  Any show doing that well after 12 seasons is a miracle, lol.

[soapfan770]

Interesting take on Dallas. Frankly I think the plot of JR Returns should have been the way Dallas ended but for whatever reason they thought they had the chance to get renewed for another season lol.

A week later Knots’ 2 hour season finale ranked at #10 against Cheers #3 and LA Law at #5. There’s only a handful of other shows running that long and still doing well enough the ratings/rankings i.e. Gunsmoke, Law & Order, NCIS, Grey’s Anatomy and more recently Blue Bloods. 
 

Another point of interest is the unraveling of the 80’s sitcoms had already begun in the spring of ‘91. The first part of a Who’s The Boss? two part season finale we see here ranked at  #40 and second part ranked at #43 the following week. Growing Pains finale the previous week barely made it into the Top 30. The Wonder Years fared no better. Cosby losing ground, Night Court and Dear John just being there etc. 

 

[kalbir]

1990/91 Cheers, Roseanne, A Different World, The Cosby Show, Empty Nest, The Golden Girls were still Top 10 shows, and Murphy Brown and Designing Women became Top 10 shows. It was the following season that I think was the transition season for sitcoms.

[te.]

Well, that was down to CBS being weak and not being willing to just pulling the plug entirely. They didn't want to commit to cancelling the show in case they needed it for their schedule basically; plus they kept showing that they were willing to make cuts if needed to be. 

[soapfan770]

Copying and pasting pasting this here as to not to derail the KL thread lol

Wow I forgot CBS actually did try multiple attempts to come up with a soapy replacement for Knots on Thursday nights in the 10/9 slots for the 93-94 season.
 

Angel Falls had promise but CBS didn’t give it a fair chance. Latham’s Second Chances got even worse ratings than Angel Falls and wasn’t given a second chance when the Northridge quake destroyed the show’s sets. One West Waikiki looked gorgeous but was a blink you missed it affair. Finally we got Hotel Malibu, a quasi follow-up to Second Chances that stayed as the summer replacement series it was.

CBS switched gears and had Chicago Hope air in the slot…against ER. It made the Top 30 but obviously underperformed below expectations. CBS gave up, and gave us 48 Hours for years there. It wasn’t until the 2002-03 season when CBS finally produced a Top 20 show for that spot with Without A Trace against an aging ER.

[te.]

Honestly, they should've ordered more of 2000 Malibu Road for the 1992-93 midseason and aired it when Knots went on a break. That was probably their best shot. 

 

Then of course they fumbled Central Park West by airing it in the 9PM slot instead of a 10PM slot where it would've been away from the Fox dramas. CPW got its best rating by airing randomly on a Sunday and when it was taken off the air for a "re-tooling", Party of Five's ratings actually had a spike, so clearly they were feeding off each other. But being a smaller network focused on a certain demographic, Fox could afford to be patient Party of Five, CBS couldn't...