Ratings from the 1990s

[kalbir]

Correction, Chicago Hope 1994/95 was initially Thursday 9 pm, a CBS dead zone and head-to-head w/ Seinfeld. 1994/95 CBS Thursday 10 pm initially was Eye to Eye with Connie Chung.

Later in the season CBS did a scheduling shift with Chicago Hope moving to Monday 10 pm, Eye to Eye with Connie Chung moving to Thursday 9 pm, and 48 Hours moving from Wednesday 10 pm to Thursday 10 pm.

[soapfan770]

 Thanks! For some reason I had misremembered ER and Chicago Hope going directly head to head but that may have been because of the hype about both shows. 
 

Poor Connie Chung. She seem poised for success and possibly the next Barbara Walters. I don’t recall her co-anchor gig on the CBS Evening News was well received though. She kind of tanked her career moving into more a tabloid journalist role once at ABC and especially once she moved off network TV to CNN and later more infamously on MSNBC. 

[kalbir]

CBS primetime was such a mess in the 1990s.

1990/91 fourth consecutive third place finish.

1991/92 to 1993/94 some signs of life but it didn't last. 

1994/95 to 1999/2000 another primetime mess era. 1995 the sale to Westinghouse and Les Moonves arrived. The only bright spots were Touched by an Angel becoming a Top 10 show and Everybody Loves Raymond starting to show growth.

CBS primetime would have a comeback in 2000 with the premieres of Survivor and CSI and Everybody Loves Raymond becoming a Top 10 show, and the rest is history.

Edited 21 hours ago by kalbir

[soapfan770]

No kidding. It’s amazing to me that CBS as messy as it was for the 97-98 season landed at #2 that year thanks to Sunday nights, 1/2 of the Monday night lineup, Diagnosis Murder on Thursdays, and oddly the Saturday night line-up. I think CBS was saved by the Winter Olympics not to mention ABC had gotten even messier than CBS’ mess. 

CBS came out a more solid for #2 for the 98-99 season but was still very uneven overall. Outside of Sundays the rest of the network’s hits were on checkerboard split between Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. 
 

Had it not been for Who Wants to Be a Millionaire fever I’d say CBS probably would’ve been at #2 for the 99-00 season as well, very much still uneven but of course Survivor and CSI were on the horizon.

(*There’s some evidence that CBS may have barely eked out a win for #2 for the 96-97 season but that season’s mess sure doesn’t feel that way)