Midseason Countdown

While viewers whose taste buds function even moderately well are finding this year's television diet more dyspepsiant than ever, last week's Nielsen ratings (for the two weeks ending Dec. 4) reported a total listenership of nearly 26 million homes per minute, granted all three networks the first simultaneous rise in years. CBS, with a 4% increase in audience size over the same period last season, retained its lead with a nighttime Nielsen of 20.1. ABC, registering an impressive 15% gain, nearly closed the gap with a 19.2 rating. NBC, Huntley-Brinkleymanship and all, dropped into third place, with a 17.3 average and a mere 1% increase.*

More than ever, though, it was clear that the highest-rated network does not necessarily carry the best shows, and that what the industry really needs is not a quantity but a quality rating service. At midseason the top ten shows were once again practically the private preserve of gunslingers. Although NBC's Wagon Train topped the sorry heap with a 36.9 Nielsen, CBS grabbed off seven of the next nine places, with Gunsmoke, Have Gun, Will Travel, a Red Skelton special, Dennis the Menace, Rawhide, Andy Griffith and Perry Mason. The only challengers: ABC's The Untouchables and 77 Sunset Strip, in fifth and sixth positions.

The Griffith show was but one of four new CBS comedy efforts (the others: Can did Camera, Tom Swell, Pete and Gladys) to make the top 40 shows. Other comedy attempts in what was to have been the great season of laughter include NBC's Peter Loves Mary, unfortunately fairly successful, while Bringing Up Buddy (CBS) is doing just poorly enough to give hope of its early disappearance. Another comedy casualty is Angel (CBS), whose engaging French star, Annie Farge, ought to be salvaged from the wreckage.

Shows definitely dumped include Dan Raven, Riverboat (both NBC), and David Susskind's Witness (CBS), which turned into a shambles after a promising start.

Aside from the early euthanasia, the season will be remembered most for its emphasis on public-affairs programs, which did relatively well while doing good.

Although NBC showed up poorly in last week's Nielsen ratings, it could find some consolation in color. While the network continued to expand its color coverage, including everything from Macbeth to Jack Paar, RCA reported that "although black-and-white TV sales dropped 7%, color television showed the sharpest rise of any consumer product on the market--up 30% over 1959." Possible threat for next season: a color western, with all that blood in living (or dying) red.

* For the season as a whole, however, NBC is in second place, a hairbreadth ahead of ABC, 17.5 to 17.3.

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