Everyone a Winner

THE INDUSTRY

TV's race for ratings would seem to be a matter of interest only within the industry. Yet each spring Americans await the final results in much the same way that they await the results of an election: as participants, they want to see which entries they have made the favorites. This season, for the 14th time in as many years, CBS held a slim numerical edge. CBS, by its own calculations (Nielsen ranks shows, not networks), won 20.3% of the audience to NBC's 20.0% and ABC's 15.6%.*

The breakdown:

> Of the ten top-rated series, half were CBS's. The ranking: 1) Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In (NBC), 2) Corner Pyle --U.S.M.C. (CBS), 3) Bonanza (NBC), 4) Mayberry R.F.D. (CBS), 5) Family Affair (CBS), 6) Gunsmoke (CBS), 7) Julia (NBC), 8) Dean Martin (NBC), 9) Here's Lucy (CBS), 10) Beverly Hillbillies (CBS).

> NBC presented more specials than the other competing networks combined --and dominated the top five ratings:

1) Bob Hope's Christmas Show (NBC),

2) Bob Hope's December Show (NBC),

3) Bob Hope's February Show (NBC),

4) Elvis Presley (NBC), 5) Heidi (NBC), and the Academy Awards Show (ABC).

Who really won the 1968-69 season? Michael Dann, CBS senior vice president for programming, feels that he did. With CBS in second place midseason, Dann decided to shift Hawaii Five-0 from its 8 p.m. Thursday time slot (where it started opposite Flying Nun and the second half of Daniel Boone) to 10 p.m. Wednesday (against the less formidable competition of The Outsider and a movie). As a result, Hawaii Five-0 climbed from a 26% share of the audience to 37%. Without that shift, NBC might have finished in first place.

But Paul Klein, NBC vice president for audience measurement, insists that there is more to ratings than numbers. "If it were numbers alone," says Klein, "Saturday Evening Post would still be in business." Thus, he points out that NBC was ahead in the ratings with college graduates (19.1 to CBS's 18.3) and among families earning $15,000 or more (20.9 to 19.1). The results, in money, bear him out; NBC topped CBS in prime-time commercial billings, $212 million to $210 million; ABC booked $166 million. In around-the-clock billings, however, CBS clung to first place, with $387 million to NBC's $366 million and ABC's $278 million.

*Meaning that CBS was watched by 20.3%, NBC by 20.0% and ABC by 15.6% of TV-owning households during prime time, 7:30-11 p.m. Each percentage point equals roughly 1,200,000 viewers.

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