1992, The Redskins defeated the Buffalo Bills in Super Bowl XXVI, the Seinfeld episode “The Contest” airs, SciFi Channel launched with a broadcast of Star Wars, Cartoon Network launches in the US, Barney & Friends, Melrose Place and Dateline NBC all premiere, Jay Leno becomes host of the Tonight Show, and these were the top 20 prime time shows for the 1991-92 season:
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PRIME TIME TOP 20 PROGRAMS |
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SEPTEMBER 1991 – APRIL 1992 |
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|
HOUSEHOLD |
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|
RANK |
PROGRAM |
NETWORK |
RATING |
SHARE |
|
|
1 |
60 Minutes |
CBS |
21.7 |
36 |
|
|
2 |
Roseanne |
ABC |
20.2 |
31 |
|
|
3 |
Murphy Brown |
CBS |
18.6 |
27 |
|
|
4 |
Cheers |
NBC |
17.6 |
27 |
|
|
5 |
Home Improvement |
ABC |
17.5 |
27 |
|
|
6 |
Designing Women |
CBS |
17.3 |
26 |
|
|
7 |
Coach |
ABC |
17.2 |
27 |
|
|
8 |
Full House |
ABC |
17.0 |
27 |
|
|
9 |
Murder, She Wrote |
CBS |
16.9 |
25 |
|
|
10 |
Unsolved Mysteries |
NBC |
16.9 |
27 |
|
|
11 |
Major Dad |
CBS |
16.8 |
25 |
|
|
11 |
NFL Monday Night Football |
ABC |
16.8 |
28 |
|
|
13 |
Room For Two |
ABC |
16.7 |
26 |
|
|
14 |
CBS Sunday Movie |
CBS |
15.9 |
25 |
|
|
15 |
Evening Shade |
CBS |
15.8 |
25 |
|
|
16 |
Northern Exposure |
CBS |
15.5 |
25 |
|
|
17 |
A Different World |
NBC |
15.2 |
24 |
|
|
18 |
Bill Cosby Show |
NBC |
14.8 |
24 |
|
|
19 |
Wings |
NBC |
14.6 |
23 |
|
|
19 |
America’s Funniest Home Videos | ABC |
14.5 |
22 |
|
For a bit of perspective, the top rated show this season, Tuesday’s American Idol, Season To Date HH rating is 16.1 and its share is 24. Remember though that in 1992, a ratings point was far fewer households than it is today.
Unlike 1982, when primetime broadcast network viewership was near its peak, by 1992 viewers had begun a long term move towards cable.
As in 1982, we still see both 60 Minutes and Monday Night Football, and a regular movie [CBS Sunday Movie, not ABC].
America’s Funniest Home Videos, which began in 1989, appears in the list tied for #19. Besides 60 Minutes and primetime football, it’s the only show that survives today, although currently with a season to date viewer ranking of tied for #86.
In 1992, CBS had 5 successful sitcoms in the top 20 [Murphy Brown, Designing Women, Major Dad, Evening Shade and Northern Exposure], but perhaps Murder, She Wrote was the harbinger of the elderly favored crime dramas that were to dominate CBS today.
By 1992, NBC’s The Cosby Show and its spinoff A Different World, were past their primes which occurred from the mid to late 1980’s, but Cheers was near its peak [which was 1991], and NBC sitcoms still ruled Thursday night, as they would for more than another decade.
Except for football, ABC had only sitcoms in the top 20 [Rosanne, Home Improvement, Coach, Full House, Room for Two].
Today, few sitcoms survive at the top of the ratings, as Robert wrote earlier.
Original SciFi channel logo courtesy of Wikipedia.
Nielsen TV Ratings Data: ©2008 Nielsen Media Research, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Wow! thanks for this list. I can’t believe 60 minutes was the number one show. I guess it’s because people didn’t have 24 hour cable news channels back then. I’m kind of shocked that Seinfeld wasn’t in the top 20 by 1992. That was it’s 3 season and I thought it was very popular by then (I know it started very slow).
Wow! thanks for this list. I can't believe 60 minutes was the number one show. I guess it's because people didn't have 24 hour cable news channels back then. I'm kind of shocked that Seinfeld wasn't in the top 20 by 1992. That was it's 3 season and I thought it was very popular by then (I know it started very slow).
Do you know if the Nielsen’s broke the ratings down by demo back then? I wonder how old skewing the Top 20 was?
Do you know if the Nielsen's broke the ratings down by demo back then? I wonder how old skewing the Top 20 was?
Andrea, I’m sure they did, but *we* don’t have demo data going back to more than last season.
Andrea, I'm sure they did, but *we* don't have demo data going back to more than last season.
If I remember correctly, sitcoms were popular to produce in the late 80’s and early 90’s because it was so much easier to sell a half-hour show into the available limited syndication time slots than it was an hour drama.
Today, with so many more outlets for older shows, local stations and cable nets have to fill so much time that they even different episodes of the same half-hour show back to back to fill in a full hour.
With the amount of money syndicated shows make for their producers, this is a key reason why sitcoms have declined in the past 20 or so years.
If I remember correctly, sitcoms were popular to produce in the late 80's and early 90's because it was so much easier to sell a half-hour show into the available limited syndication time slots than it was an hour drama.
Today, with so many more outlets for older shows, local stations and cable nets have to fill so much time that they even different episodes of the same half-hour show back to back to fill in a full hour.
With the amount of money syndicated shows make for their producers, this is a key reason why sitcoms have declined in the past 20 or so years.
surprised that 60 min. is first lol, i may be young but i like cheers and home improvement, surprised that they werent closer to the top.