'ER' Beaten by a Real Hospital Show

NEW YORK (AP) â€” A real-life medical drama produced by ABC News outperformed ``ER'' in the ratings, helping the network to another weekly television ratings win. <br><br>ABC's ``Hopkins 24/7''

Friday, September 8th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

NEW YORK (AP) â€” A real-life medical drama produced by ABC News outperformed ``ER'' in the ratings, helping the network to another weekly television ratings win.

ABC's ``Hopkins 24/7'' news special last Thursday drew 12 million viewers, Nielsen Media Research said Wednesday. The one-hour show, the second of a six-part special, followed doctors and patients at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. It featured a little girl from Indiana who underwent surgery to remove half her brain.

An ``ER'' rerun in the same time slot drew 8.5 million viewers.

The first part of ``Hopkins 24/7,'' which aired last Wednesday, drew 8.4 million viewers. Part two had the advantage of following an edition of ``Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.'' The three editions of the game show were easily the three most-watched programs of the week.

The faltering CBS ``Big Brother'' series drew 11.4 million viewers last Wednesday, its most popular edition of the week. It was enough for 11th place in the ratings, though it had 40 million fewer viewers than the ``Survivor'' finale in the same time slot a week earlier.

For the week, ABC had an average prime-time viewership of 9.3 million people (6.5 rating, 12 share). CBS had 8.2 million viewers (5.9, 11), NBC had 7.8 million (5.8, 10), Fox had 6.1 million (4.2, 7), UPN had 4.1 million (2.6, 5), the WB had 2.7 million (1.8, 3) and Pax TV had 1.5 million (1.1, 2).

NBC's ``Nightly News'' won the evening news ratings race with 9.3 million viewers (7.1 rating, 16 share). ABC's ``World News Tonight'' had 8.6 million viewers (6.6, 15) and the ``CBS Evening News'' had 7.9 million (6.1, 13).

With the help of the conventions, the three cable news channels each recorded viewership increases last month compared with August 1999. Fox News Channel, which beat CNBC in total viewers during prime-time for the first time, was up 68 percent, MSNBC was up 58 percent and CNN was up 18 percent.

A rating point represents 1,008,000 households, or 1 percent of the nation's estimated 100.8 million TV homes. The share is the percentage of in-use televisions tuned to a given show.

For the week of Aug. 28-Sept. 3, the top 10 shows, their networks and ratings: ``Who Wants to Be a Millionaire'' (Tuesday), ABC, 14.6; ``Who Wants to Be a Millionaire'' (Thursday), ABC, 13.7; ``Who Wants to Be a Millionaire'' (Sunday), ABC, 11.9; ``Law and Order,'' NBC, 9.2; ``Everybody Loves Raymond,'' CBS, 8.8; ``Hopkins 24/7,'' ABC, 8.8; ``Law and Order'' (Monday), NBC, 8.4; ``Dharma & Greg,'' ABC, 8.2; ''60 Minutes,'' CBS, 7.9; ``Becker,'' CBS, 7.9.

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On the Net: http://www.nielsenmedia.com