• by August 18, 2000

Associated Press reports that without the marquee value of President Clinton, who spoke Monday, television viewership dipped slightly on Day Two of the Democratic National Convention.

Nielsen Media Research figures show that during the period from 8-11:15 p.m. EDT Tuesday, CNN had 1.5 million viewers, down from 1.82 million the night before. Though MSNBC had an uptick to 655,000 viewers as compared to Monday's audience of 626,000, Fox News Channel had 377,000 viewers, down from 420,000.

Covering the convention from 10 to 10:30 p.m. as part of its "60 Minutes II" broadcast, CBS had 5.34 million viewers, while ABC had 5.82 million for its convention special that aired from 10 to 11 p.m. These figures were comparable to the night before.

However, NBC, with a "Dateline" newsmagazine, upped its viewership considerably, to 11.08 million. About 5.9 million viewers tuned to its convention coverage Monday.

PBS projected that its convention coverage from 8 to 11 p.m. held steady at Monday's average of 3 million viewers.

Prior to the convention, ABC led in average prime-time viewership and also captured the adults ages 18 to 49 demographic in the 47th week of the TV season ended Sunday, according to Nielsen Media Research.

In total household rankings, ABC captured a 6.9 rating and a 13 share. The rating number represents the percentage of the nation's total of 99.4 million households tuned in to a certain network. Share represents the percentage of TV sets in use.

CBS came in second in the total household ranking with a 6.2 rating/11 share. NBC came in third with a 5.5 rating/10 share and Fox was fourth with a 3.8 rating/7 share.

In the 18-49 demographic, which is highly desired by advertisers, ABC was the winner with a 3.4 rating (11 share), followed by CBS at 3.1 (10 share), NBC with 3.0 (9 share) and Fox with 2.7 (9 share).

UPN reached a 2.2 rating/4 share in total household rankings, and its rating among adults 18-49 was a 1.4.

In total household rankings, the WB network had a 1.7 rating/3 share last week. Its rating among adults 18-49 was 1.1.

PAX TV had a total household rating of 1.0 and a 2 share. Among adults 18-49, it had a 0.3 rating.

The following is a breakdown by average viewership numbers of the prime time network rankings for week 47 (Aug. 7 - Aug. 13):

Average prime-time viewers (in millions)

1. ABC 9.94

2. CBS 8.87

3. NBC 7.75

4. Fox 5.77

5. UPN 3.42

Average number of adults, age 18-49 (in millions)

1. ABC 4.19

2. CBS 3.86

3. NBC 3.71

4. Fox 3.34

5. UPN 1.70

Rankings are based on 22 prime-time hours for ABC, CBS and NBC, 15 for Fox and 11 for Warner Brothers.