'TIS THE NEWSMAGAZINE SEASON.

Byline: Associated Press 

Six of the 10 most-watched programs last week were newsmagazines, about the only form of programming unaffected by the nation's summertime tune-out of broadcast television.

The Tuesday edition of ``Dateline NBC'' won the week's Nielsen Media Research ratings crown, the first time since last August the newsmagazine has been on top.

NBC won the week with a 6.9 rating and 13 share, Nielsen said Tuesday. CBS was second with a 6.5 rating and 12 share, followed by ABC's 5.5 rating and 11 share and Fox's 4.6 rating and 9 share. The WB had a 2.3 rating and 4 share, and UPN had a 1.8 rating and 3 share.

The top four networks had an unusually low 45 combined share - meaning more than half of the people watching prime-time TV last week were tuned in to cable or the mini-networks, the WB and UPN.

Hit shows like ``Seinfeld'' and ``ER,'' while still rated in last week's top 10, had less than half the viewership for repeats last week than they had for a typical week during the television season.

Newsmagazines lose audience, too, but since they include fresh material the drop-off is only a fraction of what it is for entertainment repeats. Top-ranked ``Dateline NBC'' had 14.7 million viewers last week, just under its season average of 15.2 million.

Recognizing this drawing power, NBC is adding a fifth night of ``Dateline NBC'' to its schedule for the fall and this past week agreed to a new contract that will reportedly pay the show's co-anchor, Stone Phillips, more than $5 million per year.

A rating point represents 980,000 households, or 1 percent of the nation's estimated 98 million TV homes. Share is the percentage of in-use televisions tuned to a given show.

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Box: (Nielsen Ratings)