COVERAGE OF ATLANTA OLYMPICS PROVIDES NIELSEN GOLD FOR NBC.

Byline: Associated Press 

The spectacle and glory of the Olympics turned immediately into ratings gold for NBC.

With nine of the top 10 shows and a 1-2-3 finish for the Atlanta Games' first three nights, NBC won the week of July 15-21 with a 14.7 rating, 27 percent audience share that bettered CBS and ABC's ratings combined.

Third-ranked CBS narrowly won a fourth consecutive week in second place, with a 6.5 rating, 12 share to ABC's 6.4 rating, 12 share. The Fox network, with 15 prime-time hours, earned a 3.9 rating, 7 share.

The WB led Hollywood's ``emerging'' networks with a 2.3 rating, 4 share, for five hours of prime time; UPN, with six prime-time hours, had a 2.2 rating, 4 share, according to Tuesday's ratings from Nielsen Media Research.

A single rating point equals 959,000 households, or 1 percent of the nation's estimated 95.9 million TV homes; share is the percentage of sets in use that tune in to a program source during a specific time period.

ABC's top-ranked ``World News Tonight'' led the evening newscasts with an 8.4 rating, 18 share; NBC's ``Nightly News'' was second, with a 7.4 rating, 17 share; and CBS' ``Evening News'' had a 6.1 rating, 14 share.

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Box: (Nielsen Ratings)