ABC earned a 13.1/21 for Monday's Cowboys-Giants "MNF"
game, drawing a 7.7/20 among adults 18-49, according to Tom
Bierbaum of DAILY VARIETY. The adult rating is down 19%
from last year's week three game, Steelers-Jaguars. This
week's rating is also the lowest-rated "MNF" game featuring
the Cowboys in 17 years "and probably ever." Despite the
low ratings, ABC is "still slightly ahead" for the night,
with the earlier "MNF" start time generating a 117% 18-49
improvement in the 8:00-9:00pm ET hour. Fox's "Ally
McBeal," which beat "MNF" in key demos last week, drew a
9.3/14 in homes and 7.2/17 among adults 18-49 (DAILY
VARIETY, 9/23). "MNF" averaged 18.3 million viewers for
Cowboys-Giants. Through three weeks, "MNF" is off 7% in
total viewers and down 8% among men 18-49, but the night is
up 10% among adults, due to the new time (Stephen Battaglio,
HOLLYWOOD REPORTER, 9/23). ABC Dir of Communications Mark
Mandel, on the low ratings: "There are a number of factors
involved. People are still adjusting to the 8pm start, and
the Clinton frenzy hurt us. Since this is just the third
game, it's too early to tell anything" (USA TODAY, 9/23).
ROWDY CREW: About 75 members of the Nat'l Association
of Broadcast Employees & Technicians (NABET) gathered
outside the press gate of Giants Stadium during Monday's
game "to protest ABC's hiring of 'shadow crews' -- standby
technicians who would be employed in the event the network's
regular technicians walked off their jobs." The protest --
and ABC's "fear of a show-stopping walkout" -- stems from a
"long-running labor dispute" between ABC and NABET, whose
members have been working without a contract at the net for
the past 18 months. Two security guards were injured during
a "brief melee" (David Robb, HOLLYWOOD REPORTER, 9/23).