The show became an instant success both in britian where a massive 14.6 million households tunned in to watch, back home the show was as equaly as popular with a television audience of 26.4%, placing it fourth in the top 10 rated shows, according to the Nielsen Ratings and raising the NBC Network single-handedly out of its third place slump, becoming one of the stations biggest successes ever.
In its very first season ('82-'83), or half-season, as it was, it finished 10th overall. It was the network's only Top Ten show for the season, and a rerun of "The Out-of-Towners" made it to Number 2 for the week. In it's second season it moved up to Number 4 in the overall ratings, with eight episodes reaching Number 1 for the week. It still held strong in the ratings for it's third season, finishing in 6th place overall, with one Number One high for the episode "Bounty" (which featured Dwight Schultz's wife, Wendy Fulton). However, the 4th season saw a dramatic drop in the ratings, down to 30th place, having a high of 16th with the episode "Body Slam". Despite drastic efforts to increase the ratings in the 5th season, it finished a dismal 61st place for the half-season of episodes that aired. |
