Weekly Nielsen Ratings: Summer 1981

Below are the full weekly ratings results for the summer of the 1980-81 television season. Viewership wasn't reported by Nielsen until the fall 1989 season, so up until that point the only metric widely available was the household rating (which is what is reported here in this article). To calculate the estimated number of households watching, just multiply each rating by 778,000 (through w/e June 28) or 799,000 (w/e July 5 onward) as that is what 1 rating point represents. The following are newspaper clippings from the Los Angeles Times, which was the only newspaper in the United States to publish full weekly TV ratings results. Images can be clicked to enlarge. 

Week Ending May 24, 1981 (full ratings):

Week Ending May 31, 1981 (full ratings):

Week Ending June 7, 1981 (full ratings):

Week Ending June 14, 1981 (full ratings):

Week Ending June 21, 1981 (full ratings):

Week Ending June 28, 1981 (full ratings):

Week Ending July 5, 1981 (full ratings):

Week Ending July 12, 1981 (full ratings):

Week Ending July 19, 1981 (full ratings):

Week Ending July 26, 1981 (full ratings):

Week Ending August 2, 1981 (full ratings):

Week Ending August 9, 1981 (full ratings):

Week Ending August 16, 1981 (full ratings):

Week Ending August 23, 1981 (full ratings):

Week Ending August 30, 1981 (full ratings):

Week Ending September 6, 1981 (full ratings):

Week Ending September 13, 1981 (full ratings):

Source: Nielsen Media Research via The Los Angeles Times