America can't get enough of Monica. But maybe Baltimore can.

Wednesday night's chat between a sympathetic Barbara Walters and a poised Monica Lewinsky drew a hefty audience nationally, with nearly half of all TV sets in use -- 48 percent -- turned to ABC's "20/20." That made Lewinsky the star of the second-most-watched television show so far this year, behind only the Super Bowl.

However, Baltimore's numbers were well off the national average. Locally, "20/20" got a 28.8 rating -- each ratings point translates to roughly 10,000 viewing households -- and 39 share, or percent of all TV sets in use. That means fewer than 4 of every 10 active TVs in Charm City were tuned to the local ABC affiliate, WMAR, Channel 2.

Not that "20/20" was a bust in Baltimore; it was still the city's most-watched show this year, ahead of both the Super Bowl (27.4 rating, 38 share) and George Clooney's farewell on "ER" (28.2, 39). But in some major markets, including San Francisco, Boston and Philadelphia, more than half the sets in use were turned on to Monica.

ABC claims 74 million people saw some part of the broadcast.

In one way, however, Baltimore's TV viewers reflected their national counterparts: the audience for "20/20" started high, peaked in the middle and then fell off at the end.

Nationally, the show started off with a 31.4 rating at 9 p.m. and climbed to 34.9 at 10 before dropping to 33.5 (nationally, each ratings point equals roughly 994,000 viewing households). In Baltimore, the rating went from 28.3 to 29.9 to 27.2.

ABC officials professed to be overjoyed with Wednesday's ratings. The Walters-Lewinsky interview, with an average audience of 48.5 million, finished as the most-watched TV news show ever (not including news coverage carried simultaneously on more than one network).

And its placement on the final night of sweeps vaulted the network into a second-place tie with Fox among viewers 18-49.

Pub Date: 3/05/99