Aug. 9, 1957

Los Angeles

Top shows for the first two weeks of July 1957:

1. "Gunsmoke"
2. "The Ed Sullivan Show"
3. "The $64,000 Question"
4. "I’ve Got a Secret"
5. "Playhouse 90"
6. "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" (reruns)
7. "The Lineup" (reruns)
8. "20th Century-Fox Hour"
9. "What’s My Line"
10. "Twenty-One"

The All-Star baseball game (American League 6, National League 5 ) was the top-rated show for the period, with 12,896,000 TV sets tuned in, The Times said.

TV writer Cecil Smith noted that only one NBC program–the game show
"Twenty-One"–was in the top 10. He attributed the poor showing to the fact that the network had recently announced
55% of its fall shows would be new, including programs starring
Eddie Fisher, George Gobel, Dinah Shore, Rosemary Clooney, Jane Wyman and
Gisele MacKenzie, plus "The Court of Last Resort" based on a series by Erle
Stanley Gardner, a sitcom starring Joan Caulfield titled "Sally" and
three unidentified westerns.

About "Twenty-One." In early 1957, the shows featured a bright fellow named Charles Van Doren. Maybe you’ve heard of him.

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