CONSENTING MIDDLE-AMERICAN ADULTS MAKE ‘DIRTY DOZEN’ NO. 1

Call it a case of middle-American TV viewers disagreeing with their big-city counterparts.

When national ratings from the A. C. Nielsen Co. rolled in Wednesday, they showed NBC’s Monday-night offering, “The Dirty Dozen: Next Mission,” topping the ABC competition of “Consenting Adult.”

The day before, it had appeared that the two programs finished in reverse order, based on Nielsen’s overnight ratings from Los Angeles, New York and seven other big cities.

But outside the urban centers, NBC’s war drama was the preferred choice over ABC’s account of two parents dealing with their teen-age son’s homosexuality. The national figures gave “Dirty Dozen” a 23.8 rating and “Consenting Adult” a 23.1 rating. The difference represents about 600,000 households.

NBC won the entire evening as well, bringing in an average 22.3 rating and 32 share for the 8-11 p.m. prime-time period. ABC followed with a 20.9/30 and CBS, which aired its regular series programming opposite the two specials, trailed with 16.1/23.