MINIS GET BLAME FOR MAXI TUNE-OFF

The returns for the November ratings “sweeps” are in. The bad news for the networks is that their combined averages for the period were the lowest they’ve ever been. The good news, at least for NBC, is that it recorded its seventh sweeps win in a row.

NBC averaged a 17.5 rating in the Oct. 30-Nov. 26 sweeps, one of four periods each year when the A.C. Nielsen Co. surveys viewership in every TV market. The data is used by stations to help determine their advertising rates for the next several months.

CBS had a 15.9 average, while struggling ABC, which ended last season in the prime-time ratings cellar, remained there with a 14.2 average, according to Nielsen audience estimates.

Each ratings point represents 874,000 homes and, over the course of a season, can represent $80 million in revenue for a network.

Despite the lowest combined averages of the three networks, the research chiefs for all three--Bill Rubens at NBC, David Poltrack at CBS and Marvin Mord at ABC--said the November returns don’t signal the start of a viewer trend in turning off instead of tuning in.

Instead, the research chiefs contended, the sweeps only showed that:

--Viewers got less of the traditional special programming they normally get in sweeps months--namely miniseries--and thus watched less TV. In November, 1985, there were 29 hours of miniseries, compared to 14 this year, Poltrack said.

--Viewers found last month’s miniseries slightly less than whoopee. CBS’ “Monte Carlo” got a feeble 13.5 rating and its farcical “Fresno” a 15.2, while NBC’s “Rage of Angels” sequel managed only a 16.2.

ABC, which in last year’s November sweeps had the popular “North and South, “ considered airing “Out on a Limb”--the five-hour miniseries about some of Shirley MacLaine’s life and times--this November. But the network decided to hold the program until January and relied instead on its regular series lineup.

That produced no joy for ABC.

“Our intent this year was to try to let our (new) series programs develop” during the November sweeps, research chief Mord said Monday. “At this point we’re kind of disappointed by the performance of some shows we had hoped would do better.”

He declined to specify which ones (the new Lucille Ball and Ellen Burstyn series are in the failed category) but said that while ABC News’ low-rated “Our World” was a factor in ABC’s poor sweeps ratings, it wasn’t a major one.

He said “Our World” had done as well as any program could do in a kamikaze time slot against NBC’s runaway Thursday hits “The Cosby Show” and “Family Ties.”

“We thought it (‘Our World’) might grab some kids and teens because of nostalgia,” Mord said, referring to the fact that each show takes a look back at a given period in contemporary American history. “We thought that they might watch it with their parents. But perhaps the show deserves a shot at 10 p.m. to get young adults.”

Mord said he doesn’t know if ABC is considering moving “Our World” from its 8 p.m. Thursday time slot.

While November’s miniseries proved far from mighty in the ratings, their era is far from over. ABC tentatively has its controversial “Amerika” set for the February sweeps, as does CBS with its “I’ll Take Manhattan.”

However, CBS’ Poltrack said, those sweeps-period shows “cost a lot of money.” At a time of rising costs and flat advertising revenues, he said, the networks will be asking whether such shows attract large enough audiences to warrant the expense.

“And it may be,” he said, “that the networks, for economic reasons, start to back off from these rather expensive forms, accepting the fact that their collective ratings will not be as strong in the past. . . .”

“I think everyone’s goal is to have seven nights of series,” Poltrack said, laughing. He explained that networks then wouldn’t have to worry about attracting a new audience for a different miniseries or TV movie every week.

“Once you get a series audience locked in, you know they’re going to be back every week,” he said.

Poltrack said that there will continue to be miniseries, but they’ll probably be shorter--six-hour productions instead of the 10- or 12-hour variety or ABC’s 1988-model “War and Remembrance,” potentially a 30-hour behemoth.