SWEEPING THE DIRT

In the third TV Sweeps week, it looks like the local ratings battle is developing into a two-way titillation contest between Channels 2 and 7.

2’s taking a weeklong look at L.A. dating (“Checking out the Meet Market”). Reporter Steve Kmetko asks, “What’s being served up in the Southland single scene? Are shoppers getting what they want?”

“2 on the Town” continues to go anywhere it can find bikini-ed young things, with trips to Buenos Aries (“If you can’t stand the heat stay out of the water”), the rest of Argentina (“Where it takes two to tango”) and Peru. Also Scandinavia--too cold for bikinis--but you can still find “seductive nights . . . Swedish beauties abound.”

7’s Eyewitness News counters with its own five-part series on the “heartbreak of interracial love,” with Ann Martin reporting.

And 7’s “Eye on L.A” goes “topless to Palm Springs” Thursday. Actually, it’s a reference to the mode of transportation--gotcha! On Tuesday, it peeks at safe sex and Hot Rod magazine’s bikini issue.