‘Amerika’ Viewers Defect on 2nd Night of Miniseries

Audiences defected from “Amerika” on the second night of the seven-night miniseries, A. C. Nielsen Co. figures from the nation’s biggest cities showed today.

The controversial and highly publicized miniseries opened Sunday night with a 43 share of the viewing audience, a figure that dropped to 38 when smaller cities and rural areas were figured in, still the best start for a miniseries this season.

But Monday night local ratings from 11 of the big cities showed “Amerika” dropping to a 32 share of the viewing audience.

Theme Protested

The lengthy, $40-million project, has drawn protests because of its premise. It is set 10 years after a bloodless takeover of the United States by the Soviet Union.

Marvin Mord, ABC vice president for marketing and research services, said the public could have found the miniseries “anticlimactic.”

“This could be a case of the vast media coverage that has been given to this program working against it,” he said.

Mord said the miniseries was performing about as well as the network expected and predicted the shares would be in the low 30s during the week, then rise again for the conclusion Sunday night to the high 30s or even over 40.

He said ABC would be “disappointed” if the miniseries dropped to a below 30 share.

Mord pointed out that the miniseries will produce better ratings than the perennially third-place network usually gets, and is providing a much-needed promotional platform for advertising new ABC shows that debut in March.

NBC won the week’s ratings race despite “Amerika,” but the strength of the miniseries’ performance--only the first night counted in the weekly ratings ending Feb. 15--gave ABC second place over CBS for only the second time this season.

Mord said he did not think ABC would win next week when ratings for six “Amerika” episodes are included.

“I think we’d be hard-pressed to pass NBC at this point, but you never can tell,” Mord said.

February is a “sweeps” month, one of four periods a year when ratings determine local stations’ advertising rates.

NBC won last week with a rating of 18.3. ABC had a 15.6 and CBS 15.0.