Donna Rice Boosts ‘20/20’ Ratings

Aspiring actress Donna Rice, who had only a bit part on “Miami Vice” last season, boosted ABC’s “20/20” to its highest rating of the season when she was interviewed by Barbara Walters on the program Thursday night.

According to overnight ratings compiled Friday, the ABC news magazine got a 20.7 rating and a 35 share. The show usually averages a 14.1 rating.

The Nielsen ratings are from the 13 biggest television markets.

An “L.A. Law” repeat on NBC at the same hour got a rating of 12.4 and a 21 share, and the movie “Rocky II” on CBS got an 11.3 and a 19 share.

The rating is a percentage of the estimated 87.4 million households with televisions. The share is a percentage of sets in use during a particular time period.

In her interview with Walters, Rice refused to say whether she had had a sexual relationship with Gary Hart, saying her silence was a matter of “dignity.”

Hart, a former Democratic senator from Colorado, withdrew from the presidential campaign last month, five days after the Miami Herald ran a front-page story saying Rice spent the night with Hart in his Washington town house.