TV RATINGS

Although America was rather cool toward the league playoffs on NBC, the country’s Nielsen families (at least) kept the World Series--and its broadcaster, ABC--up front in the week’s rankings. Game 7 proved especially attractive. The whole seven-game series was widely enough watched to put ABC’s weekly average in the top spot. Runner-up NBC saw its flagship shows slip out of the Top Three for the first time in weeks, as a result of the series. (The return of “regulation” National Football League games to Monday night didn’t hurt ABC’s averages, either). Weekly network averages: ABC, 19.4 rating/31 share; NBC, 15.9/26; CBS, 13.0/21. Evening news ratings: CBS 12.0, ABC 11.0, NBC 10.6. (One Nielsen point equals 886,000 homes; a “share” refers to the percentage of households watching a particular program.)

* This Cajun-spiced show (sometimes funny, sometimes not) may be the first of the season’s new shows to have found its audience. Certainly the publicity the show has generated (star Tim Reid is also the show’s co-producer) hasn’t hurt, nor has its company on CBS on Monday nights: “Cagney & Lacey” and “Designing Women.”

SHOW POINTS SHARE WEEK 1. World Series, Game 7 32.5 49 10/25 (ABC) ---- -- ----- 2. World Series, Game 3 24.7 39 10/25 (ABC) ---- -- ----- 3. The Golden Girls 24.2 43 10/25 (NBC) 20.3 36 10/18 4. The Cosby Show 24.2 36 10/25 (NBC) 30.0 49 10/18 5. World Series, Game 4 23.8 39 10/25 (ABC) ---- -- ----- * Frank’s Place 13.6 21 10/25 (CBS) 13.8 22 10/18