TV RATINGS : NBC in Rerun Heaven

The nation’s TV viewers showed a clear preference for reruns over original programming last week, according to figures released Tuesday by the A.C. Nielsen Co. Repeat editions of NBC’s Thursday-night comedies were in their familiar positions atop the ratings list, while the first-run AFI tribute to Jack Lemmon placed 33rd, Liza Minnelli’s new special was 44th and David Bowie’s new concert show finished 63rd. On the news front, meanwhile, ABC’s “World News Tonight” beat its two rival network newscasts for the sixth week in a row. It drew a 9.2 rating compared to an 8.5 for “CBS Evening News” and an 8.3 for “NBC Nightly News.” Each point represents 886,000 households. For the full ratings list, see Page 10.

* The bright lights of Broadway got short-circuited Sunday night. CBS’ telecast of the Tony Awards was perhaps the week’s biggest disappointment in terms of original programming. It placed 43rd and ran third in its time period behind the feature film “Short Circuit” on NBC, which was seen in about 16.1 million homes, and a rerun of the TV movie “Bluffing It” on ABC, which was viewed in about 8.8 million homes--about 400,000 more than watched the Tonys.

Show Points Share 1. Night Court 19.4 32 (NBC) (repeat) 2. The Cosby Show 18.9 35 (NBC) (repeat) 3. Cheers 18.9 32 (NBC) (repeat) 4. A Different World 18.8 34 (NBC) (repeat) 5. “Short Circuit” 18.2 33 (NBC Sunday Night Movie) * 42nd Annual Tony Awards 9.5 17 (CBS) (special)