FIRST OFF . . .

Local overnight ratings for network coverage of the Republican National Convention showed that KNBC-TV Channel 4 with a 6.3 rating and KABC-TV Channel 2 with a 6.2 (each point represents 46,527 homes in the Los Angeles area) crushed Dan Rather and KCBS-TV Channel 2’s 3.4 rating between 6 and 9 p.m. But all three paled in comparison to KTLA-TV Channel 5’s re-broadcast of four consecutive episodes of “Cheers,” which overlapped the last hour of the network’s convention coverage. “Cheers” scored an 11.6 rating between 8 and 10 p.m., handily beating the convention and all of the prime-time network programming that followed.