FIRST OFF . . .

Cable television mogul Ted Turner said Tuesday he wants to join in the contest for the rights to air the 1990 Emmy broadcast--adding yet another suitor for the show, which has received lackluster ratings for the last two years on Fox Broadcasting. But Turner Broadcasting spokeswoman said no official bid for the Emmy broadcast has been made, pending review of the performance on TV of this year’s show. (The Aug. 28 program scored a middling 10.4 rating--not bad by Fox standards but hardly in the league with earlier broadcasts on ABC, CBS or NBC.) Turner--whose SuperStation TBS will telecast the Academy for Cable Excellence (ACE) awards in January and has just acquired rights to the Golden Globe awards--might air the Emmys as a special program on his new cable network, Turner Network Television (TNT), Lockhart said, “but that would be determined at the time of the bid.” TNT, due to premiere Oct. 3, is designed to compete with Fox and the Big Three networks by offering original programming, major sporting events and vintage films--many of them colorized. It is not expected to be available initially to as many homes as the other networks, however.