Mediocre 1st Night for ABC’s ‘War’ May Mean More Losses

The return of “War and Remembrance” on Sunday night attracted only mediocre overnight ratings, threatening to send ABC’s losses on the $110-million miniseries soaring, according to preliminary figures available Monday.

A. C. Nielsen figures from 20 major cities showed the first episode of the final 11 1/2 hours of the World War II drama running third in its time period with an average rating of 13.1--30% lower than what the miniseries averaged last November. If that figure were to hold steady in the national ratings that are due out today, it would translate to about 4 1/2 million fewer households than what ABC had promised sponsors.

ABC would then have to provide free advertising time later to make good on its guarantee, running up more losses for the network, which had estimated even before the project went on the air last fall that it would lose $20 million because of the high production costs.

Capital Cities/ABC chairman John S. Murphy told a shareholders’ meeting in North Carolina last week that the network’s total losses in dramatizing the Herman Wouk novel now will be between $30 million and $40 million.