TV RATINGS : NBC Tops Weekly Ratings Wars . . . Again

With its entire Thursday-night lineup placing in the Top 10, NBC easily won the network ratings race last week for the eighth week in a row. Figures released Tuesday by the A. C. Nielsen Co. showed NBC’s prime-time programs averaging an audience of 13 million households, compared to 11 million for ABC and 10.4 million for CBS. At the top of the heap was “The Cosby Show,” which attracted viewers in about 22.4 million homes. Even NBC’s “Howard Beach: Making the Case for Murder” ran third for at least half of its two hours and still placed 23rd among the week’s 90 programs. The full list of ratings is on Page 14.

* NBC also was expressing pleasure at the ratings for “True Blue,” the action series that last week had its first outing in its regular time slot of 9 p.m. Friday. Even though the show finished third behind ABC’s “Perfect Strangers” and “Just the Ten of Us” and CBS’ “Dallas,” NBC said the ratings were the best it has gotten there this season. “True Blue” replaced “Hardball.”

Show Points Share 1.”The Cosby Show”(NBC) 24.3 39 2.”Cheers”(NBC) 24.2 38 3.”Roseanne”(ABC) 23.5 36 4.”A Different World”(NBC) 23.0 37 5.”Dear John”(NBC) 20.4 33 *”True Blue”(NBC) 11.2 19