Rout of Rams Gives CBS a Boost

Some Los Angeles Rams fans may find it hard to believe, but more than 25 million homes were still tuned to the final hour of the National Football Conference Championship game Sunday, despite the rout by the San Francisco 49ers. Since that hour covered prime time in much of the country, the telecast topped the weekly ratings released Tuesday by the A.C. Nielsen Co. and helped push CBS into second place among the networks. CBS still ranks third for the season but has finished second for four of the past five weeks. NBC was first last week. The full list of ratings is on F9.

* ABC got its share of good news, too. The premiere of “America’s Funniest Home Videos” on Sunday drew an audience of about 16.5 million homes, enough for the show to rank 17th among the week’s 86 prime-time programs. And ABC’s “World News Tonight” ranked first among the network newscasts. Another entertainment series that debuted Sunday, the animated “The Simpsons” on Fox Broadcasting, finished 48th with about 11.7 million homes.

TV RATINGS

Show: Points / Share

1. “NFC Championship Game” (CBS): 27.3 / 45

2. “Roseanne” (ABC): 26.4 / 38

3. “The Cosby Show” (NBC): 23.3 / 36

4. “Cheers” (NBC): 22.2 / 34

5. “A Different World” (NBC): 21.4 / 33

* “Funniest Home Videos” (ABC): 18.0 / 27