TV RATINGS : Viewers Have ‘Faith’ in Sunday Night

Strong programming on the three major networks Sunday night brought substantially more viewers to the set than usual, with the first part of NBC’s miniseries “Blind Faith” winning the movie race between 9 and 11 p.m. to rank eighth for the week. That helped give NBC its 85th win in the past 86 weeks. ABC’s telecast of “RoboCop” placed second during the two-hour time period while CBS’ “Miracle Landing” was third. While the three networks usually have a combined 69% share of the TV audience during that time period, they drew 78% Sunday. The full list of ratings is on Page 10.

* “The Bradys” are back and people are watching. The two-hour premiere Friday night on CBS was viewed in 11.9 million homes to place a strong second behind ABC for the time period and far ahead of NBC’s programs. But the real story is in the hour-by-hour ratings. While the Bradys were viewed in 10.6 million homes during their first hour, the audience grew to 13.2 million homes during the second half of the show to place first for that hour.

Show Points Share 1.”The Cosby Show”(NBC) 22.9 36 2.”Cheers”(NBC) 22.8 35 3.”Roseanne”(ABC) 22.5 33 4.”A Different World”(NBC) 21.9 34 5.”Funniest Home Videos”(ABC) 21.4 32 *”The Bradys”(CBS) 12.9 22