‘Videos’ Rerun Pulls Upset on ’60 Minutes’

The crew at “60 Minutes” was not laughing at “America’s Funniest Home Videos” last week. “Videos” beat “60 Minutes” in its own time period last week, it was reported Tuesday.

Not only did more Americans watch “Home Videos” than “60 Minutes,” but “Videos” was a rerun. The show was a repeat of the original hourlong show that premiered Nov. 26.

For the record, “Videos” came in eighth in the Nielsen ratings, with a 19.4 rating and a 31 share, while “60 Minutes” ranked 18th with a 16.7 rating and a 27 share. The competition on NBC, a repeat of Disney’s “Alice in Wonderland,” ranked 75th with a 7.6 rating and a 12 share.

Was putting “Home Videos” opposite the previously impregnable “60 Minutes” an advance foray into the time period or just an inspired one shot?

“ABC has no intention of moving ‘America’s Funniest Home Videos’ to the 7 p.m. time period,” said ABC spokeswoman Janice Gretemeyer. She said the show will remain in its current 8 p.m. time slot.

CBS may have been smarting from the slap at its classy news magazine, but there was good news elsewhere for the network. The Grammy Awards ranked ninth, up 18% from the previous year and giving CBS Wednesday night as well as its usual Sunday night win. NBC won Thursday and Saturday and ABC took Monday, Tuesday and Friday.

The ABC Monday win was for part two of “The Kennedys of Massachusetts,” which came in 13th for the week. The miniseries finale on Wednesday ranked 19th.

The Sunday movie honors went to NBC’s “A Family for Joe,” the two-hour movie pilot for a sitcom starring Robert Mitchum, which ranked 22nd. No start date has been set for the series.

The CBS Sunday flick, “Sparks: The Price of Passion,” finished 38th. ABC’s “Challenger” came in tied for 44th with NBC’s “Friday’s Main Event,” a live wrestling match between Hulk Hogan and “Macho King” Randy Savage, refereed by Buster Douglas.

NBC won the ratings race for the week for the 19th consecutive time, and 87th out of the last 88 weeks. The network took the week ending Sunday with a 15.1 rating and a 24 share, according to the A. C. Nielsen Co. ABC took second place with a 13.7 rating and a 22 share, while CBS was third with a 13.4 rating and a 21 share.

In the evening news ratings, ABC’s “World News Tonight” with Peter Jennings continued as No. 1 with an 11.3 rating and a 21 share. The Jennings news has been in sole possession of first place or tied for first for 20 of the last 21 weeks. “NBC Nightly News” with Tom Brokaw was second with a 10.1 rating and a 19 share, while “CBS Evening News” with Dan Rather was third with a 9.9 rating and an 18 share.

TOP 10 SHOWS Here are the ratings for national prime-time television last week, as compiled by the A. C. Nielsen Co.

Net- Rat- Program work ing 1.The Cosby Show NBC 23.6 2.Cheers NBC 23.6 3.Roseanne ABC 21.5 4.A Different World NBC 21.0 5.The Golden Girls NBC 20.7 6.Empty Nest NBC 20.6 7.The Wonder Years ABC 19.8 8.Funniest Home Videos ABC 19.4 9.Grammy Awards CBS 18.9 10.L.A. Law NBC 18.6