TV & VIDEO - March 5, 1990

‘Quality’ Viewers, Nielsen Disagree: A recent national survey of 3,500 members of a Virginia-based group seeking higher-quality TV fare greatly differed from the A. C. Nielsen Co. ratings. The Viewers for Quality Television Inc. survey respondents ranked the CBS Monday-night series “Murphy Brown” No. 1 and “Designing Women” as No. 2 on their most-watched list. Yet the latest Nielsen weeklies put those shows in a tie for 31st place. Further, while the Nielsens perennially place NBC’s “The Cosby Show” in first place, the show did not even make the VQT’s Top 25. The VQT members’ Top 10 were: “Murphy Brown,” “Designing Women,” “Roseanne,” “L.A. Law,” “Beauty and the Beast” (now canceled), “Newhart,” “Cheers,” “The Wonder Years,” “The Golden Girls” and “In the Heat of the Night.”