Rooney’s Return Gives CBS Ratings a Boost

With a big boost from Andy Rooney and the rest of its Sunday-night lineup, CBS climbed out of the cellar last week and placed second in the prime-time ratings behind NBC, figures from the A.C. Nielsen Co. showed Tuesday. Rooney’s return to “60 Minutes” after a three-week suspension helped generate ratings about two points higher (1.8 million homes) than its season average. “Murder, She Wrote” placed 12th among the week’s 85 prime-time programs, and the CBS movie, “The Incident,” finished 7th. ABC finished third for the week but its nightly newscast, “World News Tonight,” handily beat the competition on the other two networks. The full list of ratings is on Page 10.

* ABC didn’t get any ratings help from “H.E.L.P.,” the rescue drama that debuted last Saturday. The new series ranked 79th for the week, attracting only 12% of the viewers watching TV between 8 and 9 p.m. NBC’s “Alf,” moving over from Monday night, won the 8 p.m. competition with 21% of the audience.

TV RATINGS

Show Points Share 1.”Roseanne”(ABC) 22.7 33 2.”The Cosby Show”(NBC) 22.4 35 3.”Cheers”(NBC) 22.3 35 4.”60 Minutes”(CBS) 22.0 37 5.”Funniest Home Videos”(ABC) 21.8 33 *”H.E.L.P.”(ABC) 6.8 12