TV RATINGS : ‘Cheers’ Beats ‘Videos’

“Cheers” edged out “America’s Funniest Home Videos” as the most-watched TV program in the nation last week, while the audience for Fox’s animated series “The Simpsons” continued to snowball, the A.C. Nielsen Co. reported Tuesday. “Cheers,” which overall ranks as the third highest-rated series of the season (behind “Roseanne” and “The Cosby Show”), was seen in about 20.3 million homes last week. “The Simpsons,” meanwhile, attracted about 16.1 million to win its time period Sunday night and ranked No. 11 for the week, up from No. 20 the week before, when it had been seen in 13.9 million homes. The full list of ratings is on Page 9.

* Did someone say the Western was dead? It certainly wasn’t on CBS Sunday night. Nearly 15 years after it left the airwaves as a weekly series, “Gunsmoke” gunned down the competition once again, attracting viewers in more than 18 million homes. That was the third-best showing for a movie on CBS this season and helped push the network to second place in the weekly standings for the second time in three weeks, trailing NBC but ahead of ABC.

Show Points Share 1.”Cheers”(NBC) 22.1 35 2.”Funniest Home Videos”(ABC) 22.0 33 3.”Roseanne”(ABC) 21.9 33 4.”The Cosby Show”(NBC) 21.8 36 5.”60 Minutes”(CBS) 20.4 34 *”Gunsmoke: The Last Apache”(CBS) 19.7 32