TV RATINGS : Fox Gives a Two-Fisted Punch to the Big 3

Those cries of “ Aye, caramba !” Tuesday came from executives at the three major networks as they looked at the weekly Nielsen ratings and saw that, for the first time, two of the five most-watched programs in one week were on Fox Broadcasting. “The Simpsons,” which had placed No. 4 two weeks ago, ranked third among the 83 prime-time programs that aired last week, and “Married . . . With Children,” whose previous best finish was No. 11, came in fourth. Neither had its largest audience ever, however, as viewing levels in general were lower than during the regular season; the Fox duo simply lost fewer of their regular viewers than series on ABC, CBS and NBC. On the downside, Fox also had the eight lowest-rated programs of the week. The full list of ratings is on Page 11.

* By itself, the Nielsen chart can sometimes be misleading. The premiere of the game show “Super Jeopardy!” on ABC last Saturday tied for No. 63 with less than half the audience that top-rated “Roseanne” drew. But it nevertheless attracted more viewers than the programs it was competing with at 8 p.m., marking what the network said was the first time ABC had won the half-hour time period since the debut of “Life With Lucy” on Sept. 20, 1986.

Show Points Share 1.”Roseanne”(ABC) 16.8 29 2.”Cheers”(NBC) 16.7 31 3.”The Simpsons”(Fox) 14.7 28 4.”Married ... With Children”(Fox) 14.5 26 5.”The Cosby Show”(NBC) 14.2 28 *”Super Jeopardy!”(ABC) 7.0 17