TV RATINGS : ‘Cosby,’ ‘Cheers’ Give NBC Ratings Victory

NBC’s mighty Thursday night schedule carried two summer shows into the top five last week. Ratings released Tuesday by the A.C. Nielsen Co. demonstrated anew that the drawing power of “The Cosby Show” at 8 and “Cheers” at 9 is sufficient to keep viewers hooked on the NBC shows around them--in this case a pilot called “Blossom” and a repeat episode of the Jerry Seinfeld sitcom that debuted earlier this summer. They helped NBC eke out the narrowest of victories over ABC. NBC averaged a 9 rating for the week, compared to 8.9 for ABC and 7.6 for CBS. Collectively, the three networks attracted only 54% of the prime-time audience for the week--meaning nearly half of all viewing was being done on Fox, independent stations, cable or VCRs. The full list of ratings is on F10.

* Charles Kuralt didn’t get big ratings with his Fourth of July special--the show ranked 56th among the week’s 86 prime-time programs--but it was still the program of choice at 10 that night. Kuralt attracted viewers in about 6.3 million households, compared to about 6.1 million for a “Quantum Leap” rerun on NBC and about 4.7 million for a “China Beach” repeat on ABC.

Show Points Share 1.”Cheers”(NBC) 16.4 31 2.”The Cosby Show”(NBC) 14.8 30 3.”Blossom”(NBC) 14.1 27 4.”Seinfeld”(NBC) 13.8 26 5.”Designing Women”(CBS) 13.1 23 *”On the Fourth of July 6.8 17 with Charles Kuralt”(CBS)