TV RATINGS : All-Star Game a Hit With Viewers

Even with a major rain delay, the annual All-Star game finished just where CBS hoped it would when the network locked up the Major League Baseball contract last year: on top of the ratings as the most-watched program of the week. According to figures released Tuesday by the A.C. Nielsen Co., the low-scoring game attracted viewers in about 17 million homes; even the pre-game show ranked seventh among the week’s 84 prime-time programs. The strong performance helped move CBS to within one-tenth of a point of knocking off NBC in the network sweepstakes: NBC averaged a 9.8 rating for the week, compared to 9.7 for CBS and 9.1 for ABC (each point represents 921,000 homes). NBC was bolstered by its Thursday night comedies and by a first-run movie made originally for Canadian TV, “Love and Hate: A Marriage Made in Hell,” which placed sixth. The full list of ratings is on page 11.

* CBS did not do so well with new entertainment series. “Prime Time Pets” placed 19th with its first telecast July 9, but when the show moved into its regular time slot Friday, it finished 60th. That was a drop of more than 4.4 million homes. Another new CBS entry, “Northern Exposure,” ranked 46th in its first time out.

Show Points Share 1.”All-Star Baseball Game”(CBS) 18.5 33 2.”Cheers”(NBC) 16.2 29 3.”The Simpsons”(Fox) 14.5 27 4.”The Cosby Show”(NBC) 14.4 28 5.”Roseanne”(ABC) 14.0 24 *”Prime Time Pets”(CBS) 7.1 16