NBC Topples the Competition

The Fox juggernaut stalled last week, ratings from the A.C. Nielsen Co. showed Wednesday. While NBC was handily beating its rivals in the overall weekly ratings, Fox saw its hottest show, “The Simpsons,” suffer a loss of audience in its second Thursday night outing. And Fox drew lackluster numbers on Sunday against the Big Three networks, which were not at full strength because of preemptions for the Muscular Dystrophy Telethon. The two comedy series that Fox introduced Sunday--”True Colors” and “Parker Lewis Can’t Lose”--attracted 16% of the audience. “The Simpsons,” meanwhile, ran third in its time period behind NBC’s “Cosby Show” and CBS’ “48 Hours.” For the week, NBC averaged a 10.6 rating, CBS got an 8.8 and ABC trailed with 8.7. The full list of ratings is on F12.

* Football fever does not appear to have taken hold of America yet. ABC’s “Monday Night Football” game between Philadelphia and Indianapolis attracted 20% of the viewers last week but ran third in the time period. And a Saturday game on CBS between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh drew 15%.

TV RATINGS

Show Points Share 1. “Cheers” (NBC) 16.6 28 2. “In the Heat of the Night” (NBC) 15.7 27 3. “Empty Nest” (NBC) 14.6 31 “Designing Women” (CBS) 14.6 24 5. “The Cosby Show (Monday night telecast)” (NBC) 14.0 26 “Murphy Brown” (CBS) 14.0 23 * “Monday Night Football” (ABC) 11.1 20