Advertisement

ABC Wins Last Week of Prime Time Season : Television: But NBC wins the year. ’60 Minutes’ is top show for the week.

Share
From United Press International

ABC wound up a winner for the last week of the 1989-90 prime time television season, it was reported today.

So did “60 Minutes”, which was the No. 1 show of the week.

The last time ABC won outright was for the week ending April 1; it was helped by the Academy Awards broadcast. ABC has also tied with NBC for first place twice since then--the week ending April 15, when “Twin Peaks” made its Thursday night debut (it had aired the previous week as a Sunday movie) and the week ending July 29.

In the night-by-night competition, ABC won Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday, while NBC was No. 1 Sunday and Monday and CBS took Thursday. That’s a shake-up of the old order, in whichCBS traditionally takes Sunday night and NBC has a lock on Thursdays. But with “The Cosby Show” in 15th place instead of its former lock on one of the top two spots, NBC becomes more vulnerable to programming attack.

Advertisement

ABC had six of the top 10 shows and 10 of the top 20. Of the new series premiering or previewing, it had the two highest rated--”America’s Funniest People,” tied for fifth, and the Wednesday night preview of “Gabriel’s Fire” in 8th. In its regular time period on Thursday against “Cheers” (No. 2 for the week) and “Wings” on NBC and a special two-hour “48 Hours: Murder, U.S.A.” on CBS, “Gabriel’s Fire” wound up 51st.

While it was the last week of the old season, a lot of new series were aired either as previews or premieres or even as repeats in NBC’s “double pump” theory of showing new show previews twice.

Other new shows that looked good from a ratings standpoint were “Fresh Prince of Bel Air” (NBC) tied for 17th; “Lenny” (CBS), 24th; “Ferris Bueller” (NBC), tied for 26th, and “Uncle Buck” (CBS) tied for 35th.

Doing OK among the newcomers were “Law & Order” (NBC), 41st; “Fanelli Boys” (NBC), 42nd; “Family Man” (CBS), 43rd in its Tuesday preview but tied for 70th in its Saturday night premiere; “E.A.R.T.H. Force” (CBS), 44th, and “Babes” (Fox), tied for 49th. That’s really good for Fox, considering its broadcast of the Emmy Awards came in 58th.

Less promising numbers came up for “The Hogan Family,” new to CBS, tied for 59th; “Hull High,” tied for 67th in what has been NBC’s early Sunday night ratings disaster zone; “Parker Lewis” (Fox), 79th; “True Colors” and “D.E.A.” (both Fox), tied for 80th, and “American Chronicles” (Fox), 85th.

ABC won the Sunday movie competition with “Sudden Impact” tied for 9th; CBS came in second with its pilot for the series “E.A.R.T.H. Force” in 44th, and NBC was last with “My Boyfriend’s Back” in 48th.

Advertisement

In ratings for the week ending Sept. 16, according to the A. C. Nielsen Co., ABC won with an 11.9 rating and a 21 share. NBC was second with a 10.9 rating and a 19 share, edging out CBS, which posted a 10.6 rating and a 19 share.

In the 52-week season-to-date competition, NBC finished the TV year with a 12.9 rating and a 22 share. ABC was second with an 11.6 rating and a 20 share, and CBS was third with an 11.0 rating and a 19 share.

ABC’s “World News Tonight” was No. 1 for the 36th consecutive week, with a 10.1 rating and a 22 share. “CBS Evening News” with Dan Rather was second with an 8.7 rating and an 18 share, while “NBC Nightly News” with Tom Brokaw was third with an 8.3 rating and an 18 share.

Each ratings point represents about 921,000 households. A share is the percentage of TV sets in use that are tuned to a particular show or network.

THE TOP 10

The top programs for the week ending Sunday according to the A.C. Nielsen Co.: 1.”60 Minutes” (CBS)

2.”America’s Funniest Home Videos” (ABC)

3.”NFL Monday Night Football” (ABC)

4.”Cheers” (NBC)

5.(tie) “Murder, She Wrote” (CBS)

“America’s Funniest People” (ABC)

7.(tie) “Doogie Howser, M.D.” (ABC)

“America’s Funniest Home Videos Inside Look” (ABC)

9.(tie) ABC Sunday movie,’ “Sudden Impact”

NBC Monday movie, “Joshua’s Heart”

Advertisement