TV Viewers Stick With Tried, True : Ratings: Despite network ballyhoo, the audience hasn’t flocked to the new fall lineup. PBS put up an unexpected fight with ‘The Civil War.’

All the huffing and puffing by television’s major networks to stimulate viewers with exciting new fall shows isn’t working thus far, national ratings for the season’s second week showed Tuesday.

Presented with a menu of such highly touted new series as “Cop Rock” and the previously introduced “Fresh Prince of Bel Air”--plus the return of “Twin Peaks”-- viewers turned in far greater numbers to such old favorites as “Cheers,” “60 Minutes” and “The Cosby Show.”

The only new series to finish among the top 25 shows last week was ABC’s “America’s Funniest People,” which ranked 13th, thanks in great part to the lead-in of “America’s Funniest Home Videos,” which has slipped sharply from last season but still came in ninth.

Much of last week’s thunder was stolen by the acclaimed PBS series “The Civil War,” which clearly cut into the audience of the commercial networks.

NBC, which won the week, acknowledged this, saying Tuesday that “The networks received unexpected competition from PBS’ ‘The Civil War’. . . . NBC is estimating that it took about four share points (roughly 4%) out of the three-network audience.”

While top-ranked NBC registered its first weekly triumph of the season, the race was close again, with less than one rating point separating the Big Three networks.

NBC scored a 12.9 rating and attracted 22% of the audience. CBS, which had a surprise opening-week victory, was a close second this time with a 12.3 rating and a 21% audience share. ABC was third again with a 12 rating and 20 share, and Fox tallied a 5.8 rating and 10 share. (Each rating point represents 931,000 households.)

The huge NBC-McDonald’s promotion campaign may have contributed to the network’s victory last week. But it was Monday night--after last week’s ratings were concluded--that an 80-year-old widower and grandfather, Chester Dorough of Birmingham, Ala., won $8 million when his game-card numbers were announced during NBC’s “Ferris Bueller.”

“He had breakfast, lunch and dinner at McDonald’s Monday to get the game cards and try to win, then went home and watched--but didn’t call until Tuesday morning,” said NBC spokeswoman JoAnn Alfano.

Although the networks have billed this as a season of experimentation and originality to win back defecting viewers, the overall TV audience is sticking with proven hits. The Top 10 shows last week were “Cheers,” “60 Minutes,” “The Cosby Show,” “Murphy Brown,” “The Golden Girls,” “Designing Women,” “Roseanne,” “Empty Nest,” “America’s Funniest Home Videos” and “A Different World.”

In part because of “The Civil War,” reportedly the highest-rated series in PBS history, the total shares of the Big Three were not impressive. Even in winning, NBC’s 22% audience share was well below its average in its victories of recent years. Nonetheless, bottom-ranked CBS was upbeat about its second consecutive notable week.

“Sixty-four percent of the programs on the CBS schedule are performing above the time-period performance of last fall,” said David Poltrack, CBS senior vice president for research.

Still, the sliding ratings for the traditional networks are indicated by the slippage for both “The Cosby Show” and “Roseanne,” though both remain successful.

But CBS, following its relatively strong start, may look even better soon in the ratings because, beginning Thursday, it will be broadcasting the Major League Baseball playoffs and the World Series for a period that could last up to three weeks.

“CBS’ TV households are going to pick up because of this. In fact, CBS could go into the November (ratings) sweeps No. 1,” said a source at a competing network. “No network has had both the playoffs and the series in 15 years. This is a whole new ballgame. Now it’s up to us--NBC and ABC--to battle for the women in the audience during those weeks.”

But, said the source, women’s demographics are highly desirable to sponsors. Far and away, most advertising is sold on the basis of demographics rather than total TV households, he said.

The slipping ratings of “Roseanne” and “America’s Funniest Home Videos”--should they continue--could pressure ABC to rethink its practice of presenting TV’s most innovative, but often low-rated, series. It’s the bread-and-butter series such as “Roseanne” and “Who’s the Boss?” that give ABC the cushion to experiment.

Fortunately for ABC, such shows as “Who’s the Boss?” “Growing Pains,” “Doogie Howser, M.D.,” “Head of the Class” and “The Wonder Years” continue to perform well in the ratings.

And the network needed such help last week as it finished third. ABC’s “Cop Rock,” a daring police drama with music, ranked 56th among the week’s 95 prime-time programs in its premiere, but did draw a 19% audience share with young demographics--figures that ABC might well be satisfied with if they hold up.

ABC’s “Twin Peaks” season premiere, meanwhile, finished third in its time slot and ranked 42nd, but the 20% share that it drew is a figure that would probably please the network over the long run. Last season’s ratings average for “Twin Peaks” was 12.4 with the same 20% audience share.

However, Sunday’s highly promoted “Twin Peaks” premiere was expected to do much better. The series has its regular one-hour season debut Saturday at 10 p.m.--a new time slot.

Yet another innovative ABC drama, “China Beach,” ranked only 76th in its season premiere last Saturday, where it will precede “Twin Peaks” beginning this weekend.