More Cheers for ‘Cheers’

ABC got another strong performance from “Monday Night Football” last week, but it wasn’t enough this time to unseat NBC from its position atop the Nielsen prime-time ratings. Figures released Tuesday showed NBC out front with an average 12.4 rating for the week (each point represents 931,000 homes), compared to 11.6 for ABC and 11.4 for CBS. NBC was strongest on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, overcoming a weak Sunday lineup that ran third. NBC was also third on Monday with its movie about L. Frank Baum, “The Dreamer of Oz.” The full list of ratings is on F14.

* The man can still draw a crowd. Frank Sinatra’s 75th birthday bash on CBS, competing against no less than Jack Nicholson, Cher, Michelle Pfeiffer, Susan Sarandon (in “The Witches of Eastwick” on ABC) and Michael J. Fox (in “Back to the Future” on NBC), finished first in its time period Sunday and ranked 15th among the week’s 95 prime-time programs. CBS had mixed results with some other legends last week: An “I Love Lucy” Christmas special won its time slot on Monday, but a new music special, “Grammy Legends Show,” paying tribute to Johnny Cash, Aretha Franklin, Billy Joel and Quincy Jones, finished third in its Tuesday slot.

TV RATINGS

Show Points Share 1. “Cheers” (NBC) 22.6 36 2. “60 Minutes” (CBS) 20.6 36 3. “Monday Night Football” (ABC) 18.2 31 3. “A Different World” (NBC) 18.2 29 5. “Empty Nest” (NBC) 18.1 32 * “Sinatra 75” (CBS) 15.6 25