TV RATINGS : Super Bowl a Winner--and a Loser

Football fans saw a thrilling Super Bowl on ABC Sunday, but the national ratings that were released Tuesday by the A. C. Nielsen Co. were not nearly so exciting. Oh, the NFL championship was far-and-away the most watched program of the week, of the season and of the last two years--with an average audience of 38.9 million homes. But compared to the 24 other Super Bowls, the 41.8 rating ranked only 17th. The highest-rated game was the 1981 contest between San Francisco and Cincinnati, which racked up a 49.1 rating. Nonetheless, the ratings for Sunday’s game propelled ABC to a victory in the weekly prime-time ratings race and moved it to within two-tenths of one point of front-runner NBC in the season-to-date averages. The full list of ratings is on F12.

* CBS News ran third in the competition among network newscasts last week, but it recouped in prime time. Its “War in the Gulf” special on Friday not only won the 9-10 p.m. time period but also registered CBS’ best ratings in that slot this season (other than World Series and baseball playoff games). Another CBS gulf special won the 10-11 p.m. period Monday, with 11% more viewers than the network has been averaging there this season.