‘Simpsons’ and ‘Cosby’ Both Claim Victory : Television: Fox says Bart brought viewers to its new Thursday-night lineup. But NBC’s Huxtables remain in the Top 5 Nielsen shows.

Last fall, Fox Broadcasting Co. sent shock waves through the TV industry by setting up a showdown between two of the medium’s most powerful, influential families: the Huxtables and the Simpsons.

The Huxtable clan from NBC’s “The Cosby Show” had staked out its territory on Thursday nights at 8 p.m. in 1984 and prospered there as the No. 1 show in television throughout much of the 1980s.

But Fox, banking on the overnight success of its animated underachievers “The Simpsons,” muscled into the Huxtables’ time slot last fall. The fledgling network expanded from three to five nights of weekly programming and took a gamble that “Simpsons,” its first breakout hit, would give Fox a presence on Thursday nights.

“I remember when we heard here what Fox was doing, we thought it was a joke,” recalled Preston Beckman, NBC’s vice president of audience research.

Now that the official TV season is over, the final original “Cosby” episode aired last week and all has quieted on the Thursday-night front, the question remains: Who won the monumental face-off?

Both Fox and NBC claim victory.

And based on their differing definitions of success, both networks might have just cause.

For NBC it comes down to ratings. The network, which beat out ABC and CBS to finish as ratings champion for the sixth straight year, boasts that “Cosby” ended the season as the No. 5 show on television in the A.C. Nielsen rankings, compared to No. 38 for “The Simpsons.” And “Cosby’s” 20% ratings advantage over “The Simpsons” during the first half of the season steadily increased as the season wore on.

Nonetheless, “The Simpsons,” in addition to increasing overall network viewership on Thursday nights, stole a chunk of “Cosby’s” audience. “Cosby” lost 10 audience share points--representing about 5.5 million viewers--from the previous season, when it had finished as the No. 2 show.

“I think to say that ‘The Simpsons’ has no impact on ‘The Cosby Show’ would be foolish,” NBC’s Beckman said. “On the other hand, when the dust settled, ‘Cosby’ held up exceptionally well. It still ranked as the No. 5 show for the season, and it’s been in the Top 5 every year of its existence. No other comedy in the history of this business has been in the Top 5 for seven consecutive seasons.”

Fox, meanwhile, had more than immediate ratings in mind when it moved “The Simpsons” to Thursday nights. Prior to last season, “The Simpsons” led a powerful Sunday-night lineup for Fox. The animated series achieved strong enough ratings for several weeks to crack the Top 10--an impressive feat considering that Fox penetrates only 91% of the nation, primarily on weaker UHF stations.

By moving “The Simpsons” to Thursdays, Fox hoped to draw viewers to its new sitcom “Babes” at 8:30 p.m., about three fat sisters who share an apartment, and the teen drama “Beverly Hills, 90210” at 9 p.m.

“Our goal initially was to establish a new night of programming, to erect a tent pole under which we could build a secondary wave of hits,” said Sandy Grushow, Fox’s executive vice president of current programming.

“We looked at what had been up to that point a one-network economy led by ‘The Cosby Show,’ with ABC and CBS shying away because of it,” Grushow said. “We felt indeed ‘Cosby’ was vulnerable. And because we had a hot new show on our hands, ‘The Simpsons,’ we felt we could attract young demos (demographics), which are most important to our network.”

Although “The Simpsons” got off to a late start, stuck in reruns the first few weeks of the season until the laborious animation process could deliver new episodes, the series did beat CBS and ABC in the time period and it did succeed in drawing younger audiences than the higher rated “Cosby.” Demographically, “The Simpsons” had a greater audience share than “Cosby” among viewers ages 2 to 49.

Conversely, “Cosby’s” 12 rating of viewers 50 and older dwarfed “The Simpson’s” 2.3 rating for that age group. (Each rating point represents 931,000 homes.)

“ ‘The Simpsons’ really killed ‘Cosby,’ particularly among younger viewers,” said Joel Segal, executive vice president of the McCann-Erickson advertising agency in New York. “But if you ask: Did ‘The Simpsons’ provide a great flow of audience for Fox? Well, no, not really. Because Fox’s audience share dropped from 21% (at 8 p.m.) to 12% at 8:30 p.m. In other words, ‘Babes’ and ‘Beverly Hills’ have not been able to hold on to anything near the ‘The Simpsons’ audience.”

Nonetheless, what Fox did accomplish is noteworthy, said Arnold Becker, vice president of research at CBS.

“They hurt NBC,” he said. “I don’t know if it was high on their list or not, but they hurt NBC, and from an ego point of view they demonstrated it was possible to hurt NBC.

“See, I’m not really aware what their goals were. If they had dreams of building a Thursday night, they didn’t do it. I think they suffer from the Rodney Dangerfield syndrome, in that regard. But in terms of helping Fox in some kind of propagandistic way, to establish themselves as a player, they did do that. . . . They were spoilers, if you will.”

But Grushow argued that Fox did build a Thursday night. Although he called “Babes” a disappointment, he said that “Beverly Hills” is Fox’s new hit program, especially with young viewers--Fox’s target audience.

“We were born as an alternative programming source for young viewers,” Grushow said. “What matters to us are those younger demos. . . . That’s the business we’re in. So long as we can be successful in attracting those audiences, then we are in fact a success. It comes down to what game you’re playing.”

Fox did lose viewers on Sunday nights, however, without “The Simpsons” and the popular “America’s Most Wanted,” which the network switched for similar reasons to lead off Friday nights. Household viewership for Fox was down 21% on Sunday night for the first week of May sweeps compared to the same time a year ago.

“I think Fox still came out ahead,” Segal said. “Remember, they expanded their schedule two nights, and there was nothing there before. So they got all kinds of ratings points--and revenue--that they didn’t have before.”

By all indications, the Simpsons and the Huxtables will butt heads again next season.

“Next year it’s like, OK, the battle lines have been drawn,” NBC’s Beckman said. “We’ve chosen up sides. You’ve got the kids, the male teens and the men 18 to 34. We’ve got the female teens, the men 35 plus and the people over 50. Now let’s see who can take viewers away from the other one.”