TV Ratings : ’60 Minutes’ Tribute Tops Week

In what could be taken as a tribute to Harry Reasoner, more than 22 million Americans turned out Sunday to pay their respects as “60 Minutes” noted the Aug. 6 passing of one of its original correspondents.

Figures released Tuesday by the A.C. Nielsen Co. showed that the CBS news magazine was the most-watched program on television last week. That helped CBS narrowly win the network race, with ABC second and NBC third. Other news programs finishing in the Top 20 last week were ABC’s “PrimeTime Live” (No. 11), ABC’s “20/20” (No. 16) and CBS’ “48 Hours” (No. 20). The full list of ratings is on F11.

* The big ratings for “60 Minutes” spelled big trouble for the second-season premiere of Fox’s high-school comedy “Parker Lewis Can’t Lose.” Scheduled opposite “60 Minutes” at 7:30 p.m. Sunday, the show attracted only 9% of the available viewers and placed 87th among the week’s 93 prime-time network programs. Fox fared better with an original episode of “Beverly Hills, 90210,” however. The Thursday-night teen drama garnered 19% of the audience and tied for 12th in the overall standings.

Show Points Share 1. “60 Minutes” (CBS) 16.1 36 2. “Cheers” (NBC) 13.9 25 3. “Designing Women” (CBS) 13.5 23 4. “Northern Exposure” (CBS) 12.8 23 “Commando” (ABC) 12.8 22 * “Parker Lewis Can’t Lose” (Fox) 4.2 9