TV Ratings : Baseball Finally Pays Off for CBS

Baseball finally paid dividends for CBS last week. Sunday’s second game of the World Series was television’s top-rated program, according to figures released Tuesday by the A.C. Nielsen Co., and the first game on Saturday tied for No. 9. Two earlier National League playoff games finished at No. 3 and No. 7 among the week’s 89 prime-time programs. Coupled with the usual strong showing by its Monday night comedy lineup, CBS wound up averaging a 15.3 rating for the week, compared to 13.3 for NBC and 12.1 for ABC. (Each rating point represents 921,000 households.) The full list of ratings is on F9.

Show Points Share 1. “World Series (Game 2)” (CBS) 21.7 34 2. “Roseanne” (ABC) 20.6 31 3. “National League Playoff (Game 7)” (CBS) 19.8 32 4. “Murphy Brown” (CBS) 19.7 28 5. “A Woman Named Jackie (Part 3)” (NBC) 19.1 30 * “Dynasty: The Reunion” (ABC) 16.8 25

* In the battle of revivals Sunday night, “Dynasty” on ABC beat “I Dream of Jeannie” on NBC. About 15.5 million homes tuned in to see Blake and Krystle reunite on the beach at Malibu--or was it to see Sammy Jo in various states of undress?--while about 11.3 million caught Barbara Eden in her 26-year-old genie role. CBS’ World Series coverage beat both of them with about 20 million homes.