TV Ratings : Olympics Propel CBS to Easy Victory

When it comes to sports, American viewers want action, not talk. That was the conclusion to be drawn Tuesday from A. C. Nielsen’s weekly TV ratings tabulations, which showed CBS handily winning prime time on Saturday and Sunday with extended coverage of the Winter Olympics from Albertville, France.

But CBS’ two-hour Olympics preview show on Thursday night was a dud, attracting only 11% of the available viewers and finishing fourth in the time period. Nevertheless, CBS easily won the weekly race, averaging a 15.2 rating, compared to 13.9 for NBC, 12.1 for ABC and 8.5 for Fox (each point represents 921,000 homes).

The network said that its Olympics rating Sunday was higher than any night of the 1984 Winter Olympics and all but two nights of the 1988 Games.

CBS continues to lead for the season as well, and the network said Tuesday that its prime-time ratings are up 11% over the same period last year, while NBC is down 2% and ABC is down 4%. The full list of weekly ratings is on F8.

* Scott Turow has had success in bookstores and movie theaters (“Presumed Innocent”), but the magic didn’t translate to TV Sunday night. The first of a two-part adaptation of his “The Burden of Proof” ran third in its time period behind CBS’ Winter Olympics and NBC’s “Kindergarten Cop,” and ranked 36th among the week’s 86 prime-time programs.

Show Points Share 1. “60 Minutes” (CBS) 24.2 38 2. “Winter Olympics (Sunday)” (CBS) 23.5 33 3. “Roseanne” (ABC) 22.9 34 4. “Kindergarten Cop” (NBC) 21.4 30 5. “Cheers” (NBC) 19.7 29 * “The Burden of Proof (Part 1)” (ABC) 12.8 18