TV Ratings : The Good, the Bad and the Emmys

There was good news and bad news for the Emmy Awards in the A.C. Nielsen ratings that came out Tuesday. The telecast Sunday night drew the best ratings since the awards show for nighttime programming moved to Fox in 1987, but it was still a smaller audience than turned out for the Daytime Emmys on CBS last June. CBS’ “48 Hours” topped the ratings for the first time with a special report on Hurricane Andrew, and the natural disaster also seemed to help the “CBS Evening News,” which beat ABC and NBC.

*About 25% of the people who watched the first episode of “2000 Malibu Road” didn’t return for the second, but the CBS soap opera still won its time period last Wednesday and finished 15th among the week’s 83 prime-time programs. Other new network series: ABC’s “Covington Cross” was No. 25, Fox’s “Martin” was No. 37 and Fox’s “The Heights” was No. 68.

Points Share 1. “48 Hours” (CBS) 17.0 30 2. “Roseanne” (ABC) 15.9 26 3. “Murphy Brown” (CBS) 15.0 24 4. “Coach” (ABC) 14.3 24 5. “60 Minutes” (CBS) 13.9 28 “Emmy Awards” (Fox) 13.9 24 * “2000 Malibu Road” (CBS) 12.1 20

(Each rating point represents 921,000 homes. Share is the percentage of viewing audience.)