TV Ratings : ABC Bats Well Enough to Be No. 1

In a week disrupted by baseball playoffs, the first presidential debate and two paid programs from Ross Perot, ABC walked off with the most prime-time viewers and placed six shows in the Top 10 last week. Figures released Tuesday by the A. C. Nielsen Co. showed ABC averaging a 13.3 rating, followed by CBS at 11.9, NBC at 11.2 and Fox at 7.9. ABC got the most viewers for its debate coverage on Sunday and, for good measure, its “World News Tonight” was again No. 1 among network newscasts for the week.

The highest rated first-year series were CBS’ “Hearts Afire” (No. 7), ABC’s “Hangin’ With Mr. Cooper” (tied at No. 9), CBS’ “Love & War” (No. 14) and ABC’s “Laurie Hill” (tied at No. 26).

More of the rookie entries were to be found in the bottom third of the Nielsen list--territory usually considered to be the endangered ward in terms of long-term prospects. Among them: ABC’s “Delta” (No. 63), NBC’s “Rhythm and Blues” (No. 65), NBC’s “Out All Night” (No. 69), NBC’s “The Round Table” (No. 73), NBC’s “Here and Now” (tied at No. 74), ABC’s “Covington Cross” (No. 79), CBS’ “Frannie’s Turn” (No. 82), ABC’s “Crossroads” (tied at No. 83) and, from Fox, “Flying Blind” (tied at No. 83), “Melrose Place” (No. 85), “The Edge” (No. 87), “Woops!” (tied at No. 88) and “Likely Suspects” (last at No. 90).

Fox had some good news, however. “The Simpsons” and “Martin” won the 8-9 p.m. period on Thursday night, and two episodes of “Cops” did the same from 8 to 9 p.m. Saturday. “Married . . . With Children” finished second at 9 p.m. Sunday.

* The baseball playoffs are not setting the ratings ablaze. CBS said that the six prime-time games last week averaged an 11.6 rating. That was only slightly off the 11.9 mark for the same period last year, but more importantly, it was well below the 13.5 average that CBS posted last week without baseball.

TV Ratings

Points Share 1. “Roseanne” (ABC) 23.1 2. “Monday Night Football” (ABC) 22.3 36 3. “Murphy Brown” (CBS) 19.9 29 4. “Coach” (ABC) 19.5 30 5. “Home Improvement” (ABC) 18.4 28 * “Major League Baseball Playoffs” (CBS) 11.6 21

Complete list, F10 (Each rating point represents 931,000 homes. Share is the percentage of viewing audience.)