TV Ratings : CBS Takes 10th Victory of Season

CBS rolled to its 10th victory of the 16-week-old season in the prime-time ratings last week, with five of the Top 10 shows. Figures released Tuesday by the A. C. Nielsen Co. showed that CBS averaged a 14.5 rating for the week, compared with 12.4 for ABC, 10.9 for NBC and 8 for Fox. In addition to its usual strong series, CBS was bolstered by the public’s interest in the reunion of “The Carol Burnett Show” and in the new Saturday series, “Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman,” which lost about 6% of its audience from the previous week but still won its 8-9 p.m. slot. Meanwhile, the first outing of CBS’ “Space Rangers” last Wednesday trailed NBC’s “Unsolved Mysteries” but ran neck-and-neck with Fox’s “Beverly Hills, 90210” and ABC’s “Wonder Years”/”Doogie Howser” combination.

* “I’ll Fly Away” did not get off to a good start in its last-chance effort to boost ratings and win renewal from NBC next season. In the first of five telecasts on Friday at 10 p.m., the civil rights drama attracted only 11% of the available audience and ranked 90th among the week’s 97 prime-time programs.

TV Ratings

Points Share 1. “60 Minutes” (CBS) 25.2 38 2. “Roseanne” (ABC) 23.9 35 3. “Carol Burnett Show: A Reunion” (CBS) 21.4 31 4. “Murder, She Wrote” (CBS) 20.8 29 5. “Home Improvement” (ABC) 20.7 30 * “I’ll Fly Away” (NBC) 6.5 11

Complete list, F10 (Each rating point represents 931,000 homes.

Share is the percentage of viewing audience.)