TV Ratings : Southern California Viewers Go Their Own Way

Not for the first time, local viewers were out of sync with the rest of the nation in terms of their TV of choice last week, figures from the A. C. Nielsen Co. showed Tuesday. In the Los Angeles-Orange-Ventura county area, “The Simpsons” was the top-rated show of the week, but it only ranked No. 32 nationally.

On the other hand, ABC’s “Home Improvement” was No. 1 nationally but finished fifth here. For the week, the three major networks attracted only 50% of the prime-time audience, far below the 60% they averaged during last season. CBS led the pack but only averaged 19% of the viewership, while ABC garnered 17% and NBC got a paltry 14%. Fox, with 16 hours of prime-time programming (versus 22 on the other networks), attracted 10% of the viewers.

Newsmagazines again proved to be a popular viewing choice, with ABC’s “PrimeTime Live” and “20/20,” and CBS’ “60 Minutes” and “48 Hours” all placing in the Top 10. “Dateline NBC” also won its time period, as did CBS’ “Eye to Eye With Connie Chung.” Fox’s “Front Page” was an exception, attracting only 9% of the available viewers Saturday night in its third outing. NBC unveils yet another newsmagazine Aug. 18, “Now.”

Southland Ratings

Here are A. C. Nielsen’s Top 10 prime-time programs in the Los Angeles area during the same week. Each rating point equals 49,657 households.

Sta-Rat- Program tion ing 1.The Simpsons KTTV 18.8 2.Roseanne KABC 17.6 3.Martin KTTV 15.3 4.60 Minutes KCBS 14.6 5.Home Improvement KABC 14.1 6.Seinfeld KNBC 13.4 7.Coach KABC 13.3 8.In Living Color KTTV 12.6 9.20/20 KABC 12.5 10.Murder, She Wrote KCBS 12.2

Weekly Averages

CBS: 9.5

ABC: 8.7

NBC: 7.3

FOX: 5.2