TV Ratings : ABC Beats CBS’ Six Nights of Baseball Playoffs

CBS said its baseball ratings last week were up 5% over last year, but that wasn’t enough to keep ABC from winning the prime-time Nielsen race,

figures from the A.C. Nielsen Co. showed Friday. ABC had six shows in the Top 10, and a varied lot they were--including the top-rated “Home Improvement,” with Tim Allen, “Monday Night Football” and the newsmagazine “20/20.”

The ratings were delayed because Nielsen needed to adjust to a multitude of channel changes in the cable-TV industry.

CBS had won the first two weeks of the prime-time season but fell to second

behind ABC last week with six nights of baseball playoffs. Highest rated of the six was Sunday’s game between Philadelphia and Atlanta, which was seen in about 13.8 million homes. By contrast, the “Monday Night Football” game between Washington and Miami was watched in 16.1 million homes.

Among new series, ABC’s “Grace Under Fire” did best, finishing at No. 6 among the week’s 84 prime-time network programs. NBC’s “Frasier” was No. 8, ABC’s “NYPD Blue” was No. 13 and ABC’s “Phenom” was No. 17. 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 50,064 households.

Sta- Rat- Program tion ing 1.Home Improvement KABC 23.4 2.The Simpsons KTTV 21.0 3 Roseanne KABC 19.5 4.Sinbad Show KTTV 17.7 5.Seinfeld KNBC 17.6 6.Coach KABC 17.4 7.20/20 KABC 17.2 8.Grace Under Fire KABC 16.6 9.Beverly Hills, 90210 KTTV 16.0 10.NYPD Blue KABC 15.5

Weekly Averages

ABC: 13.5

CBS: 12.9

NBC: 11.2

FOX: 7.2

Season to Date

CBS: 13.3

ABC: 12.7

NBC: 10.9

FOX: 7.1