TV Ratings : ABC’s ‘Pretty Woman’ Captures the Week

CBS’ telecast of the World Series got off to a strong start last Saturday but then got beaten Sunday by Julia Roberts in “Pretty Woman” on ABC, according to ratings released Tuesday by the A.C. Nielsen Co. “Pretty Woman” was the top-rated program on TV last week, having been seen in about 19.9 million homes.

Game 2 of the Toronto-Philadelphia baseball championship actually drew more viewers than Game 1, but Saturday’s competition wasn’t as tough and CBS won the time period, helping to give the network its third weekly victory in the 4-week-old TV season.

NBC continued to run third overall but scored a sweet victory on Thursday at 8 p.m., a time period it owned throughout much of the 1980s with “The Cosby Show”--until Fox moved “The Simpsons” into that slot. NBC’s “Mad About You,” a comedy about a married couple played by Helen Hunt and Paul Reiser, outdrew “The Simpsons” last week. “The Simpsons,” which got a new writing staff this season, has suffered an audience decline in each of the two weeks since it returned Sept. 30--11% overall--while “Mad About You” has climbed 7 1/2% during that period.

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. “Pretty Woman” KABC 21.7 3. Seinfeld KNBC 21.2 4. The Simpsons KTTV 20.6 5. Coach KABC 18.9 6. Roseanne KABC 18.4 7. Beverly Hills, 90210 KTTV 18.3 8. Frasier KNBC 16.3 9. Grace Under Fire KABC 15.3 10. NYPD Blue KABC 15.1

Weekly Averages

CBS: 14.0

ABC: 13.4

NBC: 11.1

FOX: 7.0

Season to Date

CBS: 13.4

ABC: 12.9

NBC: 11.0

FOX: 7.1