TV Ratings : ABC Ekes Out Victory; NBC Scores Big on Thursday

In the tight ratings battle this season, ABC pulled out another close victory, finishing one-tenth of a ratings point behind leader CBS last week and pulling within two-tenths of a ratings point behind CBS for the entire season, according to A.C. Nielsen Co. figures released Tuesday.

ABC finished the week with a 13.4 rating and five of the top 10 shows, led by the season’s top-rated program, “Home Impovement,” at No. 2. CBS averaged a 13.3 rating for the week, followed by NBC’s 11.5 and Fox’s 7.3. (Each ratings point represents 942,000 TV households.)

NBC scored huge on Thursday night with two episodes of the surging sitcom “Mad About You,” which won the 8-9 p.m. time period. More impressively, the two following episodes of “Seinfeld” were repeats from 1991, but they finished as the No. 4 and No. 5 programs of the week and ranked as the second and third highest-rated “Seinfeld” telecasts ever.

Fox premiered two new shows last week. “Monty,” starring Henry Winkler as a conservative radio talk-show host, finished No. 79 out of 94 prime-time programs, but posted Fox’s highest Tuesday-night performance to date with an 8.6 rating. “The George Carlin Show” did even better, finishing No. 43 last Sunday night while holding onto 94% of the lead-in audience provided by “Married. . .With Children.”

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. 60 Minutes KCBS 22.5 2. Roseanne KABC 22.2 3. Home Improvement KABC 21.3 4. Beverly Hills, 90210 KTTV 18.7 5. Coach KABC 18.6 6. Murder, She Wrote KCBS 17.5 7. Seinfeld (9:30 p.m.) KNBC 17.4 8. The Simpsons KTTV 17.3 9. Seinfeld KNBC 17.0 10. Melrose Place KTTV 15.3

Weekly Averages ABC: 13.4 CBS: 13.3 NBC: 11.5 FOX: 7.3

Season to Date CBS: 12.9 ABC: 12.7 NBC: 11.2 FOX: 7.1