TV Ratings : ‘Seinfeld’ Is No. 1, but NBC Still Finishes Third

With a one-hour episode, Jerry Seinfeld, with Michael Richards, overtook fellow comics Tim Allen (“Home Improvement”) and Roseanne Arnold (“Roseanne”) to nail down the No. 1 spot in the prime-time ratings for last week. But the A.C. Nielsen numbers released Tuesday showed that the strong performance by “Seinfeld” didn’t help NBC: It still finished third for the week behind season-champion CBS and runner-up ABC.

CBS was bolstered by its Sunday night movie, “Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All (Part 1),” which was seen in about 14.8 million homes,

beating ABC’s “A Place for Annie” (13.9 million) and NBC’s “Cape Fear” (11.7 million).

One of the highest-rated programs of the week doesn’t show up on the Nielsen list because it was broadcast without commercials. “Kids Killing Kids,” a special aimed at giving young people ideas for resolving problems without a gun, was carried simultaneously by CBS and Fox April 26 and, accordingly, reached an estimated 13.5 million homes--which would have made it No. 10 for the week.

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.

Program Station Rating 1. The Simpsons (8:30 p.m.) KTTV 21.4 2. The Simpsons KTTV 21.0 3. Seinfeld KNBC 19.2 4. 60 Minutes KCBS 18.3 5. Home Improvement KABC 18.0 6. Roseanne KABC 17.3 7. Coach KABC 16.1 8. Beverly Hills, 90210 KTTV 15.5 9. “A Place for Annie” KABC 15.0 10. Married ... With Children KTTV 14.7

Weekly Averages

CBS 11.7

ABC 11.4

NBC 10.2

FOX 8.2