TV Ratings : Stephen King’s Film Makes a ‘Stand’ for ABC

Americans mostly yukked it up with their favorite comedies last week, but enough of them took time out to watch the opening chapter of Stephen King’s “The Stand” to make it the week’s second-highest rated program, the A.C. Nielsen Co. reported Tuesday. With Ruby Dee in a key role, the miniseries helped ABC win the weekly network battle.

There were eight sitcoms in the Top 10, but only “Home Improvement” outperformed “The Stand,” which attracted 32% of the available audience Sunday night--representing nearly 19 million homes. That was much better than the theatrical films with which it was competing: CBS’ telecast of “Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves,” starring Kevin Costner, was seen in about 11.7 million homes, while “Thelma & Louise” on NBC was viewed in about 11.2 million.

NBC, meanwhile, had mixed results with its country-music specials. The Academy of Country Music Awards on Tuesday drew 21% of the audience and ranked 17th among the week’s 87 prime-time network programs. But Friday’s “This Is Garth Brooks, Too” ran third in its time slot and placed 58th overall.

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. Roseanne KABC 22.3 2. “The Stand” (Pt. 1, Sun.) KABC 20.5 3. Home Improvement KABC 19.4 4. Seinfeld KNBC 18.2 5. Coach KABC 18.1 6. Frasier KNBC 17.5 7. Beverly Hills, 90210 KTTV 17.2 8. The Simpsons KTTV 17.0 9. The Simpsons (8:30 p.m.) KTTV 16.7 10. Melrose Place KTTV 16.2

Weekly Averages

ABC 12.0

CBS 11.6

NBC 11.1

FOX 7.4