TV Ratings : NBC Wins the Week, but ABC’s ‘Grace’ Is No. 1

The National Basketball Assn. championships sent NBC’s ratings jumping last week, giving the peacock network its first win in the weekly prime-time competition since it televised the Super Bowl in January. Ratings released Tuesday by the A.C. Nielsen Co. showed two of the New York-Houston games finishing among the week’s Top 10.

But the No. 1 show of the week was ABC’s “Grace Under Fire,” starring Brett Butler. It was seen in about 15.7 million homes.

Besides basketball, newsmagazines also did very well last week as viewers sought something other than reruns. “60 Minutes,” “Turning Point,” “20/20,” “Dateline NBC” and “48 Hours” all finished in the Top 20.

What didn’t fare well was the Tony Awards on Sunday night. The CBS telecast attracted only 14% of the available viewers and finished 49th among the week’s 91 prime-time network programs. Ratings for the salute to Broadway’s best plays and performers were down about 12% from last year.

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 18.8 2. Grace Under Fire KABC 16.2 3. The Simpsons KTTV 15.2 4. 60 Minutes KCBS 14.9 5. Roseanne KABC 14.2 6. Step by Step KABC 13.9 Married ... With Children KTTV 13.9 8. The Sinbad Show KTTV 13.5 9. Hangin’ With Mr. Cooper KABC 13.1 10. Seinfeld KNBC 13.0

Weekly Averages

NBC: 9.6

ABC: 8.9

CBS: 8.7

FOX: 5.6