TV Ratings : Newsmagazines Arouse Viewer Interest

Newsmagazines made another strong showing in the television ratings last week, led by “60 Minutes,” which topped the popularity list released Tuesday by the A. C. Nielsen Co. The long-running CBS series was seen in 14.6 million homes on Sunday night.

Other newsmagazines finishing among the week’s Top 20 were ABC’s “20/20,” “PrimeTime Live” and “Turning Point,” and two installments of “Dateline NBC.”

ABC edged out CBS in the weekly network competition, but none of the Big Three had much to crow about: Together they attracted only 48% of the prime-time audience--down from the 60% they averaged during the regular season.

In its second week out, “Models Inc.” lost about 18% of the viewers from its initial outing on Fox. But the ratings were still good enough to rank 39th among the week’s 91 prime-time network programs.

CBS did not fare so well with a new sitcom, “Muddling Through,” which placed 66th. And ABC’s two-hour special about AIDS, “In a New Light,” attracted only 6% of the available audience Saturday night and finished last.

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 1. Home Improvement KABC 15.9 2. Coach KABC 15.4 3. Roseanne KABC 15.0 4. Step by Step KABC 14.3 5. 60 Minutes KCBS 13.4 6. Seinfeld KNBC 13.1 7. The Simpsons KTTV 13.0 8. Living Single KTTV 12.8 9. Married ... With Children KTTV 12.4 10. The Sinbad Show KTTV 12.4

Weekly Averages ABC: 8.6 CBS: 8.5 NBC: 7.7 FOX: 5.4