TV Ratings : Football Is the Week’s Leading Scorer

Football took over the top of television’s ratings charts during the last week of 1994, led by the season’s final installment of “Monday Night Football” on ABC. According to figures released Wednesday by the A.C. Nielsen Co., that contest between the Minnesota Vikings and the San Francisco 49ers attracted viewers in about 19.5 million homes.

Finishing second last week was the Orange Bowl game Sunday night between top-ranked Nebraska and Miami--the best showing for an Orange Bowl since at least 1975, NBC said. But NBC didn’t fare as well with the Orange Bowl parade the night before: It ranked 86th among the week’s 91 prime-time network programs.

ABC won the weekly network scramble, over NBC in second and CBS in third, and continues to lead in the season race.

CBS got mixed results with its effort to build interest in its first-year hospital drama “Chicago Hope,” co-starring Roxanne Hart. The episode shown Sunday ranked 10th, but four others earlier in the week ranked from 44 to 65.

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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. Home Improvement KABC 18.3 2. Grace Under Fire KABC 16.7 3. Roseanne KABC 16.2 4. Seinfeld KNBC 15.1 5. Sister, Sister KABC 14.2 6. Turning Point KABC 14.0 7. Ellen KABC 13.7 8. Step by Step KABC 13.6 9. ER KNBC 13.6 10. 60 Minutes KCBS 13.6

Weekly Averages

ABC: 11.4 NBC: 10.9 CBS: 10.0 FOX: 6.4

Season to Date

ABC: 12.0 CBS: 11.6 NBC: 11.3 FOX: 7.6 Source: A.C. Nielsen