TV Ratings : ABC Edges NBC on Pinch-Hit by Baseball’s All-Stars

The All-Star baseball game drew the lowest TV ratings it’s ever had at night but still managed to finish third last week and helped ABC score a narrow victory over NBC in the weekly ratings race.

Figures released Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research showed that the All-Star game, in which Mike Piazza of the Los Angeles Dodgers homered, was seen in about 13.3 million homes--trailing only NBC’s powerhouse duo of “Friends” (15 million homes) and “Seinfeld” (13.6 million homes).

ABC had four other series in the Top 10, all from its Wednesday night lineup. But its telecast of major league baseball on Saturday night wasn’t among them; it ranked 71st among the week’s 95 prime-time network programs.

CBS’ best performance of the week in terms of households reached was its Sunday night movie, “The War of the Roses,” the 1989 divorce comedy with Kathleen Turner and Michael Douglas. Fox’s top draw was a repeat of “Married ... With Children” on Sunday night.

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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 Network Rating 1. Friends KNBC 18.4 2. All-Star Pre-Game KABC 16.9 3. Seinfeld KNBC 16.4 4. Frasier KNBC 16.2 5. ER KNBC 14.7 6. 60 Minutes KCBS 13.8 - “Regarding Henry” KNBC 13.4 - John Larroquette Show KNBC 13.4 - Home Improvement KABC 13.4 10. Murder, She Wrote KCBS 13.4

Weekly Averages ABC: 8.6 NBC: 8.5 CBS: 8.2 FOX: 4.7 WB: 2.1 UPN: 2.0

Season to Date ABC: 11.3 CBS: 10.3 NBC: 11.0 FOX: 7.0 UPN: 3.5 WB: 2.1 Source: A. C. Nielsen Ratings