Fall TV: Prime-Time Profile

Tonight’s Highlights: NBC appears finally to have the pieces in place to mount a legitimate challenge to ABC on Tuesday nights, with season premieres of “Mad About You” and the Emmy Award-winning “Frasier” taking on “Roseanne” at 8 p.m. and “Home Improvement” at 9 p.m. as the latter begin their ninth and sixth seasons, respectively.

After two years without a new hit, meanwhile, ABC has its fingers crossed that Michael J. Fox’s new show, “Spin City,” can fulfill the high expectations of prime-time prognosticators. To do so, the 9:30 p.m. political comedy must out-poll “Caroline in the City”--a series that thrived behind “Seinfeld” last year but is perceived as being vulnerable against more formidable competition.

Two other new comedies face off at 8:30 p.m.: ABC’s “Life’s Work” and NBC’s “Something So Right.” Their success will probably depend on how the 8 p.m. showdown goes.

With new episodes of “NYPD Blue” again delayed until October, selected ABC shows are getting showcased in its 10 p.m. slot. The police drama “High Incident” patrols there tonight; the network will introduce a new series, “Relativity,” in that hour next week.

Weekend Results: The first of CBS’ 10 new prime-time shows, “Everybody Loves Raymond,” made its debut Friday and attracted just 12% of the available audience. The rating was slightly better than the show preceding it, “Dave’s World,” but still low against rerun competition. CBS got better news Sunday, as a special “Touched by an Angel” won its time period in the 33 major cities metered by Nielsen. The episode introduced characters from “Promised Land,” a new series starring Gerald McRaney that premieres at 8 tonight.

PBS’ “The West” also began its 12 1/2-hour TV journey Sunday, riding off with 7% of the audience--comparable to the opening-night box score for public TV’s last major Ken Burns documentary, “Baseball.”