Debate Is Silent Winner; NBC Slides Into Second

The highest rated program on TV last week, albeit divided among a handful of channels, was Sunday night’s debate between President Clinton and Republican challenger Bob Dole. But because the telecast didn’t carry commercials, it didn’t show up in the weekly rankings released Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research. NBC’s “ER” instead was in its familiar No. 1 slot.

But NBC was not in its usual No. 1 position among the networks. Stung by low ratings for the first round of the baseball playoffs, it finished second to CBS in households and total viewers.

The victory for CBS in the third week of the season equaled its wins for all of last season. But CBS still ran third among the 18-to-49-year-old viewers whom most advertisers covet, with NBC first and ABC a close second.

Meanwhile, Fox, which has been off to a slow start this season, got good news as the fourth-season premiere of “The X-Files,” starring Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny, garnered the best ratings in the show’s history and finished No. 10 among the week’s 104 prime-time network programs. Fox said that the series attracted more members of the 18-49 crowd in its Friday time slot than the competing programs of ABC, CBS and NBC combined.