Arts and entertainment reports from The Times, national and international news services and the nation’s press.

TELEVISION

Good Felicitations: The critically lauded new drama “Felicity” set a record for a WB network series premiere, with 7.1 million people tuning in Tuesday, according to Nielsen Media Research. The program appeared to siphon away some viewers from both ABC’s “Spin City”--which again won the time period with an audience of 13.9 million--and NBC’s “Just Shoot Me,” at 13 million (each had more than 15 million viewers last week). ABC, however, went downhill from there, as the new program “Sports Night” lost almost a quarter of “Spin City’s” audience at 9:30 p.m. to finish behind NBC’s “Working.” And a preview of “Vengeance Unlimited”--which premieres in its regular time slot tonight--fared poorly against “Dateline NBC” at 10 p.m.

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Brokaw Tops News Ratings: NBC’s “Nightly News With Tom Brokaw” won the 1997-98 television season’s evening network news race, placing first among both total viewers and viewing homes. Of the 52-week season that ended Sunday, the NBC newscast won 39 weeks outright and tied for first place another six times. Among total viewers, NBC’s “Nightly News” attracted an average of nearly 10.7 million viewers, while ABC’s “World News Tonight With Peter Jennings” drew just over 10.1 million and CBS’ “Evening News With Dan Rather” garnered just under 10.1 million.

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Memories All That’s Left for ‘WENN’: Cable’s AMC has canceled its Emmy-winning series “Remember WENN,” set at a Pittsburgh radio station in 1941, after four seasons. But while no new episodes will be produced, the series will return next season with all 56 past episodes repeating in their original order. AMC said that although the program had “been a tremendous success on many levels, it has not generated the kind of audience required to make the show viable.” AMC will instead concentrate its resources on a new series, “The Lot,” set at a movie studio in 1937.

QUICK TAKES

Mark McGwire will make his first late-night talk-show appearance since becoming baseball’s home-run king Oct. 19 on CBS’ “Late Night With David Letterman.” . . . The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences opens a New York office in Manhattan today to aid its more than 600 members based in the area. . . . Noted photographer Gordon Parks, 85, has donated 227 of his photographs to Washington’s Corcoran Gallery of Art, which mounted a retrospective of his work last year. Included in the donation is Parks’ signature shot of a black woman posed with broom and mop in front of an American flag--called “American Gothic, Washington D.C.,” after the famous Grant Wood portrait of a white farm couple.