TV Ratings : ABC Places 6 Shows in Top 10, Including 2 New Series

With six shows in the Top 10--including the debuts of two series--ABC won the prime-time ratings race last week, the A.C. Nielsen Co. reported Tuesday. It was the 10th time ABC has won this season, but the network still trails CBS in the season-to-date standings.

“Home Improvement,” “Roseanne” and “Grace Under Fire” gave ABC a 1-2-3 punch at the top of the list, followed by “Coach” (No. 6) and the premieres of the newsmagazine “Turning Point” (No. 8) and the comedy “Thunder Alley” (No. 10), with Ed Asner and Diane Venora.

“Thunder Alley” was pitted against the second installment of CBS’ “Tom,” which finished 70th among the week’s 94 prime-time network programs. CBS fared far better with “The Road Home,” which in its second outing won the 8 p.m. Saturday time slot.

Not so fortunate was NBC’s “Winnetka Road,” which premiered at 10 p.m. Saturday and tied at No. 75, attracting 14% of the available viewers.

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. Roseanne KABC 24.9 2. Home Improvement KABC 23.1 3. Coach KABC 22.3 4. 60 Minutes KCBS 20.2 5. Grace Under Fire KABC 19.5 6. Home Improvement (8 p.m.) KABC 19.1 7. Seinfeld KNBC 18.7 8. Turning Point KABC 17.7 9. The Simpsons KTTV 16.8 10. Blossom KNBC 16.7

Weekly Averages

ABC 13.0

CBS 12.5

NBC 9.8

FOX 6.8

Season to Date

CBS 14.4

ABC 12.4

NBC 11.2

FOX 7.2