TV Ratings : NBC Rolls a Seven to Win Week; CBS Edges ABC

NBC grabbed seven of the Top 10 spots and boosted its lead in the race for the prime-time ratings crown, figures from Nielsen Media Research showed Tuesday. But more surprising was that defending champion ABC also was beaten by CBS for only the second time this season--a dubious beginning for ABC’s new life as a Disney subsidiary.

NBC has won on Thursday night all season (“ER,” “Seinfeld,” “Friends”) but now it also is strong on Tuesday night--running virtually even last week with formerly dominant ABC. And it got additional help from Part 2 of “Gulliver’s Travels” (No. 4) and the crossover story line involving “Law & Order” (tied for No. 10) and “Homicide: Life on the Street” (tied for No. 27). “Law & Order,” starring Jerry Orbach, earned its best ratings ever among the 18- to 49-year-old crowd coveted by advertisers.

All three installments of the “Dateline NBC” newsmagazine also placed in the Top 35.

CBS won the battle of TV movies Sunday with Part 1 of “The Thorn Birds: The Missing Years,” which ranked ninth among the week’s 107 prime-time network programs.

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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.

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Program Network Rating 1. Seinfeld KNBC 26.2 2. ER KNBC 25.8 3. Friends KNBC 24.9 4. “Gulliver’s Travels” Part 2 KNBC 19.6 5. 60 Minutes KCBS 18.3 6. Melrose Place KTTV 18.1 7. The Single Guy KNBC 17.7 8. Married ... With Children KTTV 16.8 - Frasier KNBC 16.8 10. NYPD Blue KABC 16.4

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Weekly Averages

NBC: 12.9

CBS: 10.1

ABC: 10.0

FOX: 8.4

UPN: 3.2

WB: 2.6

Season to Date

NBC: 12.1

ABC: 11.1

CBS: 9.6

FOX: 7.5

UPN: 3.1

WB: 2.4

Source: A.C. Nielsen