TV RATINGS

It was a good week for Garfield, “Growing Pains” and Andy Rooney, but dismal for the firm of McKenzie, Brackman and Kuzak. When NBC broadcast its yuletide “L.A. Law” episode a week early and ran a retread about AIDS euthanasia on Christmas Eve, it got a surprise package from A.C. Nielsen on Tuesday--a major ratings decline for the yupscale dramatic series. The “L.A. Law” rerun finished 47th for the week, beating weak competition on the other networks but hardly scoring the kind of win that an attorney worth his/her BMW would want on a contingency basis. Weekly network averages: NBC, 13.4 rating/25 share; CBS, 12.1/23; ABC, 11.3/21. Evening news ratings: CBS 10.2, NBC 9.9, ABC 8.6. (One Nielsen point equals 886,000 homes; “share” refers to the percentage of households watching a particular program.) The complete Nielsens appear on Page 12.

* A special on the making of a box-office bomb (from yuletide, 1986) claimed cellar honors: “The Making of ‘Santa Claus: The Movie’,” an ABC Christmas eve offering, finished dead last (70th) among the Big Three network fare and even slipped behind two Fox Broadcasting shows (“21 Jump Street” and “Werewolf”).

SHOW POINTS SHARE WEEK 1. 60 Minutes 23.5 39 12/27 (CBS) 19.9 34 12/20 2. Garfield’s Christmas 19.6 31 12/27 (CBS) (special) ---- -- ----- 3. Growing Pains 19.4 32 12/27 (ABC) 18.2 26 12/20 4. Monday Night Movies 19.4 30 12/27 (NBC) (special) ---- -- ----- 5. Claymation Christmas Carol 18.6 29 12/27 (CBS) (special) ---- -- ----- * The Making Of ‘Santa Claus’ 4.0 10 12/27 (ABC) (special) ---- -- -----