Rooney Return Helps ’60 Minutes’ Rout Rivals

NEW YORK —  Viewer curiosity over Andy Rooney’s return to “60 Minutes” after a shortened suspension helped the CBS show trounce its competition in preliminary ratings, CBS said today.

With Rooney back at work, commenting on his suspension, Sunday’s “60 Minutes” got a 36% share of the audience and a 22.7 rating in the A.C. Nielsen Co. overnight audience estimates. Those estimates are from 23 cities that collectively represent 45.3% of the nation’s TV households. The show’s share usually averages 32% or 33% in overnight ratings.

ABC’s “Life Goes On” averaged a 15% cent audience share and a 9.6 rating. NBC’s Walt Disney movie series was third, averaging a 14% audience share and an 8.5 rating. National ratings are due Tuesday.

Although still top-rated, “60 Minutes” had begun falling in the ratings since Rooney’s three-month suspension Feb. 8.

Rooney was suspended without pay after a homosexual-oriented magazine quoted him as making disparaging racial remarks. Rooney denied the remarks attributed to him.

He had drawn fire earlier from gay-rights groups for a December special on CBS in which he cited “homosexual unions” as among the causes of premature deaths.

On Thursday, CBS News president David Burke, who never specifically said why he suspended Rooney, ordered an early lifting of the suspension, allowing the commentator to return to work.

“Obviously, the return of Andy Rooney had a lot of people tuning in,” said CBS Research Vice President Michael Eisenberg. “People were curious about the whole matter, and we probably picked up people who don’t normally watch ’60 Minutes.”’

Sunday’s “60 Minutes” averaged a 33% share of the audience in New York, and a 39% share in Los Angeles. In San Francisco, which has a large homosexual population, the program averaged a 41% share of the audience, according to Eisenberg.

Earlier story on A11.