World Series Sweeps CBS to Top of Ratings : Television: The baseball boost puts it only two-tenths of a point behind NBC in the season standings.

NEW YORK —  The World Series won the ratings race for CBS last week and put the network within two-tenths of a rating point of NBC for the season to date, it was reported today.

All four games of the Series finished in the top 10, with games two and four taking the top two spots, and games one and three coming in fifth and sixth.

CBS estimated that more than 59 million Americans viewed all or part of Game 4 in Nielsen-measured homes, with as many as 6 million persons watching in bars, restaurants, school dormitories and other venues.

The World Series averaged a 20.8 rating and a 36 share, up 27% over last year’s earthquake-interrupted four-game fiasco, but down 10% from the first four games of the 1988 series.

In the ratings for the week ending Sunday, according to the A. C. Nielsen Co., CBS won with a 15.9 rating and a 26 share. NBC was second with a 13.9 rating and a 23 share, while ABC posted a 12.6 rating and a 21 share.

The five-week season-to-date statistics show how close this year’s race has become, with CBS’s World Series ratings enough to pull the network close to a tie for the top.

NBC leads with a 13.4 rating and 22 share, followed by CBS with a 13.2 rating and a 22 share, and ABC not far behind with a 12.7 rating and a 21 share.

Night-by-night competition saw CBS win Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday--the four nights of prime-time baseball. NBC took Monday and Thursday and ABC won Sunday.

NBC’s counter-programming of Danielle Steel against baseball paid off, with “Kaleidoscope” taking fourth place and giving the network non-Series Monday night. “Fine Things” came in 10th against Game 1, the best an entertainment program has done against the first game of a Series since 1983.

In non-Series competition, “The Cosby Show” on NBC was in eighth place, while “The Simpsons” on Fox placed 18th, down from eighth the previous week.

Soap opera actress Susan Lucci proved a big winner for ABC in the Sunday movie competition. She starred in “The Bride in Black,” which ranked 15th. NBC’s “The Love She Sought,” starring Angela Lansbury, came in 46th, while CBS--which had been hoping for a fifth game in the Series--had to settle for the theatrical “The Big Easy” in 60th.

None of the season’s new shows are setting the ratings race on fire. Tops was “America’s Funniest People” (ABC) in ninth place, outperforming its clone, “America’s Funniest Home Videos,” in 13th.

ABC’s “World News Tonight” was No. 1 for the 41st consecutive week, with a 9.9 rating and a 20 share. “CBS Evening News” with Dan Rather and “NBC Nightly News” with Tom Brokaw tied for second, each with an 8.7 rating.

THE TOP 10

The top 10 programs for the week ending Sunday, according to the A.C. Nielsen Co.:

1. World Series, Game 2 (CBS)

2. World Series, Game 4 (CBS)

3. Cheers (NBC)

4. Danielle Steel’s Kaleidoscope (NBC)

5. World Series, Game 1 (CBS)

6. World Series, Game 3 (CBS)

7. A Different World (NBC)

8. The Cosby Show (NBC)

9. America’s Funniest People (ABC)

10. Danielle Steel’s Fine Things (NBC)