TV Ratings : Tuesday Trio Helps Lift ABC Ahead of NBC

NBC’s powerhouse Thursday trio got knocked back a few notches in the prime-time ratings last week by ABC, which captured the top three spots with a triumvirate from Tuesday: the season-ending episodes of “NYPD Blue” and “Home Improvement,” plus a rerun of the Tim Allen sitcom in between (which actually did best of all).

With the final original episode of “Full House” also placing in the Top 10--behind NBC’s “Friends,” “Seinfeld” and “ER”--ABC won the week, the A.C. Nielsen Co. reported Wednesday. NBC was a close second, and CBS finished a distant third.

Fox also did well with season finales of “Beverly Hills, 90210,” which ranked 14th among the week’s 90 prime-time network programs, and “Melrose Place,” which finished 20th. They were Nos. 1-2 among women ages 18-34, Fox said.

Not so successful were the two comedy series that premiered last weekend. Fox’s “My Wildest Dreams” was 69th and ABC’s “Bringing Up Jack” was 77th.

Meanwhile, the departure of Connie Chung from the “CBS Evening News” did not affect the newscast’s ratings; they were virtually identical last week to the week before. NBC’s were lower, however, so that Dan Rather’s solo act finished second behind ABC’s “World News Tonight.”

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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.

Program Network Rating 1. Home Improvement (9:30 p.m.) KABC 21.6 - Home Improvement KABC 21.6 3. Frasier KNBC 18.4 4. Full House KABC 18.2 5. Friends KNBC 17.6 - NYPD Blue KABC 17.6 7. ER KNBC 17.0 8. Wings KNBC 16.7 - Seinfeld KNBC 16.7 10. Melrose Place KTTV 15.9

Weekly Averages ABC: 9.9 NBC: 9.3 CBS: 7.9 FOX: 7.4 UPN: 3.3 WB: 1.8

Season to Date ABC: 11.9 NBC: 11.5 CBS: 10.8 FOX: 7.5 UPN: 4.0 WB: 1.9 Source: A. C. Nielsen