NBC Makes It 52 in Row; New CBS Comedies Score

NBC on Tuesday became the first television network to win all 52 weeks of a broadcast year, handily beating ABC and CBS in the prime-time ratings for the week that ended Sunday, the last of the 1988-89 season. But CBS scored solid ratings with new comedies on Monday to win the first night of the new season.

Meanwhile, the Emmy Awards telecast Sunday night on Fox Broadcasting landed an 11.4 rating and 19% of the viewing audience, placing it 37th among 71 programs in the Nielsen ratings for last week. That was an improvement on the 10.7 rating it garnered last year, but it was well behind the Miss America Pageant on NBC Saturday night, which scored a 20 rating and 41 share to place third for the week behind the season premiere of ABC’s “Roseanne” (25.9 rating and 40 share) and the debut of ABC’s Jackie Mason sitcom “Chicken Soup” (21.8 rating and 34 share).

(Each rating point is said by Nielsen to represent 921,000 homes. The share is what percentage of the audience watching television at a given time was turned to a particular program.)

In a week that saw a smattering of new programming blended into the last week of reruns, NBC landed its 65th consecutive ratings win. The top network had an average prime-time rating of 12.3 with a 22 share, compared to 11.8/21 for ABC and 11/19 for CBS. As NBC officials were quick to point out, their network broadcast only three hours of original programming during the week, while ABC broadcast 14 hours of new programming and CBS aired 12.

With a few exceptions, new shows and season premieres of returning series on all networks won their time periods. “NFL Monday Night Football” ranked seventh for the week with a 17.8/32. ABC previewed its new drama “Life Goes On” twice during the week. It received a 17.2/29 and came in 10th when it aired Tuesday at 10 p.m. against repeat programming on the other networks, and garnered a 12.8/24 to place 28th when it aired in the Friday 9 p.m. slot. The show will normally be seen on Sundays at 7 p.m.

In another out-of-time-slot experience, CBS’ new action show “Wolf” scored a 14/24 to win its time period and tie for 17th in the weekly standings. The series will normally air opposite ABC’s powerful “Roseanne” on Tuesdays at 9.

NBC’s new comedy “Sister Kate,” which will normally air Sundays at 8 p.m., previewed on Saturday at 9:30 behind an episode of “The Golden Girls,” which NBC ran twice that night, to grab a 19.1/36 and place fifth. The season premiere of CBS’ “60 Minutes” on Sunday scored an 18.8/33 and ranked sixth.

Another CBS news program, “48 Hours,” pulled a strong 13.4/24 for its three-hour season premiere Thursday night, but did not outdraw reruns of NBC’s Thursday night lineup.

ABC suffered the only premiere disaster of the week. The network launched the season debut of “Mr. Belvedere” in its new slot on Saturday at 8 p.m. and scheduled a special preview of its new sitcom “Homeroom” behind it. But NBC scheduled reruns of its potent comedies “Golden Girls” and “Empty Nest” against the ABC duo to successfully crush the newcomers. “Mr. Belvedere landed a 6.8/14 share to place 59th and “Homeroom” appears to have failed its first test with a 6.4/12 rating that left it 64th.

CBS eked out a win over NBC on the first night of the new season. The last-place network’s new entry, “Major Dad,” scored a 16.2/28 at 8 p.m. to beat NBC veteran “Alf,” which mustered a 14.3/25. At 8:30, another new CBS sitcom, “The People Next Door,” grabbed a 14.6/25 to top NBC’s aging “Hogan Family,” which had a 14/24. The season premiere of CBS’ “Murphy Brown” won its 9 p.m. time slot as well.

But the next three comedies in the CBS laugh-block--”The Famous Teddy Z,” “Designing Women” and “Newhart”--all placed third behind football on ABC and the movie “Brand New Life: The Honeymooners” on NBC.

Fox Broadcasting, which debuted its new Monday night lineup of “21 Jump Street” and “Alien Nation,” placed last in every half-hour throughout the night, but landed stronger ratings than it receives for its established Saturday night schedule. “Jump Street” had a 6.8 rating at 8 p.m., while “Alien Nation” had a 7.5 in a special two-hour preview.

The final tally for Monday night: CBS--15.4/26; NBC--15.3/26; ABC--14.9/26 and Fox--7.3/13.