TV RATINGS : Thursday Night Puts NBC on Top

Thanks to a 1-2-3 finish by its Thursday comedies, NBC narrowly beat ABC and CBS in the prime-time ratings last week, the A. C. Nielsen Co. reported Tuesday. NBC’s programming had an average audience of 12 million households, compared to 11.6 million for ABC and 11.5 million for CBS. ABC’s “Monday Night Football” attracted viewers in about 14.2 million homes, while CBS’ most-watched baseball playoff--the second Boston-Oakland meeting on Sunday--drew about 13.2 million and ran third for part of the night behind ABC’s movie “When You Remember Me” and NBC’s miniseries “Lucky/Chances.” The full list of ratings is on Page 12.

* Three weeks into the new season, ABC’s “America’s Funniest People” is the highest-rated new series. It placed seventh last week and ranks 13th in the season-to-date averages. Among other new entries in the seasonal standings: CBS’ “The Trials of Rosie O’Neill” is 34th, NBC’s “The Fresh Prince of Bel Air” is 36th, ABC’s “Married People” is 38th, CBS’ “Evening Shade” is 50th, NBC’s “Fanelli Boys” is 54th, Fox’s “Get a Life” is 63rd, ABC’s “Cop Rock” is 72nd, NBC’s “Hull High” is 82nd and Fox’s “True Colors” is 87th.

Show Points Share 1.”Cheers”(NBC) 21.1 33 2.”The Cosby Show”(NBC) 19.5 33 3.”A Different World”(NBC) 19.4 31 4.”America’s Funniest Home Videos”(ABC) 18.9 30 5.”Designing Women”(CBS) 18.2 28 *”America’s Funniest People”(ABC) 18.0 28