TV Ratings : Stephen King Miniseries Stands Alone

Judging by the ratings, the viewers who tried “The Stand” liked “The Stand.” ABC’s four-part adaptation of the Stephen King novel attracted almost exactly the same-sized audience each night--about 19 million homes, enough to take the top three spots on the A.C. Nielsen Co. list released Tuesday. (Part 1 was included in the previous week’s ratings.)

That was the best performance by an ABC miniseries since “North & South, Book II” in May, 1986, the network said, and helped ABC register its second consecutive win in the weekly network competition. But “The Stand” ranked only 43rd among all TV miniseries.

ABC scored another knockout on Sunday with “Terminator 2: Judgment Day,” which placed sixth among the week’s 80 prime-time network programs and beat NBC’s “Tears & Laughter: The Joan and Melissa Rivers Story” (No. 18) and CBS’ “My Breast” (No. 31).

Meanwhile, America’s infatuation with figure skating may be over, at least for the time being. Fox’s “Fox on Ice Part II,” featuring Olympic skaters, attracted only 9% of the audience Sunday and ranked 77th overall.

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 Station Rating 1. “The Stand” (Mon.) KABC 21.0 2. “The Stand” (Thurs.) KABC 20.4 3. Roseanne KABC 19.9 4. “The Stand” (Wed.) KABC 18.3 5. Seinfeld KNBC 18.1 6. Home Improvement KABC 18.0 7. Coach KABC 17.5 8. NYPD Blue KABC 17.3 Beverly Hills, 90210 KTTV 17.3 10. 60 Minutes KCBS 17.1

Weekly Averages

ABC 15.0

CBS 11.2

NBC 10.6

FOX 7.3