TV Ratings : Viewers Tune In for Weekly Dose of Violence

A day after TV industry leaders met to discuss violence, ratings from the A.C. Nielsen Co. released Tuesday showed that the most-watched programs last week were a movie about an Oregon woman who shot her three children and a Clint Eastwood film that ended with his Dirty Harry character using a harpoon to kill an adversary.

Three newsmagazines--including a preview of ABC’s “Turning Point,” which is due to return as a weekly series next spring--rounded out the Top 5. ABC’s “Home Improvement” was the highest rated comedy, at No. 6.

ABC placed seven shows in the Top 10, including No. 1 “Small Sacrifices,” Part 2, starring Farrah Fawcett, and No. 2 “The Dead Pool,” and won the network sweepstakes for the second week in a row. But the three major networks combined to attract only 50% of the prime-time audience for the week.

In its first outing on ABC, “Street Match,” a “reality” show about dating, garnered only 12% of the available viewers last Wednesday and tied at No. 60 among the week’s 92 prime-time network shows.

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 49,657 households.

Sta- Rat- No.Program tion ing 1. “Turning Point” KABC 16.7 2. Home Improvement KABC 16.5 3. Coach KABC 15.8 4. The Simpsons KTTV 15.7 5. Roseanne KABC 15.1 6. Seinfeld KNBC 14.4 7. 60 Minutes KCBS 13.6 8. Martin KTTV 13.4 9. “Small Sacrifices” Pt. 2 KABC 12.9 10. 20/20 KABC 12.3

Weekly Averages

ABC: 9.7

CBS: 8.6

NBC: 7.8

FOX: 5.3