TV RATINGS : ‘Cheers’ Heads List as Game Shows Stumble

With “Cheers” pulling down the No. 1 honors as most-watched program of the week, NBC handily disposed of its competitors in the prime-time ratings derby last week. Figures released Tuesday by the A.C. Nielsen Co. gave NBC its 37th victory in the past 40 weeks. ABC finished second but got disappointing results from its two prime-time game shows. In their second week in the Saturday lineup, both “Super Jeopardy!” and “Monopoly” lost their time periods against reruns on NBC and CBS. Fox, meanwhile, had three shows in the top 14: “The Simpsons,” “Married . . . With Children” and “In Living Color.” The full list of ratings is on Page 10.

* Are Americans less interested in Nelson Mandela than the news media think? Or was it simply that they’d already seen enough of him on the evening news that day? Whatever the answer, one thing is clear: They didn’t turn out in droves to see him during a prime-time interview on “The Koppel Report” last Thursday. The program was seen in about 4.3 million homes, compared to about 11.2 million for a rerun of “L.A. Law” on NBC and about 7.5 million for a rerun of “Wolf” on CBS. It ranked 81st among the week’s 86 prime-time programs.

Show Points Share 1.”Cheers”(NBC) 15.1 28 2.”Roseanne”(ABC) 15.0 27 3.”The Cosby Show”(NBC) 13.9 29 4.”Empty Nest”(NBC) 13.8 29 5.”60 Minutes”(CBS) 13.6 32 *”The Koppel Report”(ABC) 4.7 9