TV Ratings : ‘Grace’ Takes Over ‘Home’ for Second Week

For the second week in a row, “Grace Under Fire”edged out “Home Improvement” as the nation’s top-rated TV program--although the local preference was for something altogether different: “Beverly Hills, 90210.”

Besides the two Tuesday night comedies at the top of the national pack, ABC also won positions three and four with “NYPD Blue” and “Roseanne,” propelling the network to a solid victory over its rivals and maintaining its front-runner status for the season.

The figures released Tuesday by the A.C. Nielsen Co. showed that the highest-rated movielast week was “Someone Else’s Child” on ABC Sunday night, starring Lisa Hartman Black. It finished 14th among the week’s 94 prime-time network programs.

Despite ranking first locally, “Beverly Hills, 90210” finished 37th nationally. And Fox’s two Sunday night installments of “The Simpsons” ranked in the Top 10 locally but ranked 58th and 64th nationally. Nevertheless, Fox managed to inch by CBS in competition for the prized demographic group of viewers age 18 to 49, with ABC first and NBC second.

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. Beverly Hills, 90210 KTTV 19.2 2. Seinfeld KNBC 19.0 3. 60 Minutes KCBS 18.0 4. Home Improvement KABC 18.0 5. The Simpsons (8:30 p.m.) KTTV 17.3 6. Married ... With Children KTTV 17.1 7. Roseanne KABC 16.8 8. Grace Under Fire KABC 16.4 9. The Simpsons KTTV 16.3 10. 20/20 KABC 15.7

Weekly Averages

ABC: 12.6 CBS: 11.1 NBC: 10.7 FOX: 7.9

Season to Date

ABC: 12.2 CBS: 12.0 NBC: 11.5 FOX: 7.8