TV Ratings : ‘Murphy’ Lifts CBS to Top Spot

The night after “Murphy Brown” was named best comedy series at the Emmy Awards, ratings for the CBS series jumped by more than 17% over the preceding week. According to figures released Wednesday by the A.C. Nielsen Co., “Murphy Brown” was watched in about 16.4 million homes last week. That helped CBS win the prime-time competition: It averaged a 9.9 rating compared to 8.6 for NBC, 7.7 for ABC and 6.8 for Fox. Despite finishing third, ABC got good news with the debut of its series “Going to Extremes,” which won its Tuesday time period and finished No. 7 among the week’s 92 prime-time programs.

* The most-watched program of the week was “Scared Silent,” a documentary about child abuse that ran on CBS, NBC and PBS on Friday and on ABC Sunday. NBC researchers estimated that 57.5 million people watched it. Nielsen didn’t list it as No. 1 because each broadcast was counted separately. (Precise figures for PBS were not immediately available.)

Points Share 1. “Murphy Brown” (CBS) 17.6 29 2. “48 Hours” (CBS) 16.3 30 “Roseanne” (ABC) 16.3 27 4. “Northern Exposure” (CBS) 15.9 29 “Designing Women” (CBS) 15.9 27 * “Scared Silent” (CBS, NBC, ABC) 23.4 46

Complete list, F13

(Each rating point represents 931,000 homes.

Share is the percentage of viewing audience.)