Knowing how you hate it when we wax numerical, we'll try to soften the blow by breaking up today's report on last week's Nielsen ratings into bite-sized bits. Maybe this way you won't start to doze mid-way through the top 10.
-NBC WON THE WEEK ending Oct. 1, with ABC a relatively close second and CBS right behind in third. That makes 68 consecutive weeks for NBC in first place.-WITH ALL THE FUSS about BYU, Utah and Utah State football on television these days, doesn't it seem fair that Weber State and Southern Utah State should get a little air time, too? Of course it does, which is why it's kind of exciting to learn that KXIV (Ch. 14) will cover the Weber-SUSC game on Oct. 14 live from Wildcat Stadium in Ogden. Game time has been moved from 1 p.m. to 3:05 p.m. in order to accommodate the television coverage.
WSC Athletic Director Richard Hannan called the game "an excellent opportunity to break into the television market here in Utah. "And KXIV programmer Mike Hemmingway said the game represents "a positive step" toward more sports involvement for Ch. 14. "We hope it opens doors for more local sports production in the future," he said.
-CBS WON THE NEWS ratings, with Standing Dan Rather finishing one-tenth of a ratings point ahead of ABC and Peter Jennings. Tom Brokaw and NBC are a close third.
-FIRST MARIE OSMOND gives The National Enquirer exclusive rights to coverage of her second marriage. Now Bill Cosby decides that the only journalists he can trust with the story of his daughter, Erinn's, drug problems are those who work for the Florida-based tabloid.
"He has a relationship with them," a Cosby spokesman said when reporters called to verify the Enquirer's story about Erinn's $200-a-day habit and Cosby's "Tough Love" approach to her rehabilitation. "He has found them to treat him fairly."
Translation: They print whatever he tells them to print without digging for facts or details a more responsible journalist may look for - including those that may prove embarrassing to Cosby.
Toughness may work for Erinn, but it obviously doesn't play well with the Cos.
-THE TOP 10 programs for the week were: 1. Roseanne (ABC); 2. The Cosby Show (NBC); 3. Cheers (NBC); 4. A Different World (NBC); 5. Golden Girls (NBC); 6. Murder, She Wrote (CBS); 7. Empty Nest (NBC); 8. Living Dolls (ABC); 9. Dear John (NBC); and 10. 60 Minutes (CBS).
-LET THE JUGGLING BEGIN! ABC has announced the first schedule changes of the season, flip-flopping Anything But Love and Doogie Howser, M.D. in their Wednesday night schedule effective last night (sorry about that). "ABL" will now be seen at 8:30 p.m. on Ch. 4, and "DHMD" at 8 p.m.
"We are pleased with the performance of both shows so far this season," said ABC Entertainment President Robert A. Iger. "However, we want to take advantage of the inherent younger appeal of `Doogie Howser,' while maximizing `Anything But Love's' excellent adult appeal in the 9:30 p.m. time period."
-CAN YOU HANDLE lat week's second 10 now? Take a deep breath. Here goes: 11. Chicken Soup (ABC); 12. Who's the Boss? (ABC); 13. Barbara Walters Special (ABC) and Growing Pains (ABC); 15. Head of the Class (ABC); 16. Monday Night Football (ABC); 17. TV Bloopers Special (NBC) and Unsolved Mysteries (NBC); and 19. Matlock (NBC) and Night Court (NBC).
-LOCAL VIDBITS: Some recent management restructuring at KSL means that Bill Murdoch is the station's executive vice president and general manager and News Director Spence Kinard has the title of vice president for news and public affairs . . . KISN-AM's Dave Blackwell will be covering three Nebraska football games for a Midwestern cable service this season . . . KUTV's Doug Jardine has taken over the station's "Wednesday's Child" segments . . . Two of Video West's home video products, "Baby Alive" and "Say No to Drugs," received the Film Advisory Board's Award of Excellence during the organization's recent convention in Las Vegas.
-MORE RATINGZZZ: ABC's showing of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom could do no better than 22nd for the week, tied with NBC's Monday night movie, My Boyfriend's Back; Elizabeth Taylor's Sweet Bird of Youth did even worse, falling all the way to 41st; CBS's Monday night line-up didn't receive as much support as it did last week, with The Famous Teddy Z falling particularly hard; NBC's The Nutt House limped in at 43rd after cracking the top 30 with its premiere (a sure sign of viewer rejection - and quick cancellation if the trend continues); Married . . . With Children was Fox's highest-rated show, at 49th; and Life Goes On struggles despite its artistic excellence, finishing 70th and 66th the past two weeks.
-CAREER UPDATE: Former Salt Lake City newspaperman John Schulian has been moving around since he broke into the TV writing biz with "Miami Vice" a couple of years ago. After "Vice" he spent a year on "The `Slap' Maxwell Story," appropriate since Schulian was at one time of the nation's great sportswriters. When that show was canceled he went to "Wiseguy." And this year he's a writer and co-producer for "Midnight Caller." In fact, that jazzy season-opener about a cop who went bad was his script.
"It looks like I've got a motto here in Hollywood," Schulian told me recently. "Another season, another show."
-AND FINALLY, the week's big losers (not counting Fox, which swept the last eight spots in the ratings, and Zsa-Zsa Gabor) were 70. Life Goes On (ABC) and Free Spirit (ABC); 72. Living Dolls (ABC) and PrimeTime Live (ABC); 74. Tour of Duty (CBS); 75. Saturday Night with Connie Chung (CBS); 76. The Magical World of Disney (NBC); 77. B.L. Stryker (ABC) and Mr. Belvedere (ABC); and 79. Homeroom (ABC).