TV RATINGS : ABC’s ‘Home Videos’ Takes No. 1 Slot

Sign of the times: Home videos are in; Elvis is out. Just eight weeks after its premiere, “America’s Funniest Home Videos” last Sunday became the most-watched TV show in the nation, attracting viewers in about 22.2 million homes at 8 p.m. But fewer than half of them--about 10 million--stuck around to watch ABC’s follow-up show at 8:30, “Elvis.” Ratings released Tuesday by the A. C. Nielsen Co. showed ABC with four series in the Top 10, but NBC still finished first overall and CBS was third. The debut of CBS’ comedy “His and Hers” ranked 49th among the week’s 85 prime-time programs. The full list of ratings is on Page 11.

* So where did all the viewers go after “America’s Funniest Home Videos”? A lot of them switched over to Fox to watch “The Simpsons.” So many, in fact, that the animated send-up of family life won its time period, beating even CBS’ venerable “Murder, She Wrote.” The episode, a repeat, was the second most-watched show of the week in Los Angeles and ranked No. 20 nationally--only the third time that a Fox program had finished in the Top 20.

Show Points Share 1.”Funniest Home Videos”(ABC) 24.1 37 2.”Cheers”(NBC) 23.4 36 3.”Roseanne”(ABC) 22.1 34 4.”The Cosby Show”(NBC) 21.3 34 5.”A Different World”(NBC) 20.7 32 *”The Simpsons”(Fox) 15.1 23