First Down

"It's beginning to look like a 50-to-0 football game," crowed an NBC vice president. This was a little like claiming victory after the first down, or in this case after the first nationwide Nielsens had rated the first two weeks of the new season. What had NBC cheering was that last season's three-way tie among the three networks was finally breaking up. Ahead with an 18.7 was NBC; in second was CBS with 17.9; trailing in third was ABC with 17.0. Since a Nielsen rating represents the percentages of sets tuned to that network, this meant that in an average minute, NBC commanded roughly 500,000 more viewers than CBS, 1,000,000 more than ABC.

What difference had a year made? NBC, among major advantages, still boasts No. 1 Bonanza, twice as much color programing, and 15 attention-attracting new shows, including Get Smart! (TIME, Oct. 15). CBS, ahead by a whisker last season, is still in the running. It has six of Nielsen's first ten shows and the two most popular new ones to date, fifth-place Hogan's Heroes and No. 8, Green Acres. CBS, further more, is striking fastest in cutting its losses: Slavery's People (92nd of 98 in the ratings) will die in November, Rawhide (84th) in January, and the literate but limited-appeal Trials of O'Brien 89th) is being readied for euthanasia.

Meanwhile ABC, which closed the gap on the competition for the first time ast season, momentarily dropped out of contention again, primarily for riding too long with fading favorites. The network was caught with seven of the bottom 13 Nielsens, including the eight-year-old Donna Reed Show, 13-year-old Ozzie and Harriet. With the early-season tide running against the teen scene, the two segments of Shindig are being cancelled, and Ben Casey's slide to 73rd seemed to indicate that the doctor series are sickening unto death. Even ABC's Peyton Place may be past its prime -- bunched in the top ten through much of the summer, Peyton Place I could now do no better than a tie for 35th, Peyton Place II was in 21st, and Peyton Place III had slumped all the way to 65th.

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