TV RATINGS

The television dog days of late summer arrived with a dull thud last week. NBC reruns dominated the top five Nielsen ratings positions again: “60 Minutes” vaulted back into the top 10 (from No. 27 week before last) and “The Days and Night of Molly Dodd” kept its stranglehold on a Top 10 spot--the only new show in the bunch. NBC’s “Jake’s M.O.” was the top non-rerun, placing 25th.

* CBS News’ Afghanistan report, which drew generally tepid response from critics, evoked a similar response from audiences. It did better than many news documentaries, but not nearly as well as Rather and Company’s Soviet Union documentary earlier this year. The CBS News department can be happy about one thing, though: It didn’t finish last in the evening news derby this week . . . just second.

Weekly network numbers: NBC, 12.4 rating/24 audience share; CBS, 9.9/19; and ABC, 8.9/17. The complete Nielsens list appears on Page 9. (One ratings point equals 874,000 homes; audience share refers to percentage of sets tuned to a program).

SHOW POINTS SHARE WEEK 1. The Cosby Show (rerun) 21.4 43 8/2 (NBC) 22.0 43 7/26 2. Family Ties (rerun) 20.9 40 8/2 (NBC) 22.4 43 7/26 3. Cheers (rerun) 17.9 32 8/2 (NBC) 19.6 36 7/26 4. 60 Minutes (rerun) 16.3 35 8/2 (CBS) 11.4 25 7/26 5. Growing Pains (rerun) 15.5 29 8/2 (ABC) 14.7 27 7/26 * Battle for Afghanistan 9.4 18 8/2 (CBS News special) ---- ---- ----