`MILLIONAIRE' ON TOP BLACKOUT DOESN'T HURT NETWORK'S RATINGS.

Byline: Valerie Kuklenski Staff Writer

Even though 3.5 million homes across the country had their ABC signal blacked out, the network's unstoppable hit game show ``Who Wants to Be a Millionaire'' managed its biggest audience ever Monday and ABC still won the nightly ratings race nationally.

``Millionaire,'' which is staging a celebrity tournament with winnings going to charity, posted a 22.5 rating and a 35 percent share of households using television, according to overnight results from the nation's largest markets. Each rating point represents 1,008,000 households.

Time-Warner cable's decision to black out ABC shows over its contract dispute with the network's parent company, Disney, left 350,000 homes in the West San Fernando Valley, Canyon Country and other parts of the Los Angeles area scrambling for antennas or watching other stations.

In the Los Angeles market, ``Millionaire'' scored a 22.6 rating and a 3 percent share - just slightly less than the combined ratings of KNBC (Channel 4), KCBS (Channel 2), KTTV (Channel 11) and KTLA (Channel 5). Each Los Angeles rating point equates to 52,000 homes.

``Our numbers were actually great throughout the day,'' KABC-TV (Channel 7) spokesman Bill Burton said. ``We saw no impact from Time Warner removing our signal.''

Nationally, ABC spokesman Jeff Lindsey said 35.87 million people, a record, tuned in to see David Duchovny, Kathie Lee Gifford and Dana Carvey sweat it out answering questions from Regis Philbin. The game show premiered in August and has proved to be a smash hit during its intermittent broadcasts.

The figures from A.C. Nielsen Co. do not include viewers who may have gone to a neighborhood bar or other public venue for their ``Millionaire'' fix. And it is impossible to gauge how many Time Warner viewers would have watched at home if they could have. A dispute between ABC and Time Warner resulted in a blackout of the network programming on Time Warner systems at 12:01 a.m. Monday.

The numbers for the second part of its ``Arabian Nights'' miniseries, which followed an hour of the ``Millionaire'' on Monday night, were much less impressive. ``Arabian Nights'' delivered a 10.5 rating and 15 share Monday night, down from a 12.7/19 on Sunday. However, the 2-point loss is about standard for the second night of a miniseries.

ABC won the 8 to 11 p.m. block with an average 14 rating and 22 share, followed by CBS's 8.5/13, Fox's 6.8/10 and NBC's 6.2/10.

KABC's Burton said 7.4 percent of its metered Nielsen households this month are served by Time Warner Cable. ``Of that 7.4 percent, they don't all watch us,'' he said. ``It's not like we lost all 7.4 percent. We lost them as potential viewers.''

May is not only the most stunt-filled ratings sweeps period, it also is the last month of the season - the home stretch in the networks' yearlong ratings race - and the month's numbers are used to determine local advertising rates for the fall season.

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PHOTO (color) Comic actor Drew Carey, left, appears Tuesday on ABC's ``Who Wants to Be a Millionaire'' with host Regis Philbin.

Chart: RATINGS AND SHARES