CBS, NBC NEWS PROGRAMS TIE FOR FIRST PLACE IN LATEST NIELSENS.

Byline: Associated Press 

CBS News, which considered first place in the evening news ratings a birthright in the days of Walter Cronkite, is tasting that rarefied air again for the first time in five years.

The ``CBS Evening News'' and ``NBC Nightly News'' finished in a dead heat at the top of the news ratings last week, Nielsen Media Research reported Tuesday.

Although ABC was an also-ran in the evening news, the network relied heavily on its news division to score its second weekly win of the television season in the prime-time ratings.

Dan Rather's evening news broadcast has been surging in the ratings for the past few months. But this is the first week it has reached the top spot since August 1992, discounting weeks when the ratings were skewed by Olympic coverage.

``We're elated, hopeful and thankful,'' Rather said. ``Elated because we like what the numbers say about the audience, which is that they care about serious news ... I've always believed that the audience did.''

Rather said he defined serious news viewers as those ``who are more interested in the news and less interested in entertainment.''

He declined to say which of his rivals caters to the nonserious news viewer. NBC, however, the evening news leader for much of this year, has made a point of de-emphasizing government news in favor of longer stories about social trends.

Earlier this year, when Rather said his rival broadcasts were ``going softer,'' NBC anchor Tom Brokaw mocked him as ``Mr. Hard News.''

``Overall, the news race has been tight for several years,'' NBC News Vice President Bill Wheatley said Tuesday. ``We're pleased that we've been winning, and we expect it to continue to be a tough battle.''

CBS and NBC had identical 8.6 ratings and 17 shares on their news shows for the week. NBC had more total viewers - 11.9 million to 11.7 million - indicating more of CBS' viewers were watching the news by themselves. ABC's ``World News Tonight'' had an 8.4 rating and 16 share, with 11.1 total viewers.

In prime time, ABC's ``20/20'' on Thursday became the first regularly scheduled program to beat NBC's ``ER'' head-to-head. ABC also had a top 10 Nielsen showing for Barbara Walters' special on the year's most fascinating people. Peter Jennings' two-hour special on John F. Kennedy finished a strong 27th for the week.

ABC's ``Monday Night Football'' was the week's most-watched show and had its best ratings for the year with the Green Bay-Minnesota matchup.

NBC is still the season leader in prime-time ratings, but it slumped to third place last week and hasn't won a week outright since Oct. 20-26.

For the week, ABC had a 9.6 rating and 16 share, CBS a 9.2 rating and 15 share, NBC an 8.8 rating and 14 share, and Fox a 7.1 rating and 11 share. UPN led the fledgling networks with a 3.3 rating and 5 share, while the WB had a 2.9 rating and 4 share.

A rating point represents 980,000 households, or 1 percent of the nation's estimated 98 million TV homes. Share is the percentage of those televisions in use that are tuned to a given show during a specified time period.

For the week of Dec. 1-7, the top 10 shows, their networks and ratings, were:

``NFL Monday Night Football: Green Bay at Minnesota,'' ABC, 16.8; ``Seinfeld,'' NBC, 16.3; ``Touched By an Angel,'' CBS, 15.8; ``CBS Sunday Movie: One Thousand Men and a Baby,'' CBS, 15.4; ``60 Minutes,'' CBS, 14.9; ``Dateline NBC (Monday),'' NBC, 13.5; ``Friends,'' NBC, 13.1; ``Barbara Walters Special: 10 Most Fascinating People '97,'' ABC, 13.0; ``The X-Files,'' Fox, 12.8; ``NFL Monday Showcase,'' ABC, 12.7.