CBS top TV network -- by a blip

For the first time since the 1975-76 season, CBS has emerged as the No. 1 US television network, Monitor TV critic Arthur Unger reports . Based on the generally accepted gauge of the Sept. 17-April 20 season, CBS had been running a hairsbreadth behind ABC in the overall Neilsen ratings. In the final week ABC had the top fare, the "Academy Awards Show," but CBS scored No. 2 and 3 with its two-part "Guyana Tragedy," which, for the season, pulled CBS one-tenth of one Neilsen point ahead of ABC. The final three-network ratings show CBS with 19.6, ABC with 19.5, and NBC a poor third with 17.4.

ABC, however, is claiming "a virtual tie," basing its figures on a season it insists started one week earlier.

The top 10 shows of the season were:

"60 Minutes" (CBS); "Three's Company" (ABC); "That's Incredible" (ABC); "M*A*S*H" (CBS); "Alice" (CBS); "Dallas" (CBS); "flo" (CBS); "The Jeffersons" (CBS); "The Dukes of Hazzard" (CBS); "One Day at a Time" (CBS).