'Kung Fu' premiere high in nat'l ratings

By RICHARD KLEIN

Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution's heavily promoted two-hour debut of "Kung Fu: The Legend Continues" proved an even bigger ratings winner nationally than in Nielsen metered markets, racking up double digits with a preliminary rating of 10.2.

"Kung Fu's" take nationwide for the Jan. 27 premiere was an improvement upon the 9.9 rating/14 share it tallied in 22 Nielsen metered markets.

Meantime, the distrib reported solid returns from Wednesday's debut of "Time Trax," (which scored an 8.4 nationally from its two-hour debut episode Jan. 20) and "Kung Fu" in a weekly, two-hour block of action hours under the moniker Prime Time Entertainment Network.

"Time Trax," which airs first, averaged a 5.2/8 in 20 Nielsen and 5.4/8 in 14 Arbitron markets, a 33% gain in time period share over last November and a 14% increase over last February in both services.

"Kung Fu" held its "Time Trax" lead-in with a 5.6/8 in Nielsen and a 5.2/8 in Arbitron, up 14% in share vs. November and February in both services.

In Los Angeles on indie KCOP from 9-10 p.m., "Kung Fu" yielded a 7.5/11 in Nielsen (a 57% increase in share vs. last November) and finished third, ahead of network competish NBC's "Homicide: Life on the Street" (6.7/10) and CBS' "In the Heat of the Night" (6.0/9).

Prime Time Entertainment Network is cleared on 149 markets covering 91% of the country.