Hot Topics:

Tabloid mags hit syndie ratings gold

Cabler sells services a la carte

Tax credit may cover movies, TV

ITC shrugs off attack on Granada

Sullivan gets face lift for Letterman's Aug. 23 bow

Italo board again delaysTV-fate date

E! gets 'Pretty Wild'(1046 views)

Hollywood stems outflow(1033 views)

Jackson estate signs $200 million Sony deal(836 views)

Hollywood calls 'Truce' on war films(710 views)

Weinstein Co. milks 'Butter'(674 views)

Tiger Woods sets return to golf(556 views)

King World's tabloid "Inside Edition" hit an all-time peak by devoting three nights to serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer, increasing numbers for the tabloid magazine by 15% during the week ending Feb. 14 in Nielsen national syndication standings.

Several other access magazines were also up for the week compared to the previous tally, including Twentieth's "A Current Affair" (up 4%) and Paramount's "Hard Copy" (up 10%).

Par's "Star Trek: The Next Generation" also soared 25% above its prior-week levels to overtake the studios' "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine," which was down a notch, and move into the runner-up spot in the overall Nielsen rankings.

That marked the first time that "The Next Generation" outperformed "Deep Space Nine" since the latter debuted six weeks ago. Further, "The Next Generation" switched places with its fellow Trekkie to capture the top spot in the demo derby.

All American's "Baywatch" increased 10% to its all-time best mark while Par's other new actioner, "The Untouchables," dropped 6%.

Meantime, Warner Bros.' new firstrun hour "Kung Fu: The Legend Continues" was up 3% in its second week airing in rotation following WB's other firstrun "Time Trax," which slipped 3%.

Landing in sixth place for the week was Tribune's TV Net movie "Delta Force 2 ."

While King World's "Oprah" shot up 20%, the biggest news in the talk show world was Multimedia's "Donahue," which fell 11% to 5.4, lagging behind the distributor's "Sally Jessy Raphael," which added 9% to a 5.9. "Donahue" finished barely ahead of Tribune's "Geraldo" (5.2), which enjoyed its best weekly results of the season.

In other talk action, Buena Vista's "Live With Regis & Kathie Lee" (4.9) added 6% to an all-time high, while Group W's "Vicki!" (3.0) also scored its best-yet results, up a notch over the prior week. WB's "Jenny Jones Show" (2.4) improved by 9%.

Among off-net fare, Columbia's "Married ... With Children" dipped 7%, Viacom's "Roseanne" was down 8% and MGM's "In the Heat of the Night" slipped 9% to 3.1.