Posted: Wed., Jan. 7, 1998, 11:00pm PT

'60 Minutes' clocks first ratings climb in 6 years

Viewership up 5% at end of fall season

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NEW YORK -- Bucking a longrunning audience erosion trend, CBS newsmag "60 Minutes" announced Wednesday that its viewership was up 5% at the end of the fall season.

Nielsen numbers just released show the program averaged a 13.7 rating and a 23 share, up from 13/22 in the same period last season. This is the first audience increase for the 30-year-old program since 1992, according to spokesman Kevin Tedesco. At that time, the program's lead-in was still Sunday Night NFL.

Along with the audience erosion for network news in general, "60 Minutes" has had to contend with some of its stiffest competition in years during the 7-8 p.m. Sunday slot.

"First, they threw (NBC newsmag) 'Dateline' at us in 1996, and we dealt. Then NBC football. And then this fall, Disney threw those children's movies at us," Tedesco said. "And we still came up with this growth."

When "60" lost football in 1994, there was speculation that the Don Hewitt-produced newsmag's glory days were over, but the show continues to hover in or near Nielsen's top 10 and is the second-highest-rated show in the CBS lineup (close behind "Touched by an Angel," which follows "60" on Sunday nights).

"I'm not sure what the reason for the increase is," Hewitt said, "but I'd like to think it's because we never give up."