NBC Entertainment yesterday estimated that 50 million viewers saw all or part of Sunday night's broadcast of Part I of "The Beast" . . .
The four-hour miniseries, which concluded last night, averaged a 19.2 rating and a 29 percent audience share in Nielsen's 33-market overnight ratings -- the best numbers for an NBC miniseries during the May sweeps in five years, the network said . . .
Locally, "Beast" did a 16.4/25 on Channel 4 . . .
Excerpts from Dan Rather's recent interview with Cuban leader Fidel Castro will air tonight and tomorrow on "CBS Evening News." His talks with Castro took place April 11-12 and will be seen in toto in a still-unscheduled documentary . . .
Today's "Oprah Winfrey Show" (Channel 7 at 4) will be devoted to Oprah's interview with ABC star Barbara Walters, which was taped last Wednesday . . .
The biggest stories on the network news shows last week were the Israeli-Hezbollah fight in Lebanon (28 minutes in all) and the California 6-year-old accused of murder (16). The anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant explosion and the minimum wage debate were next with 12 minutes each, while the Jackie O auction, Senate action on health reform, and violations of FDA blood supply regulations tied for fifth with 10 minutes each, according to the weekly Tyndall Report . . .
"Larry King Live" tonight features interviews with two of the more prominent and recent members of the Losers' Club -- former WABC "shock jock" Bob Grant and Leslie Abramson, who represented Erik and Lyle Menendez in their double-murder trials . . .
Grant was fired after controversial remarks about the death of Commerce Secretary Ronald H. Brown; both Menendez brothers were found guilty earlier this month in L.A. and will be sentenced in July. Abramson, meanwhile, faces an investigation by the state bar of possible misconduct during the trials . . .
Court TV will launch a nightly "Court TV News" half-hour on weeknights, anchored by former WUSA anchor Chris Gordon and starting next Monday at 7:30. It'll be a digest of the day's legal news with, we'd guess, emphasis on whatever trials Court TV is monitoring that day. And there'll be coverage of the big federal (non-taped) trials involving the Oklahoma City bombing and Unabomber suspects . . .
The weekend edition of "Entertainment Tonight" included actress Madge Sinclair in its birthday list for April 28, its researchers unaware that Ms. Sinclair, who won an Emmy in 1991, had died Dec. 20 at the age of 57 . . .
"It was a gross oversight and we're very sorry about it," an ET publicist said yesterday. The program, on WUSA at 11:30 p.m. Sundays, will air an apology on this weekend's broadcast . . .
Ms. Sinclair, who played Bell in ABC's all-time hit miniseries, "Roots," in 1977, and was nurse Ernestine Shoop for six years on CBS's "Trapper John M.D.," won the Emmy for outstanding supporting actress in a drama series for her continuing role as "Empress" Josephine Austin on the 1990-92 ABC series "Gabriel's Fire". . .
Now This
Fox News chairman and CEO Roger Ailes awarded "Fox News Sunday" a B-plus yesterday in its first test against the big boys on Sunday morning -- even though the freshman flunked its initial outing at Nielsen U. . . .
And although the news wasn't at all good in the big-city markets, the new program did manage to finish third in the four-network contest here in Washington, beating CBS's "Face the Nation" out of last place by a Nielsen whisker . . .
Critics were watching the Fox show carefully. The network is owned by conservative media mogul Rupert Murdoch; Ailes earned a reputation as a tough Republican strategist when he helped George Bush win the presidency in 1988; and its anchor, conservative columnist Tony Snow, was head of the editorial page of the Washington Times . . .
Yesterday, Ailes, on the phone from California, was upbeat. "By and large, our people did a first-rate job; we had developments in Israel at the top of the show, which was good; Tony asked some tough questions" of the initial guests, Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-N.Y.) and Rep. Richard Gephardt (D-Mo.), and "we made some news." He predicted that Snow is headed for stardom. "He's very, very intelligent and he's going to be very good" . . . . .
Admitting there were "a couple of glitches" in the opening show, in part because it was broadcast remote from the historic Decatur House across from Lafayette Square, the former president of CNBC promised the next broadcast would be "tightened up a little -- I'd expect there will be more polling information on the screen, for instance" . . .
Ailes denied rumors being whispered at local network bureaus that he had "begged" the White House on Friday for a "name guest" for the initial show . . .
"No," said Ailes. "By the time I called the White House on Friday, we were already booked. But I did call [press secretary] Mike McCurry to check out a story I'd heard that some of their people were telling our competitors that the White House was considering blackballing us and not putting anybody on our show . . .
"Mike said, `That's ridiculous, we don't intend to do that.' The bottom line is that he and I had a very productive, cooperative conversation and he said, flat out, that he respects Tony Snow and he would like to get guests on our show. He was very pleasant and a real gentleman -- he wished us well and said he intends to put us on the list. I expect it will take us about two weeks to get up to speed on that" . . .
McCurry yesterday confirmed that Ailes's account is "100 percent true. Some of the competition was talking that way." He joked that Ailes had also "assured me he had abandoned his wayward political past and asked for my understanding, which I of course gave" . . .
More seriously, the press secretary said: "We've planned to wait a bit and see how the program goes. And once the program settles in, I expect you'll regularly see White House guests on the show" . . .
He, too, predicted a bright future for Snow. "I appeared with him on the forerunner of `Fox News Sunday' (the WTTG Sunday show "On the Record" with Bob Beckel and Rep. Susan Molinari), and despite some of that right-wing stuff he writes, he'll be good at that job" . . .
Ailes said he "took responsibility" for the initial decision not to make the names of the first guests public -- a decision that cost "Fox News Sunday" listings Sunday morning in several major newspapers, including The Washington Post and the New York Times . . .
"There was some internal confusion," he said yesterday from Los Angeles, where he was attending the National Cable Television Association convention. "There was some concern that competitors might be spinning against their participation on our show. I take responsibility for it" . . .
In Washington, the Fox hour averaged a 1.9 rating and a 7 share at 9 a.m. on WTTG, ahead of "Face the Nation," which did a 1.5/5 on WUSA at 11:30, up against Brinkley . . .
NBC's "Meet the Press" won locally with a 4.8/18 on WRC; ABC's "This Week With David Brinkley" on WJLA averaged a 4.0/14 for an hour up against "Face the Nation," starting at 11:30 . . .
In the 33-city Nielsen overnight ratings for Sunday, however, the first results were grim. Brinkley was first with a 3.7/11, "Meet" was second at 3.5/12, "Face" was third with a 2.5/8, and Fox, in only 11 of the 33 big markets, averaged an 0.5/2 . . .
"Fox News Sunday" also did a 0.2/1 in New York and a 0.7/3 in Los Angeles. It was not seen in Chicago . . .
The hour aired on just 50 of Fox's nearly 200 affiliates, representing about 36.8 percent of the U.S. TV population. The network expects to reach 56 percent clearance for the program by September . . .
Ailes said the station clearances will improve very soon. "I talked to a lot of affiliates today and they're very enthusiastic" . . .
More Ratingzzz Gratification
As we've mentioned, Part I of NBC's "The Beast" at 19.2/29 won the Sunday night movie race, although "She Woke Up Pregnant" on ABC averaged a 14.1/21 in the Nielsen overnight ratings. "Grumpy Old Men" on CBS did an 11.6/17 . . .
The addition of commentators to "60 Minutes" didn't make much of an impression; the CBS perennial averaged a 14.2/25. "Murder, She Wrote," back on Sundays for its homestretch run, did a 13.1/20 . . .
The Miami-Chicago NBA game earlier on NBC averaged a 9.7/19 between 5:30 and 8:15 p.m. . . .
Locally, "Beast" did a 16.4/25 on WRC, "Pregnant" did a 14.2/22 on WJLA and "Grumpy" an 11.2/17 on WUSA . . .
"60 Minutes" did a 15.1/26; "Murder, She Wrote" an 11.9/18. The Bulls game did a 7.5/15 . . .
The Penguins and Caps on WTTG averaged a 1.9/5 between 3 and 6 p.m. A national ratingzzz point represents 959,000 TV homes; an overnight point, about 531,000 TV homes; and a local point, 18,836 TV homes . . .