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Sweeps' Heavy-Hitters: King of Pop and 'Queen' : Television: The key to February's ratings race just may hinge on a 90-minute interview with Michael Jackson and a miniseries based on a story by the late Alex Haley.

February 04, 1993|RICK DU BROW | TIMES TELEVISION WRITER

Three TV movies--all based on memorable news events--will be of particular interest to California viewers during the sweeps. In addition to ABC's "Firestorm: 72 Hours in Oakland," NBC will air the Feb. 22 film "Miracle on I-880," about a freeway collapse during the 1989 Northern California quake. And on March 1, ABC offers "They've Taken Our Children: The Chowchilla Kidnapping," about the 1976 abduction of a busload of youngsters who were imprisoned underground in a rock quarry but eventually escaped.

The personalities of the two leading networks, CBS and ABC, come clearly into focus during this sweeps.

Although ABC will present "Driving Miss Daisy" on Feb. 21, it is the network's rock-'em-sock-'em sitcoms plus its gut-level TV-movie topics that define its hard-hitting style. On Monday, for instance, another ABC film, "Gregory K," deals with the 12-year-old boy in Florida who recently won a landmark suit to terminate his parents' rights so he could be adopted.

While CBS also has its share of exploitation-minded shows, it has a wider-ranging, somewhat gentler, grass-roots program style. Besides the soft-edged "Northern Exposure," "Murder, She Wrote" and "Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman," CBS' sweeps entries include not only "Skylark" and the Griffith reunion but the Grammy Awards Feb. 24, the Miss USA Pageant Feb. 19 and the Western "Rio Diablo" Feb. 28, with Kenny Rogers, Travis Tritt, Naomi Judd and Stacy Keach.

February sweeps, 1993: Jackson, "Queen" and Clinton.

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