NIELSENS--TISCH, WIFE DON’T RATE

NEW YORK — CBS President Laurence A. Tisch got a chance this summer to play a direct role in improving his company’s ratings: He and his wife had their TV viewing habits surveyed by the A.C. Nielsen Co.

But their one-week diary wasn’t counted because, well, he works in television.

It happened this way, Nielsen spokeswoman Jo LaVerde explained Friday:

Earlier this year, the ratings company contacted Tisch’s wife, Billie, at home by phone, apparently through a computer-generated, random-dialing system. Unaware that Mrs. Tisch’s husband headed CBS Inc., the Nielsen representative asked if the couple would like to log their program choices in a viewer diary that Nielsen would send them.

Mrs. Tisch said yes. The diary--part of a local viewing sample--was dispatched in July, LaVerde said. The Tischs filled in their entries and returned it.

But all the diaries include questions on the backgrounds of the recipients, including, LaVerde explained, whether “anyone in your household is employed by a TV station, a TV network, a cable system or a cable network.” Tisch indicated that he worked for a TV company.

Whenever an affirmative response to that question comes in, LaVerde said, “we don’t tabulate (the diary).”

However, not all was lost. The CBS chief, who this year will be paid a $750,000 salary, received Nielsen’s standard fee for diary-keepers--$1.