The Media Business The networks' evening newscasts received higher ratings than the average prime-time entertainment show as viewers sought news from the Persian Gulf.

The networks could already produce up to 40 percent of their prime-time entertainment shows in-house, and own the rights to these shows.

In the end, that is one of the many risks of making a prime-time entertainment of what many consider the most divisive and difficult war in American history.

This show-and-tell approach has its drawbacks, especially when it is considered that great portions of the target audience have already been weaned on slicker and more sophisticated prime-time entertainment.

Still, as a major prime-time entertainment, the All-Star Game's 42 percent ratings slide since 1991 is greater than those for comparable entertainment extravaganzas.

There seems to be no escaping the issues on prime-time entertainment.

And it might have been acceptable prime-time entertainment, if the regulars grew on you.

Oddly enough, despite these awkward lurchings toward more "adult" fare, prime-time entertainment remains wary of certain national realities.

But the new batch of "ordinary" citizens on prime-time entertainment are also proving to be significantly less predictable and more complex than their predecessors.

LEAD: The networks' evening newscasts received higher ratings than the average prime-time entertainment show this month.