NEW YORK - Whoosh! That breeze you feel from the West Coast comes from television executives - some of them, at least - breathing a sigh of relief.

TV's fall season is off to a promising start, offering hope to broadcast networks numbed by a steady exodus of viewers to cable during the past few years.

"The thing that's most exciting to us is that network television did so well,'' said Scott Sassa, NBC's West Coast president, looking over the early numbers.

Ratings for the six networks during premiere week were essentially even with the same week in 1998 - impressive because they are accustomed to losing viewers. First-week ratings last year were off 15 percent from 1997.

"This is a sign that the networks have stopped the bleeding,'' said Marc Berman, a television analyst for Media Week Online.

Dramas are hot, both old ones and new ones.

ABC's "Once and Again'' had the highest debut ratings among young adults of any new drama in four years. Created by the same team behind "thirtysomething,'' it stars Sela Ward and Billy Campbell as two divorced parents fumbling toward romance.

CBS debuted two legal dramas, both with women in lead roles. Viewers initially embraced both "Judging Amy,'' a "Providence''-like story of a woman returning home from the big city to be a judge, and "Family Law,'' featuring a divorce lawyer starting over after her own divorce.

America appears ready for a Martin Sheen presidency, at least based on the numbers for NBC's White House drama, "West Wing.''

Other hour-long dramas that had good opening numbers include NBC's "Third Watch'' and "Law and Order: Special Victims Unit,'' ABC's "Snoops'' and CBS's "Now and Again.''

"The viewers are hungry for decent dramas,'' said Tom DeCabia of the media buying firm Schulman/Advanswers NY. "There haven't been any good new ones for awhile.''

Some old favorites are also doing well. "The Practice,'' off its second Emmy Award for best drama, had its biggest audience ever last week, while "Law and Order'' continues to be a commercial and critical hit.

Despite TV's rush to serve youth, early returns this season show more adult-oriented fare catching on. CBS is finding that young people accept shows like ''Family Law'' more readily than older people become fans of youthful shows, said the network's top researcher, David Poltrack.

"They're reaching too low,'' he said. "If you go after teen-agers, you may get young adults to watch, but you're not going to get people over age 35.''

While dramas are up, comedies are down, with Fox's "Action,'' a critically acclaimed show with Jay Mohr as a tart-tongued movie executive, shaping up as the season's most spectacular failure.

A glut of comedies in recent years, too many modeled after NBC's successful ''Friends,'' has turned viewers off, DeCabia said.

"The cerebral comedies, things like 'Frasier,' are doing well, but I think the audience is getting tired of the dumb comedies,'' he said.

Some comedies have caught on with a little time. Relatively new shows, like NBC's "Will & Grace'' and CBS's "Everybody Loves Raymond,'' are doing very well.

Fox is praying for continued improvement from the Emmy-winning "Ally McBeal,'' which hasn't started its new season yet. In fact, the network's general strategy of waiting out its rivals to start the season is risky; Fox's ratings last week were down 9 percent from last year.

UPN, on the other hand, is a small-scale success story with numbers up 39 percent from last year - mostly because of its new Thursday night professional wrestling show, "WWF Smackdown!''